Brake pads expert needed

martymoose

martymoose

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Location
Sydney, Australia
For stainless steel discs.
Options are:
Sintered
Carbon ceramic
Kevlar ceramic
HH+ Copper



Cast iron on the sf2, very dissapointed with the blue brembo pads in the rain, absolutely hopeless.
 
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For years I struggled with virtually zero front brakes in the wet, it was downright scary. That's 280mm drilled I think cast discs, 4 spots and a 16mm remote radial master and braided lines, 2 fingers in the dry absolutely useless in the wet Someone mentioned deglazing I thought pads or shoes but they were talking discs. So I went at the holes with a rattail file and the the discs with 150 grit wet and dry and cleaned them with brake cleaner. It made a huge difference. Now I get a nearly perceptible lag, maybe 0.5sec and then nice strong progressive brakes. I forget what Brembro pads they are but I specifically asked Mike from Gowys and got what he suggested with my spec. Lubed the rear links at all joins and it's now really nice in all weathers.
 
Vince said:
For years I struggled with virtually zero front brakes in the wet, it was downright scary. That's 280mm drilled I think cast discs, 4 spots and a 16mm remote radial master and braided lines, 2 fingers in the dry absolutely useless in the wet Someone mentioned deglazing I thought pads or shoes but they were talking discs. So I went at the holes with a rattail file and the the discs with 150 grit wet and dry and cleaned them with brake cleaner. It made a huge difference. Now I get a nearly perceptible lag, maybe 0.5sec and then nice strong progressive brakes. I forget what Brembro pads they are but I specifically asked Mike from Gowys and got what he suggested with my spec. Lubed the rear links at all joins and it's now really nice in all weathers.
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What did you do specifically to the holes with the file Vince ?
 
I cleared out the built-up rust and crap, I don't know what fixed it. Maybe just the wipe down with brake cleaner but I thought I would go nuts. Years ago the discs on my Pantah were completely full of mud or dirt or dust. This time I got a full big spoon of fine dust out It took about an hour a disc, the hard bit was finding a file that fitted. We had a 4 day ride coming up with the first of this insanely wet summer coming up and wet tight downhill mountain roads with shit brakes had me at least attempting a fix and it worked really well.
 
When I changed to stainless discs last year prior to the Pyrenees trip OCT recommended those to me:
IMG_3126 Kopie.jpg

This combo improved break performance vs the previous mounted cast/brembos - just work a treat!

Cheers,
Jo
 
to clean out the holes in the discs, use a cordless drill and a drill bit of the correct size (holes can vary and some even have more than one size of hole in a fancy pattern).
I had drilled discs on TOG for many years and did this a couple of times, but the real problem (with cast discs) is the holes, so weld them up and reface the discs (that was a joke) seriously, I had a set of plain discs come my way and although they were not brilliant condition, and getting a bit thin, they were round and true and HUGELY improved braking in the wet, it seemed to me at the time, that the holes simply "hold" some water and braking is delayed when you apply pad pressure, centrifugal forces will disperse the water, with plain discs, so in the wet, so you need to go as fast as possible (that was joke #2) but the same applies at any speed. I have also noticed, especially on very long and very wet rides, eg Denmark 2006, remember that one James L/S, when it was clear to me that rain was running down the back of both fork legs and draining through the rear mounted callipers, I reverted to front mounted callipers and have continued this now that she is fitted with four pots and 320mm stainless discs, which dont give me any wet trouble and not even buying special pads, just stuff from the local factor.
CLEM
 
Lucas-TRW kevlar/ceramic racing are perhaps a bit over-the-top for general road use for some, but absolutely awesome on the track! Fantastic feel, wet or dry on stainless discs. Haven't experienced anything better in the wet. They don't need much heat, as do some other specific racing pads, so work on the road just fine, even when stone cold. They haul up the fully loaded RGS barge nicely from any speed. But they can be a bit surprising for the unwary/uninitiated and can tax the front tyre to the limit on occasions. ;)

piet
 
Marty, I have stock cast-iron discs, drilled and Brembo 4 pot 32/34 (single pin type) with 40mm spacings, they are from a Ducati 1996 something. As for pads I am using Galfer fd068 g1370 and they are very good. The only time I used them in the rain and it was pissing down there was no lag in fact they worked the same as in the dry. The Galfer tech stated they were for use on Stainless discs and suitable for casts as well, so far so good HTH.
 
sfcpiet said:
Lucas-TRW kevlar/ceramic racing are perhaps a bit over-the-top for general road use for some, but absolutely awesome on the track! Fantastic feel, wet or dry on stainless discs. Haven't experienced anything better in the wet. They don't need much heat, as do some other specific racing pads, so work on the road just fine, even when stone cold. They haul up the fully loaded RGS barge nicely from any speed. But they can be a bit surprising for the unwary/uninitiated and can tax the front tyre to the limit on occasions. ;)

piet
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I use those from OCT and so far they worked well 😊
 
For iron disks at least - When I visited OCT in 2019 Piet fixed me up with some TRW MCB19RQ (which I think are a more street oriented organic pad than he mentioned above) and they have been great! Totally cured the "no brakes in the wet" feature of the Brembo greens I had in there before.
 
I have a bunch of bikes with Brembo 08 calipers so I keep a few spare sets of pads in a box of Brembo bits and pieces. If I need to replace a set of pads, I just rummage around in the box and the first ones that come to hand are what I use. No idea what they're made of or who made them. They could be Chinese knock-offs for all I know. As long as they stop the bike, I don't care. Who brakes hard in the wet anyway?
 
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