EBC pad life report

rbernie

Member
Joined
Apr 30, 2014
Messages
57
Location
McKinney, Texas
At 38K miles of road use (commuting and touring) on the sets, the rear (organic) pads were down to 1mm of pad depth and fronts (HH) were both asymmetrically worn with 3mm on one pad and 1mm on the other. The rotors measured within spec and not grooved, so there's that. The pads have been replaced with semi-metallic Galfers.

I'm glad that I checked when I did - there wasn't much left on the back before it would've hit backing plate and started scoring the rotor.
 

Sierra1

Well-Known Member
Joined
Nov 7, 2016
Messages
14,817
Location
Joshua TX
Am I reading that correct? 38k miles on ONE set of pads? Cool. I know that I will not get that, but at least it shows that I won't be replacing them every 5k like on the ST1300.
 

thughes317

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 27, 2018
Messages
1,055
Location
The Bluegrass, KY
10K miles on stock pads.....rear were down to @ 1mm, fronts had @ 3mm on them. Replaced all the way around with EBC HH pads, will report at end of season 2019.
 

WJBertrand

Ventura Highway
Joined
Jun 20, 2015
Messages
4,516
Location
Ventura, CA
What are you guys doing to your brake pads? My rears have gone 25K currently on the second replacement and the fronts so far are at 35K and not yet quite ready to be replaced. The bike does have 54K on it but the front rotors and pads were replaced under warranty at 19K due to warped rotors.
 

Grumpy

Getting old is not for wimps
Joined
May 28, 2013
Messages
411
Location
Surbiton U.K.
I got my used Gen 1 in 2012 with 2k miles on the clock. It has now done 28600 miles (mainly touring) and still has the original front pads, but the rears where gone at around 10k. The reason was the two bolts the caliper slides on where dry so the inside pad was not backing off and was almost down to the metal. As pads are easy to change and take up little room I carry a full set when touring, just leave them at the bottom of the O.E. side cases. Over the years I've seen a couple of riders losing a day or two from there holiday due to the pads going south mid tour, haveing to limp to the nearest town and wait for replacements.
 
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thughes317

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Joined
May 27, 2018
Messages
1,055
Location
The Bluegrass, KY
What are you guys doing to your brake pads? My rears have gone 25K currently on the second replacement and the fronts so far are at 35K and not yet quite ready to be replaced. The bike does have 54K on it but the front rotors and pads were replaced under warranty at 19K due to warped rotors.
I practice slow speed maneuvering a lot, which involves dragging the rear brake.....I figure that's what ate mine up so quickly.
 

rbernie

Member
Joined
Apr 30, 2014
Messages
57
Location
McKinney, Texas
I detested the stock pads for not having a good bite; they were replaced within a thousand miles of taking delivery of the bike. I switched both ends to the EBC HH but didn't cotton to the EBC HH for the rear; it also didn't have enough bite for my taste and I replaced it almost immediately again with the EBC organic (leaving me with HH up front and organic in the rear). That combination seemed to work well; they wore pretty equally (with the rear being a bit faster to wear, but I brake using the front a lot harder than the rear, only using the rear to settle the bike (especially when two-up).

The bike sees a lot of highway miles interspersed with my 'stand it on its nose' approach to life.
 
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Boris

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Joined
Dec 21, 2013
Messages
2,051
Location
midlands. UK
I detested the stock pads for not having a good bite; they were replaced within a thousand miles of taking delivery of the bike. I switched both ends to the EBC HH but didn't cotton to the EBC HH for the rear; it also didn't have enough bite for my taste and I replaced it almost immediately again with the EBC organic (leaving me with HH up front and organic in the rear). That combination seemed to work well; they wore pretty equally (with the rear being a bit faster to wear, but I brake using the front a lot harder than the rear, only using the rear to settle the bike (especially when two-up).

The bike sees a lot of highway miles interspersed with my 'stand it on its nose' approach to life.
IT seems our thoughts on the original set up are the same. My thread here https://www.yamahasupertenere.com/index.php?threads/pad-change.24388/

I was quite shocked and surprised with some of the responses.
 

SHUMBA

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 29, 2018
Messages
1,242
Location
ONTARIO, CANADA
I practice slow speed maneuvering a lot, which involves dragging the rear brake.....I figure that's what ate mine up so quickly.
I can relate to this as I wore the rear brake pads out at approx 15,000 KM. I spent considerable time in parking lots practicing panic stops along with other exercises. Slow or low speed maneuvering does require the use of the REAR BRAKE ONLY. The rear brakes are not all that robust on most bikes as they are only a small single rotor and pads designed to provide minimal braking due to the dynamics of motorcycle braking, thus the front brakes do the lion's share of stopping the bike (80%). Great advice to carry a spare set of rear pads and tools necessary.....SHUMBA
 

Cycledude

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Joined
Jan 29, 2016
Messages
3,998
Location
Rib lake wi
When my 18 was brandnew the brakes were no where near as good as my previous 13 but after about 1,000 miles they are just as good, both bikes have the same stock Yamaha pads.
 

jeckyll

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 11, 2016
Messages
651
Location
Lotusland
Bringing this thread back as it's relevant to what I'm looking at right now.

I had a set of 'standard' i.e. organic, EBC rear pads that wore out quite quickly. Now on a set of 'V' and those seem to be wearing much better (i.e. slower). I've got another set of rears on order and this time went with HH. I've run HH on other bikes, we'll see how they do here.

I'm also about to order a set of HH's for the front as I'm heading into some potentially dusty / muddy conditions up north and these ones are looking a touch thin, though I may just keep them along as spares...

One thing to note, I've found that higher performance pads sometimes have less initial bite, but work more consistently as you approach the limit, given better control at maximum braking pressure (i.e. before the ABS kicks in).

In the other Pad wear thread above, rotor wear came up, I expect that harder / higher performance pads will wear the rotor more. This is a zero sum game, I don't expect to get a longer lasting pad that _also_ give me the same rotor life.

Aside: I used to run Hawk HPS pads on my car, and those chewed up 2 sets of Brembo rotors ... on one set of pads :eek:
 

WJBertrand

Ventura Highway
Joined
Jun 20, 2015
Messages
4,516
Location
Ventura, CA
I’ve found the OEM rear pads last longer than the EBC HH pads.


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