How to Install Finned Brake Pads (And What Those Plastic Clips Are For)

How to Install Finned Brake Pads

You open a pack of Loam Goat finned pads and there are more pieces in the bag than you expected. Two pads, two fin plates, a spring, and a couple of small black plastic clips. Nothing is labelled, and the clips look like packaging you are meant to throw out.

They are not packaging. They are the reason the pads go into the caliper as one piece instead of three. Here is the whole job on video, then the written steps.

1. Match the left to the right

Finned pads are handed. Lay the two pads and the two fin plates out on the bench and pair them up before anything goes near the caliper. Get this wrong and the fins foul the caliper body on the way in.

2. Make space for fresh pads

Your old pads were worn thin, so the pistons crept out to meet them. New pads are at full thickness and will not fit until those pistons go all the way back. Every half millimetre counts here.

A piston spreader (the purple tool in the video) pushes them back evenly without marking the piston faces. A plastic tire lever works in a pinch. Do not lever against a piston with a screwdriver.

3. Clip the stack together

This is what the plastic clips are for. A finned pad is not a single part, it is a pad, a fin plate and a spring that all have to enter the caliper at once and stay lined up. The clips hold that stack together so you can feed it in with one hand instead of chasing a spring across the floor.

Leave the clips on and slide the whole assembly in as a unit.

4. Check you can see through

With the pads seated, look through the caliper slot. If you can see straight through, the pads and fins are sitting square. If the view is blocked, something is cocked and needs to come back out.

5. Pull the clips, then fit the pin

Now the clips come off, one from each side. The pads are held in place at this point, so nothing is going anywhere. Fit the retaining pin through the caliper and secure it.

Keep the clips in your toolbox. Next time you pull the pads for a rotor swap or a clean, they turn the job back into a one-hand operation.

6. Refit and bed in

Slide the caliper back over the rotor and torque the mounting bolts. Pump the lever until it firms up, then bed the pads in properly before your first real descent. Skipping that step is the most common reason a fresh set of pads feels worse than the set you took off.

Where to get them

Loam Goat finned pads ship as 2 Pairs (4 Pads). Choose the Finned option for pads plus fin plates, or the Finned refill if our fins are already on the bike and you only need pads.

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