Do not try this at home
Last time I was out I noticed the brake making a bit a scraping noise, and sure enough there was absolutely no pad left at all on it when I extracted it. The sandy soil round here is very punishing to parts like this; if it is a bit wet (snow included), the sand and water form a very efficient scrubbing mechanism, which can cause wear at an astonishing rate. Of course it is a good idea if you spot this happening a little before there is zero pad left, but amazingly even in this state there was still a remarkable amount of stopping power left, although naturally it was not all too good for the health of the disks. Hopefully the new pads will be able to polish them smooth again!
