brake pads

[Johnwebley]

  although I have twin discs,I feel the brakes have no bite,

 plenty of grip and it stops,but seems to need to warm the pads up first,
 I have EBC sintered ,
 are they to hard?
 are the fibre ones softer with more initial grip ?

  what pads do you use,and reccommend?

[Erny]

I recommend genuine Honda

[deltarider]

I recommend genuine Honda

So do I.

[K2-K6]

John, I've experimented a fair amount with different materials and feel they may give you more of the characteristics you want if treated in a certain way first.

For cars, bikes and cycle discs when using sintered pads they all feel quite dull and lacking in bite when new.  After a period to let them physically bed to the disc (principally geometric) they then need to be heated to quite extreme temperatures by dragging them until that is reached.  After which they have much better initial bite and feel to the brake application.
It seems to coat the disc with something from the pad material,  as if you've a brake that's working well which you then clean the disc with brake cleaner,  the feel and bite is again removed,  until they are again treated to heating cycle.

Initially it doesn't feel like anything is changing as you heat them, but then as you go for a few speed and heavy applications the brake feel can be observed changing quite quickly.

[paulbaker1954]

Anyone tried SBS ceramic pads, got them on my CB1300 and they are fantastic, great bite, don’t wear the discs like sintered and very little dust. Work well from cold as well unlike sintered and resist fading unlike organic. Fairly sure I checked that SBS make them for the 500/550 but could be wrong.

When mines ready for the road I’ll certainly be fitting them if available. Just checked and they are SBS 501HF

Good to know Ken, just changed mine for ENC in an attempt to stop bloody brake squeal which didn’t help.

One of these days I will lose the squeal.

[hairygit]

I really don't get what issue people have with brake squeal on the old SOHC"s, many of them did it when new, I tend to investigate if the squealing gets less or stops, a sign to me that all is not well. Often traced to a swing arm pivot or pad stiffening up and needing stripping, cleaning and greasing where needed. Plus, the squeal is letting others know your brakes are working, one more chance of being noticed by blind drivers!

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[deltarider]

Before you take that swingarm apart - so far I haven't seen one that needed it - you can easily check it for free movement. With front wheel removed, tap the assembly sideways lightly with just one finger. When it swings smoothly, nothing is wrong there. A few tips. Nylon washer behind the LH side pad needs to be there. Smear lightly a little bit of copper grease or Ate lube on the sides and the back of the pad. EBC pads might need to have paint removed from the side. On all my bicycles I can make my front brake sqeal like hell by mounting the pads thus that the front of the pads contact first. When I fit them thus that the rear of the pads contact first, all sqealing is gone. To Oddjob's post: I wonder if ceramic pads will offer much improvement given our oldstyle stainless steel disks. Wouldn't you need ceramic disks as well? What disks does a CB1300 have?

[Gromitdog]

Hi John

I have a CB550 K3 and I stripped down the front brake & changed the pads and replace them with Genuine Honda ones As other say here on the forum if they a squealing they are working but i found they need to have heat in them if I came down Sutton Bank (In beautiful Yorkshire ) the time I get to the bottom they are nice and warm and seem to work better too  , Also these are 40 year bikes and brake systems and you possibly have to allow for that too I found I just have to brake earlier and expect the blind idiot to pull out in front of you