Brake pad performance with a single disc

[WilliamGLX81]

Howdy folks.

I've replaced my front brake line with stainless and the pads with semi-sintered pads. They're very fade resistant, but what I'm realizing is that they're usually not hot enough to be as effective as I would like. I use the bike for commuting to and from work, and it's mostly just a quick shot onto and off of the freeway.

It might be that a single disc just won't grab that hard. Or it might be that these pads need to be hotter than I'm getting them. They're EBC FA65V pads.
http://ebcbrakes.com/product/sintered-brake-pads


I honestly don't care how long they last or if they generate much dust (though lots of dust tends to mean lots of noise). I'm happy to replace the pads every 10,000 miles if it means they work great in the mean time.

 

[tkent02]

One disc is plenty if you do it right.

Less weight than the original single front brake, as much or more more braking than the stock dual front brakes.

Talk to Saltymonk.

 

[GregT]

I'm not a fan of sintered pads...never have been.

For our semi stainless OE GS discs, i use and recommend organic pads.
EBC and Ferodo do good organics and i would assume there are others too.
The organics give very good bite when cold and have good fade characteristics too.

On the short tight street circuits we see in NZ, you don't get much chance to warm brakes up and they have to be there from the first corner. Organics every time....

 

[Brendan W]

Try different pads. As tkent says one disc is plenty. Our 4000 lb car will out brake the bike any day of the week with four 280mm discs. That's one disc per 1000 lbs.
I think if you check back to the origin of twin front discs a lot had to do with looks and stopping skinny back then forks from twisting.

 

[Guest]

I installed EBC organic Kevlar pads on the front of my '81 650GL. Huge improvement over the stock pads. As noted earlier, they have great bite when cold and continue to work just as well when hot.

 

[tom203]

I got a set of EBC FA-65 (no V) work good and I can lock front wheel up- though I work hard to avoid this. A single disc is fine - less unsprung weight!

 

[WilliamGLX81]

Coolio, I'll get some EBC Kevlars. That was the alternative I was looking at.

Then again, these probably aren't 100% bedded in yet. I may give them another few weeks to a month to see if they improve.

 

[tkent02]

Then again, these probably aren't 100% bedded in yet. I may give them another few weeks to a month to see if they improve.

Better yet do the correct procedure to bed them in. It takes heat and moderate braking, not a lot of miles.

 

[WilliamGLX81]

Well, typically I do a bed-in procedure, but these say on the back that the way to bed them in is not the incremental stops to get them nice and hot like with semi-metals, but to "ride easy on the street for 200 miles".

 

[tkent02]

They are afraid of getting sued. Try heating them up a bit. Drag the brake lightly to get it fairly hot, then squeeze harder to do some moderate braking. Don't come to a stop, just slow some. Not hard braking, this can ruin new pads. After a few of these it should work a lot better.

 

[WilliamGLX81]

Hm. All right. That was my instinct too. Not bedding them in seems like a bad bad idea.
I swear I put up a thread asking about bedding these in.
With my car, I do it like this:
Brake from 60 to 30 3 times with a few seconds at 60 before braking again.
Brake from 50 to 10 3 times with about the same time between braking.
Don't come to a stop at any time while doing this. (or use the rear brake to stop if you must)

Is that going to nuke my pads?

 

[tkent02]

H

Is that going to nuke my pads?

Not if you don't brake too hard too soon. Once a long time ago I did one really hard stop, from speed, on new pads that hadn't been cooked in yet. The pads got changed to an angled shape, triangular in cross section, they rattled all the time and didn't stop correctly after that.

So yeah, drag them to get them hot, then moderate braking until they start to work better, save the hard braking for later. The speed you do it at doesn't matter, just keep it safe and don't come to a stop at any time.

Read something technical about what's going on with the discs and pads while they are being bedded in, it's very interesting stuff. There are at least three different processes going on, probably more. The transfer layer is forming, the pads are cooking to their proper texture, and they are conforming to the surface of the discs. Riding around slowly only does the last.