Whether you think about them all the time or never at all -- mountain bike brakes keep you alive. And while the whole braking system matters, I'm won't talk about rotor sizes, 2-piston vs. 4-piston, or lever angle; I'm talking about the humble brake pad.

I'd long considered brake pad choice a foregone decision -- resin (organic) pads are king and metal pads (sintered) are for Huffy! The thing is, you should let your braking preference dictate your pad choice.

The classic debate in mountain bike braking is Shimano vs. SRAM. It's fundamentally a debate about brake preference, or how we like our brakes to feel when they engage. Many riders describe the difference between Shimano and SRAM brakes as instant on vs. progressive. Shimano brakes bite on the rotors early on in the lever's stroke, whereas SRAM brakes are well into the lever stroke before they provide significant stopping force. You should give metal (sintered) vs. Resin (organic) brake pads similar consideration.

I won't get into the pros and cons of brands because both companies (and their competition) make great products. A rider's brake preference is typically defined by whatever brakes came on their first mountain bike. My first mountain bike came with a pair of Shimano XT brakes, giving me a strong taste for that instant on flavor. When I ride SRAM brakes, it feels like I"m swimming in an ambiguous sea of lever travel. Whereas many riders love the precise modulation that SRAM brakes afford them. The point is that nobody is necessarily right or wrong about who makes the best mountain bike brakes, but which brake brand (or lever feel) you prefer should also influence which type of brake pads you prefer.

After many seasons running resin pads, I recently contaminated a pair of pads with oil while doing a brake bleed and picked up a pair of metal pads out of desperation to replace them. I wasn't expecting much from these new Huffy-worthy pads -- but they completely surprised me. I love these Huffy pads!

Aside: It's typically futile to try decontaminating pads. Perhaps Metal pads don't suffer as badly, but once oil has absorbed into resin pads, it's virtually impossible to remove. Do yourself a favor and buy new pads, and get better at doing brake bleeds!

So what does pad compound choice have to do with brake preference? While there are other factors to consider (like noise) when choosing pads, a simple heuristic for choosing pad compound is to use your brake preference:

• Short Stroke / Instant On / Shimano --> Metal
• Long Stroke / Progressive / SRAM --> Resin

As a proud member of team instant on, I'll be riding metal brakes for the foreseeable future.

For more a more thorough breakdown, check out what Shimano and SRAM have to say about choosing brake pads.