Hi All

Pretty new here so want to say hi first.

I just got my Gs500F back in oct and use it everyday to go to work, and have put on 10,000km so far. Noticed by rear brake was grinding and I took it in, They tell me the rear brake has 0% left on it.

just wanted to ask all you experts, is this normal ? How long should the rear brake last ? 

Thanks

welcome to gstwins! 

I'm not an expert by any stretch of the word but here's my opinion. 

If you use it alot I wouldn't worry about it.  The only things that would cause abnormally fast wear are the caliper sticking or you resting your foot on the lever.  Since you took it in I would imagine any mechanic would be able to notice a caliper sticking and would have let you know.  If you rest your foot on the lever, than don't.    

Welcome to the club!

It can last a long time. Depends on how much you use it. I hardly use it at all and since I do lots of freeway miles I'm on my oem rears at 31,000 miles. But replaced my fronts at only 14,000.

Wow.. if its a brand new bike in oct and 10k.. you are serious rear brake user.  You may want to start getting used to using your front a lot more. It will save you in the future for those important brake hard now events.    I have 13k on my bike brand new last year in july. i am at 60% on front and 80% on back. 

Depends on many things.  I got 3300 to 16,200 miles on rear pads and 2900 to 24600 miles on front pads.  The OEM have been the longest lived and the EBC-HH the best performing so far.  With approx 71k miles on the 02GS to date I think my current Emgo pads will be the longest lasting if they ever wear out.       Their stopping power falls between the EBC Organic and EBC-HH pads I think but I haven't had a chance to mountain test them for fade.  The Emgo are not as good in the rain as the OEM or EBC are though.  In both cases the 3300 and 2900 were due to sticking caliper pistons and I now always pop the pistons out and clean them and bleed brakes when replacing pads.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v443/jcp8832/GS500_brakes_chains.jpg

 Have you taken your MSF class?  Seem to remember them stressing that 60-70% of braking power is owned by Mr. Front Brake.  Get on that front brake!   Use the front and rear together.   I practice panic stops all the time, the GS is a nice machine to polish up your accident avoidance skills on.  Have fun with it.

Hi all

Thanks for the replies.

Yes, I have take the equivalent to the MSF + a course when I was learning to ride up here in Canada, , and your right they did teach us to use mostly the front brake.   That's the funny thing I don't think i use my rear all that much.

The Mechanic that i took it to said that the rotor is shot as well so they ordered the rotor and said they would take a look when it comes in , so they haven't opened up the rear to see if there is a piston suck or not, I'll find out Tuesday.

this being my first bike there is the possibility that I might me resting my foot on the lever, but isn't that hard to do  without noticing? any tips ? should I adjust the lever and lower it a little?

Also just another question, my chain was quite loose as well and i just tightened it up, is there a possibility that the rear tire wasn't aligned, so the brake pads would be rubbing against the rotor, sorry just asking

thanks