Brake pad life - what's to be expected

Cycledude

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Re: Chinese brake rotor ?

La Knee said:
Hello, has anyone used a rear Chinese rotor ? I hate being cheap but the stock Galpher or EBC ? only lasted 13,000 miles and they are $175
THANKS, Lonney
Wow worn out in only 13,000 miles that's crazy ! Any idea what caused them to wear out so fast ? Mine look fine with 24,000 miles.
 

RED CAT

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Re: fast rear brake pad wear

I just replaced my Rears again for the 2nd time. Seems every 12,000kms I need new ones. Maybe I should try the EBCs.
 

Juan

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Re: fast rear brake pad wear

I replaced my rears at 21,000 km and there's still plenty on the fronts. I ride a lot 2 up and I suppose this takes the rear pads' life out faster, more so because of the UBS. I hardly ever use the foot break.

I prefer OEM pads, though there are other brands that last much longer. Changing the rear pads is child's play, so no big issue if I have to change them a little more often. Long-lasting pads take out the brake rotor faster (something has to give - if it's not the pads it's the rotor) I prefer changing the pads often than having to change a rotor.
 

JimmyP

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Re: fast rear brake pad wear

I'm usually easy on my equipment, except when I went to Colorado... rode the rear brake on the down hill rock slides.

That being said, my rear OEM pads were down to metal at 20k miles. Front pads (original OEM) are about 3/4 gone at 63k miles.
 

Ramseybella

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Re: fast rear brake pad wear

I just changed my rear EBC's after 24k had another oil change left on them.
OEM rotors are cheap and so far the EBC pads have been kind to them.
Front rotors on my bike are KTM with EBC pads they are about due have 40+k on them as we speak.
 

Happy Snapper

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Brake Pad Life

Was out for a 600 mile ride with a couple of mates a few weekends ago. One of the bikes, a V Strom 650 ran out of rear brake pad material during the ride. Now it has done about 10,000 k or 6000 mile in the old money. Started to make me think about my S10 as it is coming up to 30,000km or 18,000 miles.

So I pulled them to have a look and rears are about 40% material left and front about the same.

How does that compare to to the experiences of other inmates here?
 

Checkswrecks

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Re: Brake Pad Life

Depends on how the bikes get used. We've had a few people write about using up the rear pads in 12,000 miles and others into the high 20s.
 

holligl

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Re: Brake Pad Life

2014 ES with 22,500 mi. Rears have about 1/3 left. Fronts 75-80% left. Mostly pavement riding...
 

tomatocity

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Re: Brake Pad Life

Tenere: I had a Gen1 w/ 52,200 and a Gen2 w/ 21,000.
KLR: 2002 10,000 and 2005 w/44,000.

Before the Tenere I rode KLR's and was a rear braker. I would change the rear pads twice for every one front pads.

The rear brake on the Gen1 did not work very well when I bought it and it took the shop a couple time to get it to work well. By the time the rear brake worked well I realized the Linked ABS was fantastic. I rarely used the rear brake. Think the rear pads were changed about 50K but they did not need to be changed. Was going on a long trip so had the shop replace them.

Hardly ever use the rear brake on the Gen2. The rear pads and rotor look good but have never measured them. Need to measure the front pads and rotors. If everything lasts I will replace all the pads in April for a full season of riding.
 

JimmyP

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Re: Brake Pad Life

On my '12 XTZ...

Rear pads replaced at 18k miles - rough riding in CO, lots of down hill rear braking.

Front pads are down to about 1/3 life at 79k miles - exclusively use front brake lever (linked brakes) unless I need to stop very quickly.
 

West

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Re: Brake Pad Life

8000 and my rear pads were gone. Grew up a motocrosser, always using the rear to set the bike in turns.....guess I still do.
 

WJBertrand

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Re: Brake Pad Life

Wow, 27K miles and I think I've still got 50% on the rear pads.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Checkswrecks

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This thread has been merged with a half dozen others on the same topic. There is some variety, as some people added discussion about different brands and others added discussion of the front brakes. But if you do a search WHILE IN THIS THREAD you'll probably find what you are looking for.


From skimming while merging, typical rear pad life seems to be in the low to mid teens in miles.
The inside pad wears far faster than the outside one.


Also watch for the thickness of the disc. The Super Tenere rear disc wears faster than on some other brands, but note that discs are consumable wear items.
 

Mellow

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Re: Brake Pad Life

WJBertrand said:
Wow, 27K miles and I think I've still got 50% on the rear pads.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I'm in the same boat, I'm starting to think I don't ever use my brakes... not a bad thing.. lol
 

WJBertrand

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Re: Brake Pad Life

Mellow said:
I'm in the same boat, I'm starting to think I don't ever use my brakes... not a bad thing.. lol
This bike has so much compression braking, I do think I use the brakes quite a bit less than I do on my ST1300. That it's also lighter also helps I suppose.
 

Mellow

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Re: Brake Pad Life

WJBertrand said:
This bike has so much compression braking, I do think I use the brakes quite a bit less than I do on my ST1300. That it's also lighter also helps I suppose.
I agree, sometimes you have to throw out an anchor, wind sail, extra luggage and a harpoon if you enter a curve a bit fast on the ST1300... that extra 150 lbs makes a bit of a difference.
 

PhilPhilippines

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Re: fast rear brake pad wear



Yeah, physics is complicated innit? Makes my brain hurt... But what I mean is... when weight transfers to the front, and there is little or no weight on the rear (ie you're on the verge of a stoppie), then the slightest touch of the back brake is going to lock it. On a normal bike. What happens on the S10? Does it just reduce braking power to the rear to the point where there's none or almost none, in order to avoid lockup? OR - and I would SPEW if this was the case - does it reduce power to the front to keep weight on the rear to avoid lockup?

That would explain my feeling that I can't stop as hard on the S10 as I could on the Vee (this is on the same tires too). If that's the way it works, it would mean that Yamaha have dumbed down the brakes so that they are "safe" for most people most of the time but ultimately don't perform as well as they could.

I've been meaning to try them with ABS/TCS off, and see what the difference is. But UBS is still on... so only a partial lobotomy is possible. Or is there a way to switch off UBS as well?

Trevor
When the ABS is activated you are braking too hard and have passed the optimal "threshold" slip limit point. Basically, instead of now skidding, the brakes ABS has activated so as to not lose control. Yes, the stopping distance will be longer than if you were threshold braking, but the rotation of the wheels remain fo safety.
 
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