Brake pad life - what's to be expected

[spasm]

Re: fast rear brake pad wear

just gone over 10k on mine, im going out to the garage to check my pads and service the calipers ::022::

 

[Epping]

Re: fast rear brake pad wear

Few interesting points raised here.
I've mentioned on previous posts that the rear brakes are a bit sus. One post I mentioned my high rear brake disc temperature. As I only use the rear when I'm off road, never on the tar, (legacy of road racing so the linked system suits me) this is still a mystery to me. Even though others have done extensive tests and temperature readings, I still have the temperature disparity and associated rear pad wear.
The other issue is braking response. While it will pull up very rapidly when needed, the initial bite is not good (compared to a GS) and a good strong hand is required to pull up rapidly. This may be improved with different pads but with the associated increased disc wear.
My thinking now is there is a bit of a flaw in the system. I think the front & rear are fighting each other. I believe the rear has too much bite using the linked braking. As the front lever pull is feeding 3 calipers with the linked system I would expect a longer travel than with the rear brake used initially then the front brake applied. This is not the case, and as there is no servo assistance, I can only assume the rear caliper pad clearance has been almost eliminated resulting in drag & wear. I am still trying to sort this one out.
Finally, the rear brake adjustment in the clevis does not allow the pedal to move down far enough for me. The threaded rod contacts pivot. This resulted in the pedal being too high and having to lift my foot rather than just rocking my foot forward to apply the rear brake when off road. I have compensated for this by shortening the threaded rod but standard it was a problem.
BTW, the off road performance of these brakes IMO is fantastic. For hard braking I just use the front, & when standing and slowing or steadying just use the rear. Total confidence here.

 

[Don in Lodi]

Re: fast rear brake pad wear

Finally, the rear brake adjustment in the clevis does not allow the pedal to move down far enough for me. The threaded rod contacts pivot. This resulted in the pedal being too high and having to lift my foot rather than just rocking my foot forward to apply the rear brake when off road. I have compensated for this by shortening the threaded rod but standard it was a problem.

Exactly! I'm gonna have to pull it apart and do that one of these days.

 

[EricV]

Re: fast rear brake pad wear

Exactly! I'm gonna have to pull it apart and do that one of these days.

Question: What part of your foot is resting on the peg?
Questin 2: Have either of you added a brake pad extension?

I typically ride with the ball of my foot on the pegs. Size 13 (47) boots and no issues with this, brake lever in the stock position. Even if I change to the arch of my foot on the peg, which I sometimes do on longer rides, just moving the foot position around, I only need to angle my foot out a smidge to avoid contact with the brake lever. It's not even a conscious process for me.

Just trying to understand where this issue comes from. ::003::

 

[spasm]

Re: fast rear brake pad wear

10,000 miles and mine are looking great. ide say only half worn, and the front even less ??? and i do ride fairly quick most of the time.
anyway i lubed up the caliper pistons with a bit of white grease after cleaning them with acf-50 ::022:: i'll check em in another 2000 miles

 

[dcstrom]

Re: fast rear brake pad wear

Question: What part of your foot is resting on the peg?
Questin 2: Have either of you added a brake pad extension?

I'm starting to wonder... I usually rest the ball of my foot on the peg, but also have the Touratech brake pedal extension. It is higher than stock and as has been mentioned, it's hard to get the pedal adjusted low enough, and the Touratech part makes that problem worse. It takes a conscious effort to lift the foot slightly to get it on top of the pedal. Because of this I've assumed that I can't accidentally be resting my foot on the brake - might have to look at that again though.

On the positive side - if that IS what has been happening, think how much my MPG will improve when I stop doing it! :

I've been planning for some time on doing something about the adjustment on the lever. I feel that time is getting closer!

Trevor

 

[RMac]

Re: fast rear brake pad wear

Had a look at my rear pads, disk today and was a little shocked. The pads are very worn, with hardly anything left and the rear disk looks exactly like DC's pictures. Moreover this might be explaining the scraping noise I have started noticing from the rear when I roll the bike into the garage with the engine off. Also, judging by some marking on the outer edge of the brake disk I think I may have some metal to metal! Time to order new pads .

This has kind of caught me by surprise. I have 23000km's on the bike, but my Wee went much further before needing replacement pads.

 

[Don in Lodi]

Re: fast rear brake pad wear

Question: What part of your foot is resting on the peg?
Questin 2: Have either of you added a brake pad extension?

I typically ride with the ball of my foot on the pegs. Size 13 (47) boots and no issues with this, brake lever in the stock position. Even if I change to the arch of my foot on the peg, which I sometimes do on longer rides, just moving the foot position around, I only need to angle my foot out a smidge to avoid contact with the brake lever. It's not even a conscious process for me.

Just trying to understand where this issue comes from. ::003::

I'm really not at the point that it's an 'issue'. I'd like to be able to just pivot my foot to cover the pedal, but as things stand my foot is not on the foot peg when I'm applying the rear brakes. No extensions, adjusted as low as she'll go. I'm on the balls of my feet off road, arches on pavement. My Achilles tendon won't let me extend far enough apparently and I'm wanting to compensate mechanically. I'm used to shifting my feet coming from a cruiser, but these ain't floor boards.
::002::

 

[Twisties]

Re: fast rear brake pad wear

Mine look fine at 6600 miles.

 

[jajpko]

Re: fast rear brake pad wear

I took mine apart today, cleaned and put S grease in the rear. Both front and back looked fine. The back pads were at 4.9 mm +or - .1
The fronts were at 4.0 + or - .2
The bike has 7800 miles.

 

[EricV]

Re: fast rear brake pad wear

We're all different. Leg length, hip to torso length, etc. I really though I would want a brake pedal extension when I saw the tiny brake pedal, but was surprised to find that it didn't really seem to make a difference in actual use. I am still running the stock unit.

We have different styles of riding and usage. I guess we need to find the happy medium for foot position Vs wear and how we ride. Regardless, the S10 does seem to eat pads a bit faster than the FJR. Linked brakes or just the different style of bike? Not sure. Maybe just different compounds on the pads?

 

[DinX]

Re: fast rear brake pad wear

My dealer replaced my back brake pads at 10.000km. I ride with the tips of my toes on the footrests so I'm not accidentaly pushing my back brake. I do alot of commuting though (lots of filtering every day, so alot of braking). Front brakes are still perfect.

 

[behindbars]

Re: fast rear brake pad wear

I really though I would want a brake pedal extension when I saw the tiny brake pedal, but was surprised to find that it didn't really seem to make a difference in actual use. I am still running the stock unit.

Agreed and I'm going to try the Wunderlich extender next. No dimensions are listed but it appears to have a much larger surface area than the Touratech unit. Same problem with raising the effective height of the pedal, though.

http://www.wunderlichamerica.com/motorcycle/XT1200Z/8600503.html

Steve

 

[Epping]

Re: fast rear brake pad wear

Question: What part of your foot is resting on the peg?
Questin 2: Have either of you added a brake pad extension?

Eric, As with all bikes we make the adjustments to suit our particular physique and riding style. I mentioned "off road" but failed to mention "while standing". This is where it becomes important when I want the fine control at speed or steep down hill, to be able to stand with my instep on the peg for good purchase and then just press the ball of my foot onto the standard brake pedal. I find the size of the standard pedal fine. To lift my foot off the pedal, that is to fully weight the left foot peg, upsets the balance of the bike. This is just me. I expect fine control of any bike I ride. As I mentioned, as a road racer for some 40 years, I guess I have come to be very demanding in my setup requirements. Anyway, the point I was making, and others agree, there is a design fault when there is no ability to make this pedal height adjustment. All this said, it is still a brilliant bike I enjoy riding every day, as a commuter, general transport and weekend off road adventure bike.

 

[EricV]

Re: fast rear brake pad wear

"while standing" very much clarifies your position! I do understand this and yes, it's a very valid point. I pretty much gave up on using the rear brake while standing. Not that it wouldn't be helpful at times to be able to.

 

[RMac]

Re: fast rear brake pad wear

Going to disassemble rear and pull the pads tomorrow. Will take some shots with pics of rear disc wear and post them soon. I need to see the pads close up to make a good judgemen on the condition, but right now I am expecting excessive wear on both pads and disc for only 23000km's. Let's see.

 

[20valves]

Re: fast rear brake pad wear

...I guess I have come to be very demanding in my setup requirements...

nothing wrong with that, it's one of the easiest things to do with your bike and when you get it right you have the best control. Getting the levers, pedals and bars where I want 'em is the first thing I do when I get a bike. I went through the same sequence, thought I was gonna buy a brake pedal extender and then just fine tuned the stock one and now it's great. I'm able to use it standing. ::008::

My rear pads are looking ok with about 7K miles, btw.

 

[RMac]

Re: fast rear brake pad wear

OK, as promised here are some pictures of my rear brake pads and rotor at 23000km's (14400 miles).

First image shows inner pad to the left and outer pad to the right. I had about 2mm left on the inner pad (across entire surface), but outer pad only had 0.7mm left at the front and 0.5mm at the rear of the pad.

The second image is a close up of the rear part of the outer pad. Note the very clear evidence of metal to metal caused by the protruding part of the pad chassis.

Third image is a repeat of the above from a different angle.

Fourth image is the brake rotor. There is quite a lot of visible wear on the rotor that is not completely obvious from the picture. If you look closely at the image you can see where the pad chassis protrution has contacted outer part of the rotor, just in from the edge.

Clearly my rear pads should have been replaced about 2000km's or so earlier. In my mind this is unusually fast wear. Now that I have replaced pads I have noted that rear rotor gets quite hot and I know that I do not accidently rest my foot on the brake pedal.

 

[snakebitten]

fast rear brake pad wear

I have a service contract on this bike. (first one in my life)
At the 12,000 mile service, the technician stated the fronts were in great shape but he questioned if the rear would be good until 16K.

I was surprised. I too have always been a very light rear brake user on street.

He guessed that the linked braking (which I have grown to like) was the culprit with me riding 2-up and loaded so much of the time.

Did I read somewhere that the S10 even compensates for heavier loads in the linked system? Uses more rear brake when heavy?

Sure seems like I did.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[RMac]

Re: fast rear brake pad wear

In Sweden I have to have the routine maintenance done by a Yamaha authorized workshop to be able to maintain the warranty. At the 20k service the mechanic said to me that the rear pads will need to be replaced at the 30k service. Evidently he was a bit optimistic. Go ahead and replace your rear pads yourself. It is an ultra-easy job on the S10.