Brake discs

[Waggles]

Took the F1 for its first serious ride over the weekend from Essex to Lincoln and back. She went very well.

The way back was marred by ( yet more ) rain but I had no real problems. Just as I arrived home the heavens absolutely opened and I scared myself rigid when the brakes barely worked ( had no problems up till then ) I go cold when I think of that happening on the A1 !!!

To be fair I was in heavy traffic and only doing 15 - 20 mph, the brakes may have cleared the water had I been going faster ( or perhaps when I applied them ) but its still a worry.

My question is this, what pads do people use? do they wear the disc? should the discs be drilled? if so, is there anyone who can supply replacement drilled discs or can drill mine? ( or can I do it? if so what with? - what sort of drill bit I mean )

[steff750]

  the real problem with the early Honda CB750 is they have a stainless steel front disc barely adequate in the dry and real scarey in the wet 

[SteveD CB500K0]

In my experience, drilled disks looked great but it made no difference to the wet weather performance.

Changing pads made some difference. Try EBC or Ferodo.

Accept that they're crap in the wet and ride carefully 

[Waggles]

Oh I ride carefully alright! ( My wife calls me 'Field Marshall Slow' ) I wasn't in any danger of hitting anything at the time. I well remember the brakes not working well in the wet from the first time around but remember it seemed more to 'take the edge' off the power rather than not working and it never bothered me much as braking much harder would probably overload the tyres and you'd be off anyway, was kinda expecting a little more from modern pads! Brakes felt OK while cruising ( well 'OK ish' or 'just adequate' )  The conditions at the time were rather exceptional to say the least

Will try swapping them as you suggest, and try to remember to feather them when it gets really wet. If it comes to it I have a spare anchor on my boat.

[Bryanj]

Believe me brakes that work that well in the wet are not fun either(500 four twin disced), especialy when the pensioner does not look and steps into the puddle in front of you

[Yoshi823]

I fitted twin discs to my commuter CB550F1 back in 1982 with Vesrah pads in one side & Ferodo in the other caliper.



This acted like a twin disc in the dry & a single disc in the wet. The discs were drilled to reduce the unsprung weight & I fitted Aeroquip brake lines.