Brake pads expert needed

Paul Marx said:
Winter lay up, in sunny Surrey?
Paul
Schurminater said:
Have these CC pads ready to fit over the winter lay up (y)
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Were you a regular at Box Hill in the early eighties with an OS Jota and a girlfriend on a pink GT750 ? It was cold on those winter nights supping tea at the tea stall. Never felt the cold in my youth mind. Leather jacket, Levi’s and bike boots come sun,snow or rain.
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I've been a regular at Box Hill for many years, but in the eighties I was riding mainly Kawasaki's and was yet to sample the delights of the Jota.
I certainly didn't have a girlfriend on a pink GT750 though I,m sure I've seen her mentioned before?...... I do remember a stunner riding pillion on a GT550 she was also a regular there and a joy to follow round the twisties :).........but as you say we were up there in all sorts of weathers when we were young and reckless!
 
EBC HH pads on stainless discs have always been my choice. I discovered the necessity of sintered pads with discs when I got my first bike with a front disc and standard factory pads and couldn't stop in the rain particolarly well.

On my Guzzi T3, the non-drilled cast iron Brembo discs worked well with sintered pads, but I tried carbon ceramic pads when i changed the pads after 15 years (the pads were only half worn, but the backing plates were rustier than rusty things). To start with, I thought they weren't as good as the HH pads, but ahen they'd bedded in, they worked well.
 
Schurminater said:
I've been a regular at Box Hill for many years, but in the eighties I was riding mainly Kawasaki's and was yet to sample the delights of the Jota.
I certainly didn't have a girlfriend on a pink GT750 though I,m sure I've seen her mentioned before?...... I do remember a stunner riding pillion on a GT550 she was also a regular there and a joy to follow round the twisties :).........but as you say we were up there in all sorts of weathers when we were young and reckless!
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I preferred Newlands corner and Bury hill/Whiteways when I was in Surrey (moved to sunny Dorset 5 years ago..lovely countryside but the roads are a tad manure-ridden at times ). I understand that Rykers has changed hands and upped it's game; it wasn't great and as I was a weekday rider, there weren't any other distractions to improve the experience.
 
Vince said:
I think that sintered damaging cast rotors MIGHT be a bit of an overstatement. Damage over what time frame? I was pretty shocked at how undersized my original rotters were before I replaced them. The wear limit size is cast into the disc edge.
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I had sintered pads break little pieces (ca 3-5 mm) out of the original 74 disks within less than 1000km
 
So since swapping over to the CC Carbon Ceramic disc pads on my Jota I am feeling a little underwhelmed with their performance, they should be well bedded in by now but there doesn't seem to be any feel,there is now an occasional squeal on braking and my front wheel has never been so dirty!!............they are obviously slowing me down but i'm finding myself relying more on the back brake as well.

Was running sintered GG pads before (Galfer) on standard cast iron discs which seemed better to me.

Anyone else had similar?...............or can recommend an alternative sintered pad?

Cheers
 
No experience of Galfer pads so can't comment. However, bear in mind sintered pads aren't generally suited to cast iron discs. As has been commented here previously, swapping to stainless discs and sintered pads can give excellent results. Equally I've found Brembo CC (i.e. organic) pads work well with OE discs - note that two CC compounds are/were available - I use the higher numbered part (07BB1418) which has a greater coefficient of friction than 07BB1408.
I wonder if your use of sintered on CI disc has contaminated the surface? A quick search will show all sorts of options being used - anything from SBS (good in my experience) EBC HH (sintered!) Ferodo Platinum; Lucas/TRW.
 
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Cheers for the information and feedback Rob,,when I first got the bike I was always pretty impressed by the front brakes but towards the end of last year they seemed to me to be less effective which I put down to being old glazed pads even though there was still plenty of meat left on them.

Thought a refresh was needed and on reading up the Carbon Ceramic pads seemed to be a preferred option, even though in my head I thought Carbon would need more heat to be effective?
There was no real improvement which I originally put down to them needing to bed in,but what I did notice is a lot more dust and the surface of the disc seemed to get more polished as the miles went on,then some brake squeal which It never suffered from before and im sure is related to the dust.
Interesting that you say there are two compounds of CC I didn't know that.

I'm going to experiment and swap the pads out for some TRW MCB19RQ pads that has also been recommended on this post and see if there is any marked difference in performance and will report back.

(As a note all the calipers and master cylinder have been previously overhauled and are in great working order. :))
 
Schurminater said:
Cheers for the information and feedback Rob,,when I first got the bike I was always pretty impressed by the front brakes but towards the end of last year they seemed to me to be less effective which I put down to being old glazed pads even though there was still plenty of meat left on them.

Thought a refresh was needed and on reading up the Carbon Ceramic pads seemed to be a preferred option, even though in my head I thought Carbon would need more heat to be effective?
There was no real improvement which I originally put down to them needing to bed in,but what I did notice is a lot more dust and the surface of the disc seemed to get more polished as the miles went on,then some brake squeal which It never suffered from before and im sure is related to the dust.
Interesting that you say there are two compounds of CC I didn't know that.

I'm going to experiment and swap the pads out for some TRW MCB19RQ pads that has also been recommended on this post and see if there is any marked difference in performance and will report back.

(As a note all the calipers and master cylinder have been previously overhauled and are in great working order. :))
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I had the Brembo Carbon Ceramic pads, courtesy of Ducati Paddy, on mine when it had the P08s.
I also have them in my Brembo four pot calipers. They work well on cast iron discs.
It may be worth sanding the swept area, on yours, Steve, before fitting new pads, in case there is contamination, on the discs.

BTW. I have a set of Stainless discs and sintered pads standing by, for when the current ones need replacement.
 
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Thanks Hamish, I knew you had them fitted which was another point in choosing them on recommendation.

Discs are clean though as I said getting a lot more polished with these pads and too much dust for my liking. 🤔
 
Rob said:
Up to a point - I didn't see any reference to brake disc material though
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Disc material and pads are like husband and wife.
I also had the notion that you shouldn't use sintered on cast iron.
I use the Brembo blue, carbon ceramic pads and find them quite sufficient, long lasting and without evident disc wear.
Paul
 
The biggest issue I have had with brakes is extreme wet weather braking, or more importantly the lack of it. I have a pretty powerful system but every now and then in heavy rain, they would just not work. The best fix I found was cleaning my discs with brake cleaner and a green scouring pad and cleaning out the little holes in the discs.
 
Vince said:
The biggest issue I have had with brakes is extreme wet weather braking, or more importantly the lack of it. I have a pretty powerful system but every now and then in heavy rain, they would just not work. The best fix I found was cleaning my discs with brake cleaner and a green scouring pad and cleaning out the little holes in the discs.
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I don't have holes in the discs on my Laverda and when it rains, you brake and count 1-2-3 before anything happens. Whatever the pads.
One of the reasons I bought a modern bike to go to work the last 18 months before retiring.
Paul
 
Vince said:
The biggest issue I have had with brakes is extreme wet weather braking, or more importantly the lack of it. I have a pretty powerful system but every now and then in heavy rain, they would just not work. The best fix I found was cleaning my discs with brake cleaner and a green scouring pad and cleaning out the little holes in the discs.
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Not sure if cleaning them regularly is necessarily the best thing? I understood that the pads transfer some material to the disc and it's that layer which provides the friction, hence the need to "bed in" new pads and discs.

This again illustrates why Marty chose the title for this thread 🤣
 
Alls I know is we were heading to a forecast-wet Snowy Ride and my arse was puckering, so I did that cleaning thing someone had mentioned deglazing as a fix. They were not clear about pads or discs. Suddenly I actually had a strong predictable front brake in the wet whereas before like Paul it was a 4 finger pull and maybe at some time it started working as weak as possible. That's on drilled std 280mm Cast Iron discs, 4 spot Brembros a 16mm radial master and braided lines that were 2 fingers and STRONG in the dry. That's a sample of one so not exactly proof but it was night and day for my bike. I used a tiny rat-tailed file on the holes of the disc, tedious as hell, but I did get lots of crusty rusty shit being removed, I don't know if it was the skouwering with the green brillo pad and brake cleaner or the hole filing that had the effect.
 
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