Compound and backing plate are the only two variables that matter once you've confirmed the pad shape fits your caliper. SRAM's Road AXS Disc Brake Pads are offered in three combinations — organic with an aluminum backing plate, organic with a steel backing plate, and sintered copper on steel — all sharing the same pad shape and the same fitment. Picking between them comes down to noise, weight, and how many miles you want out of a set.

The organic aluminum pad is the quiet and light option. Organic friction material runs quiet and puts less thermal stress on the rotor, and the aluminum plate trims weight off the steel equivalent. The organic steel pad uses that same quiet compound on a steel plate — identical feel at the lever, a few grams more on the scale, less money at the counter. Sintered copper is the heavy-duty pad in the group. Metallic compounds hold up to wet weather and sustained descending and stretch service intervals, with the tradeoff being more noise and more heat transferred into the rotor. Riders doing hill repeats or grinding through wet winters tend to land here.

Fitment is the same across all three: 2021 and later Red, Force, Rival, and Apex AXS D1/E1 calipers, Apex D1 mechanical, Level, Level T, Level TL, Level Ultimate, Level TLM B1 2020+, DB, DB3, DB5, Avid Elixir, and XX/XO. Check the connecting arm before you order, because this is where people get it wrong: the arm on this pad sits in the center of the backing plate. If the arm on your current pads sits off to one side, you have the asymmetric monoblock shape used on pre-2019 Red, Force, and S-900 Aero calipers, and these will not fit.... Read More