old thread but as it's up here anyway.. dragging your front brake so it's barely braking on long downhills WILL heat the disk. So don't drag the brake: brake when you need to (and can) then let go of the brake, then repeat.
Better pads will perform better when hot than poor pads.
Even hydraulic will not give a huge amount of braking power if it's only a 2-pot (one brake pad each side) that's why they made 4-pot, then 6-pot disk brakes for mountainbikes.. then went back to 4-pot because they made better pads and disks.
I use Hope 2-pot hydraulics on my mountainbike, they're a very old
closed system brake not made any more.. a classic in my eyes. Correctly adjusted they work fine and I adjust them while riding to compensate for fluid expansion. Mine are bolted onto the fork with a steel mount, it's just angle iron basically.. have to use that because the fork I have is a very old Marzocchi that I use because I have a love for that particular model with the easily adjusted original open oil bath design.. proper old school MX on my BMX.
heheheh
Don't know how you'd get a right side brake since the caliper body is made to go on one side and one side only.. it's not symetrical.
but anyway.. old thread.. so how did it work out for you?