I spend a lot of time staring at photos of pro bikes. Maybe TOO much time. I love seeing all the little details — all the interesting, clever, and weird component choices that pros use to gain an extra edge.
One of the bikes I’ve studied the most is Tadej Pogacar’s Colnago V4Rs. Pogacar is the best road cyclist in the world and he dominated the competition this year on his way to a Giro-Tour double (winning both grand tours in the same season), becoming the first rider to accomplish the feat in nearly 30 years.
Mere mortals like me can never hope to match Pogacar’s performances, but I can at least play make-believe by matching his bike! Unfortunately, most of Pogacar’s gear is a bit too expensive for me. I can’t justify buying a $6,200 Colnago V4Rs frame, $2,800 ENVE SES 4.5 wheels, or even Pogacar’s $200+ Italian-made Carbon-Ti chainrings.
Instead, I’ve settled for approachable basics, like Pogacar’s 30mm Continental Grand Prix 5000 S TR tubeless tires and Elite Leggero Carbon bottle cages. There is one more component that my partner likely won’t notice on our credit card statement: Pogacar’s absoluteBLACK GRAPHENpad Brake Pads.
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Why These Brake Pads?
The packaging says these are the "world's best disc brake pads."
If I were to rank every piece of gear Poagacar uses in terms of how much faster they might make me, his tubeless tires would be number one, his aero wheels might be number two, and his waxed chain (he uses absoluteBLACK GRAPHENlube) would round out the podium. For most roadies, brake pads typically aren’t very high on the upgrade wish list.
Brake pads don’t save you any watts. They don’t improve aerodynamic efficiency or reduce rolling resistance. They just help you stop better… hopefully. That might not sound like a big deal, but good brakes still matter in high-performance riding situations.
Better brakes give you the confidence to brake later, so you carry more speed into corners. Better modulation makes it easier to trail brake, judge braking distances, and manage traction. Brakes that can manage heat better stay more consistent on long descents. And finally, quiet brakes are simply nicer to use than brakes that squeal.
Photos: Sprint Cycling Media
I’ve known about Pogacar’s fancy brake pads for a while. In every bike check featuring his Colnago, you can see the cooling fins poking out from his brake calipers. I was curious about them but didn’t decide to try them until I watched Pogacar win stage 4 of this year's Tour de France.
It must be the brake pads. Photo: A.S.O./Charly Lopez
Pogacar attacked on the Col du Galibier and crested the summit first. Jonas Vingegaard, Primoz Roglic, Remco Evenepoel, and Carlos Rodríguez weren’t that far behind, but Pogacar ripped down the descent, carving through wet corners and bombing down exposed sections with maniacal speed. By the end, he had gained 35 seconds and showed he was a step above the rest.
There’s a lot at play when descending. Ultimately, rider skill and confidence are the most important components. All of the top riders are pretty skilled descenders. Even pros who aren’t renowned for descending will easily drop most weekend daredevils.
Photo: A.S.O./Billy Ceusters
Everyone on that stage was riding their brains out to try and close the gap, but Pogacar simply had something extra on that descent. An intrusive thought entered my head — maybe, just maybe, that extra something was his fancy absoluteBLACK brake pads. If I got those same pads, I could descend like Pogacar… right?
This is all wishful thinking on my part. I’m just trying to justify buying a set of pads that cost twice as much as stock SRAM or Shimano pads. So are absoluteBLACK GRAPHENpads worth the money? I’ve used mine for a few hundred miles now and I think… maybe.
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absoluteBLACK GRAPHENpads Review
This year, I rode the Triple Bypass with my wife. It’s a 118-mile road ride that features 3 massive mountain passes and 3 equally massive descents. My wife is a cautious descender, so she drags her brakes and takes her sweet time going downhill (there’s nothing wrong with that btw!). To stay with her, I have to drag my brakes too. When I’m trying to prevent my slightly rotund 180-pound carcass from distancing my 110-pound wife on a fast descent, my brakes always get super hot and start howling in protest.
Just before Triple Bypass though, I switched to Pogacar’s absoluteBLACK GRAPHENpads. Can you see where this is going? My brakes stayed silent the whole day. I was especially impressed coming off Loveland Pass, an incredibly long 8.5-mile descent that drops over 2,600 feet. I dragged my brakes down nearly the whole thing to stay behind my wife and they never made a peep. The stopping power never degraded. Of course, this is an extreme example, but it shows how good these pads are at managing heat.
Compared to my stock SRAM organic pads, I think they’re much better. The initial bite is better, they’re quieter, and they don't fade when things get extreme.
Shimano’s finned Ice Tech pads seem closer, but I’ve still managed to get them to howl on some of the big and steep descents here on the Colorado Front Range. On many of the Shimano bikes I’ve ridden, they also tend to have an annoying bit of rattle/play.
My current set of GRAPHENpads fits tightly in my calipers and have been completely silent in the most intense braking scenarios. A lot of that is due to their design.
These Are Some of the Geekiest Pads Ever
Notice how the fins don't seem flat? That angled design is on purpose.
Temperature management was the ultimate goal of the GRAPHENpad. For optimum braking performance, pads and rotors need to be kept as cool as possible (ideally below 400C). To accomplish this, the GRAPHENpad uses radiator fins, similar to the fins used on Shimano’s Ice Tech brake pads, a graphene coating on the fins and backplate, and graphene in the pad compound itself.
If you aren’t familiar, graphene is a supermaterial (the name comes from graphite) that has received a lot of hype in the last decade. At only one atom thick, it’s extremely thin, and thanks to its exceptional mechanical, electrical, and thermal properties, it has a lot of potential applications for electronics, energy storage, sensors, coatings, composites, and biomedical devices. In the bike world, we’ve only scratched the surface of what graphene can be used for.
The most distinctive feature of the GRAPHENpad is the angled radiator fins that stick out in the wind for cooling. The fins are cut at sharp 45-degree angles designed to increase the overall surface area of the radiator fins. The angled cuts also allow all the surfaces to radiate the heat away from the brake pad. When heat radiation is emitted, it's strongest in a direction perpendicular from a surface. The angular shape prevents the fins from radiating heat back into the pad material or neighboring fins.
The radiator fins and the entire backplate are also covered in a heat-dissipating graphene coating that improves heat transfer from the pad material to the cooling fins and into the air by a claimed 20%.
Graphene is also used in the friction compound of the brake pad. absoluteBLACK also uses graphene in its wax drip lube because it has super low friction. Knowing that, it seems like an odd choice for a brake pad, but some amount of lubricant is actually necessary for a brake pad to function. The binder that holds brake pad material together, typically a phenolic resin, has a very high friction coefficient. Friction modifiers/lubricants like copper or graphene are used to lower the friction coefficient just enough to provide an ideal amount of braking modulation.
Copper is the most common lubricant used in brake pads, especially in sintered/metallic pads, and it also helps conduct heat to the backing plate to keep pads cool. Graphene, however, is superior because it’s stronger than copper and it conducts heat 3-6x better. It also isn’t toxic. The GRAPHENpad claims to be the first bicycle-specific brake pad that has completely eliminated toxic copper from its construction.
Not only does graphene improve brake pad performance, but absoluteBLACK claims it improves longevity too. A set of pads should last an average of 4,900 miles in hilly terrain. (I haven’t ridden the pads long enough to confirm this, but maybe I can update this in a year or so.) Supposedly, the pads will also prolong the life of your rotors by “embedding graphene particles into micropores of the rotor braking surface.”
absoluteBLACK vs. Everyone Else
Dark violet represents temperatures of around 27C and white represents temperatures over 400C.
So how much better are GRAPHENpads than the competition? absoluteBLACK claims GRAPHENpads reduce disc pad and rotor temperature by up to 35% compared to top competitors.
absoluteBLACK tested this using a custom rig that allowed them to simulate riding down long 12.5% grade descents with air blowing on the braking system at the appropriate speed. They simulated two situations. The first was a 100kg (220lbs) rider gently dragging their brakes all the way down. They explained that this simulates “typical behavior for inexperienced riders when descending in alpine terrain.” They also did a “progressive test” which involved using the brakes in cycles of 20 seconds on and 20 seconds off.
To keep things consistent, each pad was tested using a new 160mm Shimano Dura-Ace rotor, a new 105 caliper, and new mineral oil in the system so results wouldn’t be affected by damage to seals, decomposition of brake fluid, or deformation of the rotor due to heat. absoluteBLACK tested the GRAPHENpads against Shimano K-Type L03A (Dura-Ace) pads, and two leading aftermarket competitors, the SwisssStop Disc 34 RS and Kogel R9100 BIA pads.
absoluteBLACK has a ton of graphs showing their results, but the basic gist is the GRAPHENpads produced the lowest temperatures and resisted fade better than the other three pads. Of course, this is absoluteBLACK’s in-house test, so take it with a grain of salt, but the results are pretty compelling.
So Are GRAPHENpads Worth It?
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Would I recommend absoluteBLACK’s GRAPHENpads to other riders? Sure, I like them. But are they worth paying twice as much as you would for stock SRAM or Shimano brake pads? I'm not so sure about that.
While I do think they are better than my old stock pads, they are definitely not 2x better. If you are skilled and know how to brake properly (i.e. you don't drag them), then heat and fade may never be an issue for you.
These pads do what they advertise, but they’re NOT going to make you descend like Tadej Pogacar. Spending ~$100 on a high-wear consumable item like brake pads is a bit hard to stomach too.
Still, I do like how the fins look sticking out from a set of brake calipers. I do like how they feel and perform. I REALLY like how quiet they are. I like them enough that I’ve already bought a set for my XC mountain bike too.
I won't put a set on my gravel bike, however, because that bike is going to see a lot of rain, snow, and mud this winter. In those conditions, heat management isn’t even a concern and sintered/metallic pads will last much longer.
Otherwise, I think GRAPHENpads are a fun upgrade for any tinkerer or bike geek that has a bit of extra cash to burn on some cool and unique components. GRAPHENpads are better than stock, and for me, little upgrades like this are part of the fun of cycling.
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Additional photos courtesy of absoluteBLACK
