About two years ago, my fatbike developed brake squeal. It had been a silent joy for the previous three years, and this turkey gobble drove me insane. Tried everything: new pads, new rotors, change caliper positions, assure parallelism between pads and rotors, thorough brake bleeds. Nothing fixed it. Even tried riding without braking but that had obvious results. Enter the MTX Red Label Race pads...silent. Silent, really smooth, and really powerful. Liked 'em so much I run them on my CX and trail bikes now too.
I bought these when the Shimano composite pads were unavailable and I'm glad I did. The braking performance is dramatically better. More modulation and power. They don't squeal much in dry conditions but, wow, they howl in wet, grimy weather. I can live with it for the far superior braking. They are brakes, after all.
These brake pads have great stopping power, similar to metallic pads, but are quiet like resin pads. It's a good balance with characteristics of both. I use these on my 2021 Stumpjumper with Shimano brakes.
The original stock shimano metallic pads had amazing initial bite and stopping power but would quickly heat up, fade and make a horrible screeching sound on long, steep fast descents.
I then tried shimano resin pads. Took a lot of brake lever pressure to get them to stop, they were quiet and did not fade, but just didn't feel like they had any bite or stopping power.
Have typically used Shimano resin pads for most riding conditions in the PNW because I prefer the feel and that they are typically quiet.
Since Shimano pads are mostly out of stock I have been using the MTX pads. I ride road, trails and mtb. So far I'm relatively pleased with the performance. It's been a wet fall and I'm still on my first set of pads. I can't say they are silent in the rain but then neither are the Shimano. Happy to support a smaller company that seems to make good stuff. Price is very competitive.
These are supposed to be silent. That is their main selling point. Well, not silent for me. Rotor was sanded with a pneumatic grinder and scotchbrite pad to break any glaze, trued with a dial caliper, cleaned and meticulously bedded. No matter what I tried the front always squaked. No reply from the company when I asked about this.
After trying Shimano organic and metalic and Swissstop RSs I went back to Swissstop. All were silent but I just prefer RSs. I suspect the front may have been defective but since the company never replied I gave up on spending time trying to figure it out when every other pad I put on worked just fine without noise.
2 stars because at least the feel of the pads was good.
