I searched the forum and did not really find anything that addressed my issue with the front brakes and one of the brake pads falling out.

My son has a 2007 GS500F.  Wonderful bike.  I love riding it too.  He went away to college and I parked the bike.  I went down to get it out one day and one of the brake pads was just hanging down out of the caliper.  It is the pad that does NOT have the two holes for pins.  I took the caliper off, put it back together and it seemed to work fine for quite a while.  When my neighbor started to learn to ride, I let him borrow this one to get some more practice before he bought his own bike.  He had the pad fall out while he was riding down the road and then had no front brakes.  Luckily he was able to get on the shoulder and get stopped.  I took it apart again and there was a little metal clip that seemed to have worn to where it was not doing its job. 

I think that clip is part #7 in this schematic but there is no part number in the table below the picture.
http://www.bikebandit.com/oem-parts/2007-suzuki-gs500f/o/m16095#sch649480

I bought complete another caliper off ebay and took off the clip (it looked a little worn) and used some of the parts that looked like they were in better shape than mine and put it all back together.  It has probably not been ridden much more than 100 miles since I did this.  Now my son wants the bike up where he lives now near Chicago and I am scared to death that he will be in traffic and have that pad fall out again.  With no front brake, that is a disaster waiting to happen.

Anyone else have any experience with this issue?

Hi scott_01_xr400!

Wow that certainly would be scary. I have not had any experience with this issue thankfully... and I don't recall ever reading that anyone else has... but I'm sure others will reply to give any advice they have!

I just wanted to reply because motosport is where I get my OEM parts and they seem to always have what I need. Have always been the least expensive too! Here's the link to the same diagram and you can purchase #7 if you need to.
http://www.motosport.com/motorcycle/oem-parts/suzuki/2007/gs500f/front-caliper

Good luck and hopefully this will never ever happen again!!!

Got knocked by a truck not looking while changing lanes (wasn't lane splitting) which caused me to high-side in pothole on 880 in Oakland (freeway modeled after in Matrix 2) nothing like hearing a giant semi shuddering to stop behind you, and it knocked my brakes pads out, considered a chase and murder , but with no front brakes (and the pads in my pocket) I gave up quickly.  And they fell out again twice after that, and once after the idiot dealer knocked my bike over because he didn't see the lock on the brake . 

Besides the clip I found that one caliper was pushing more than the other, which moved the pad precariously close to clicking out of place, only held in by the disc sometimes.  After new seals and a mild rebuild they ceased having that issue.  But something in the pressure or line cause one piston to push more than the other.

Other users may know better about what might cause that?  Hopefully, I had to invest about $100 in mine, but at least now its not ready to drop out like it was.  Good luck.

I've never done brakes on my GSs, but in my experience with other bikes I can't wrap my head around why the pin wouldn't go through both pads, nor why the pad wouldn't otherwise have a permanent retaining clip.

Are you sure they are the correct pads for the bike?

If you look at the schematic (link is in the postings) that is what it shows for the brake pads.

The pad that is against the pistons has a lugs and corresponding shoulders on the carrier plate at the front. I can see how it *might* hinge down on the pin if the friction material got too thin (or non existent) or if the lugs or shoulders are worn.

But, was just looking at mine and for the life of me, I can't see how either pad could just fall out.

You do have the bottom pin in place? #10 on the diagram

That "moving" pad has a "shoulder" and it sits on a "ledge" on the caliper, if its worn very very thin it could get out of that ledge.
However, the GS pads wear in a lop sided pattern with the static pad wearing 3X as fast. The static pad has 2 pins that it hangs on.

So only way this issue can happen is if some genius swapped "only the worn out" pad and kept the other new pad for later use. If you did want to save up something, save up the old good pad, not the new pad.

Of course the Chinese may have cooked up a set of pads where the "mobile" pad wears 3X as fast. So you'd lose the pad before the other one wears.

Cool.
Buddha.

I see what you mean.  In my opinion, the pads are not worn out but they are thinner than stock by a fair amount.  I think I will put in new pads and that should fix the problem.  I will just have to keep an eye on them in the future.