Rear Brake pads and Rotor replacement

[ballisticexchris]

You will be disappointed. There is no performance gain for braided lines on a bike with ABS. The ABS solenoid has to 'float' to do it's job. It is compensating for variations in brake pressure, after all. You'll never get that rock hard brake lever/pedal feel you get with braided lines on a non-ABS system. And yes, people still try it. And it feels pretty much the same as before. You do benefit from tougher lines that are more resistant to damage. Be careful to route them correctly and maintain the factory strain reliefs.

Sorry, I don't agree with your statement Eric. The steel lines do give a very noticeable feel at the lever. As long as the ABS is not engaged. They don't swell like the OEM rubber lines. I will agree that the rotors and pads will have a more dramatic effect than the lines. I get a pretty solid feel with my brakes now after bleeding them. The only time they don't is when the ABS is activated. I can jump from my Beta to the Super Tenere and the brakes are solid on both. Only difference is I can't lock up and slide on the bigger bike. Which is a good thing considering the weight of this beast!!

Reason a lot of riders don't get a good solid feel to the brakes (ABS or not) is because they just run them with factory fluid and/or don't bleed them frequently enough or properly. I'm very particular on my braking and get every bit of air out as I can. I tap the lines and leave the levers zip tied and, in some cases, hung up overnight. I just finished bleeding mine a while back and the difference was very noticeable. I'm very confident that my stopping distance will be shorter and the steel lines (along with quality rotors and pads) will give a noticeable positive feedback to the lever.

There is a very noticeable performance gain to be had by simply doing cheap simple things like bleeding your brakes. I got lazy with this bike. I waited a season before bleeding them. All my dirt bikes get a brake bleed right after purchase. The Super Tenere I thought was not so bad. I was wrong. It was horrible and the fluid was completely shot!!

This is what the fluid looked like on mine. Less than 2 year old bike!! There were black bits in it and it took a full can of fresh fluid to flush everything out. The back brake was bad but not horrible. Before:

This is more like it. I zip tied the lever and brake pedal down overnight and tapped the lines. After:

 

[EricV]

Let's just say that having ridden bikes back to back that had the braided lines done Vs not done, I don't feel it's a significant improvement. No argument about the fluid. I flush and bleed every year. (reminds me I need to do the forks), but I am very familiar with everything you speak of, and have manufactured solenoids for hydraulic use. I've installed countless braided lines for customers on cars and bikes. Including getting custom lines fabricated for the Super Ten back around '12. Back in the day when I did car track days and wrenched for money, I went through quite a bit of ATE Super Blue and Super Gold, alternating my customer's vehicles and my own every 6 months, (or less for track cars).

Yes, you gain a little bit of feel with the lines since they are not expanding under pressure like the rubber lines. But I have never seen a motorcycle system with ABS firm up like a Non-ABS system will when changing to braided lines. I have seen people think they improved a lot more than they really did. (It's human nature to want to believe that the $$$ we just spent DID something.) A non ABS bike with braided lines is so dramatically different that many people that have never felt that will think something is broken, because the lever barely moves compared to an ABS bike. I've never seen an ABS bike that felt like that.

 

[jaquima]

Shorter trips with more braking are hard on brakes in general.

How many miles each way for your commute? I'm wondering out loud if perhaps a smaller, lighter bike would be more friendly on the budget for commuting.

My commute is about 20 miles each way. I am 6'4" and had a smaller bike but it was not comfortable. It is a good thought but I enjoy the bike enough to not worry about the maintenance costs. I honesty could have kept the rotor for another set of pads because they were within the recommended limits (by a small margin) but I wanted a little piece of mind.