After much searching and reading I still am a little uncertain about replacement pads. Could someone please let me know if you have to or should/should not replace the rotor if you are going to EBC HH sintered front pads? I had heard this but nothing definitive was stated in any of the threads I read. what are the consequences of not swapping the rotor?

It looked through searching that most folks here upgraded to EBC. A friend of mine warned me off of them, he's a klr rider and the guys on his forum don't much care for EBC. is this a difference in the dual sport set up over our street set up? most of the posts I read here seemed like they were pretty good. I'm told the consensus among klr folks is that it sounded and felt like breaking for a mack truck.... who ever wants to share their experience here is most welcome. I'd really appreciate some insight.

also the picture in the catalog for the EBC pads looked like a dual pad set up to me ..... is that right?

d

hey,

just make sure that the rotor is thick enough (according to manual) and not warped and you should be A O K!

Quote from: dchrist on May 27, 2008, 11:44:02 AM
After much searching and reading I still am a little uncertain about replacement pads. Could someone please let me know if you have to or should/should not replace the rotor if you are going to EBC HH sintered front pads? I had heard this but nothing definitive was stated in any of the threads I read. what are the consequences of not swapping the rotor?

I have never heard that a new rotor is required for HH pads. However, I have heard that HH pads tends to wear out rotors more quickly. Is that what you meant?

Quote
It looked through searching that most folks here upgraded to EBC. A friend of mine warned me off of them, he's a klr rider and the guys on his forum don't much care for EBC. is this a difference in the dual sport set up over our street set up? most of the posts I read here seemed like they were pretty good. I'm told the consensus among klr folks is that it sounded and felt like breaking for a mack truck.... who ever wants to share their experience here is most welcome. I'd really appreciate some insight.

I used the EBC HH pads on my front for about 1000 miles so far this season. No problems so far!

I'm sure gsJack has a table somewhere of all the pads he's used and their respective mileages.

Quotealso the picture in the catalog for the EBC pads looked like a dual pad set up to me ..... is that right?

Not sure what you mean? scottpa_GS is selling a set if your bike is 1996 or newer:
http://gstwins.com/gsboard/index.php?topic=41141.0

Quote from: beRto on May 27, 2008, 12:08:02 PM
I have never heard that a new rotor is required for HH pads. However, I have heard that HH pads tends to wear out rotors more quickly. Is that what you meant?

thats exactly what I meant. I heard you have to change rotors if you want to use EBC pads (or perhaps sintered pads in general) or else the rotors wear out very quickly and performance can be effected negatively. I'm not sure if that is accurate info so I was hoping someone could confirm or deny this through experience.

QuoteI used the EBC HH pads on my front for about 1000 miles so far this season. No problems so far!

looks like you have some experience here as does JeremyP... are your rotors starting to go? mine are in pretty good shape so I don't anticipate changing them when I change pads but if it were a requirement I would...

Quote

Quotealso the picture in the catalog for the EBC pads looked like a dual pad set up to me ..... is that right?

Not sure what you mean? scottpa_GS is selling a set if your bike is 1996 or newer:
http://gstwins.com/gsboard/index.php?topic=41141.0

thanks for the link... what I meant here is that the picture in the catalog looked like right and left side components incorrectly presumed to be for dual rotor front braking systems... which the gs doesn't have. Although I understand some have modified the front end for dual rotors... anyone done this? I'm assuming most of the people using EBC pads didn't have to add a left side rotor.... plus in closer inspection of the catalog it says that the pads are for the right side... I'm all set there. I understand now its two pads, one for each side of the front rotor, clamped together against the rotor to slow the rotation of the front wheel.... braking 101 right? 

d

Quote from: dchrist on May 27, 2008, 12:35:23 PM
thats exactly what I meant. I heard you have to change rotors if you want to use EBC pads (or perhaps sintered pads in general) or else the rotors wear out very quickly and performance can be effected negatively. I'm not sure if that is accurate info so I was hoping someone could confirm or deny this through experience.

You use the same rotor but replace it more frequently if using HH pads.

Here is that brake pad table from gsJack:


taken from:
http://gstwins.com/gsboard/index.php?topic=41498.msg466979#msg466979

You can see he has used all types of pads on his bike. Hopefully he will chime in with effects of HH on rotor life.

Quoteare your rotors starting to go? mine are in pretty good shape so I don't anticipate changing them when I change pads but if it were a requirement I would...

My rotor is fine, although I've only used the HH pads for 1000 miles so far. Even with the sintered pads, rotor life had better be much longer than that. 

Quote
I understand now its two pads, one for each side of the front rotor, clamped together against the rotor to slow the rotation of the front wheel.... braking 101 right? 

The oem front disc brakes on my old Hondas were very good until about 30k miles and then they started squeaking like you wouldn't believe, much, much worse than our GS rear brakes squeak.  EBC Kevlar pads were advertised to eliminate brake squeak 20 years ago and I tried them and they were great, little or no squeak after that.  EBC calls them organic pads now since the Kevlar patents have expired and others are making Kevlar like materials and I don't think they are as good.  I've used EBC pads both organic and HH on my GS's until recently but needed some in a hurry a year ago and picked up some Emgo front pads and they are excellent in my opinion.  Think I'm done with EBC pads.

I replaced the rear rotor on my 97 GS because it ran metal to metal with worn out pads a couple times and was in bad shape.  I put 80k miles on the 97 GS on the oem front rotor and as far I know it is still on the bike with over 90k miles on it now.  I turned that front rotor blue a couple times in the mountains back in 02 and completely faded out the front brake one of those times with the EBC organic pads, should of used the HH pads back then.  The blue wears off.   

My 02 GS has almost 60k miles on it now with the oem rotors and mostly EBC pads and I expect them to last the life of the bike.  And I do have a record of my brake pad usage:   

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v443/jcp8832/GS500_brake_pads.jpg

See beRto jusr beat me to it.   

alright! thanks guys! I'm pretty much sold... glad you kept a good record, Jack. I've been too lazy to keep records and I'll probably regret it in a few years... 

I wonder why they're disliked on the klr's? it sounds from past posts like everyone here thats used 'em has either liked it or thought it was about the same.

I'll be doing stainless steel lines at the same time so am I gonna get thrown over the front end or what? I doubt it. I'm a pretty big guy. i think the worst that will happen is more frequent bottoming out of the forks..... progressive springs are on the list but I haven't gotten to that yet...



d

Some of the EBC pads don't work well unless they are heated up a little depending on the compound used.
This is actually true of many performance pads, so the brakes feel weak until they are heated.
If you are an agressive rider having the advantage of pads that dissipate heat well while providing good stopping power is worth the warm-up time.  But for a casual rider, the brakes will be less predictable until they are warm and this can be scary for some people.

A "Preferred Parts" section with short blurbs about known suppliers' stuff would be useful info on here.

Quote from: birdman on May 27, 2008, 02:53:02 PM
Some of the EBC pads don't work well unless they are heated up a little depending on the compound used.
This is actually true of many performance pads, so the brakes feel weak until they are heated.

EBC also recommends a specific procedure for bedding new brake pads:
http://gstwins.com/gsboard/index.php?topic=40052.msg450079#msg450079

I run EBC HH pads front and rear when my GS was stock and it was a heck of a lot better than stock brakes..Just becareful with the rear it will lock up quicker.I used stock rotors/discs front and rear.