Rear Brake Pads wearing quickly anyone?

[zail]

Called into the dealer where I bought my bike on the way home yesterday to say hello to Paula the saleswoman and show her my exhaust cos she hadn't been there when I took the bike in for it's last service. We had a good chat and then she asked me if my rear brake pads were ok - fine last time I checked I said (which was early last week) but feel free to have a look.. so we went out and looked at both sets of pads which are totally fine.

I asked her why she was asking and she said she had had 2 young male riders who had bought 250's who had both completely worn out their rear brake pads under 3000 miles (I've done 3900 and mine are good for another few 1000 if I continue to ride in the same way) and she was wondering if it was the way they'd been taught to ride in Compulsory Basic Training - ie set off with back brake on - and this was having a bad effect on the little ninja... she's sold about 20 ninjettes since the 2008 model came out over here and these were the only ones who had had this brake issue - Anyone on here experienced anything similar?

[kkim]

there have been a few posts about prematurely worn rear brake pads. I would chalk it up to improper braking technique as the majority that own these bikes don't seem to have that problem.

Still, it doesnt hurt to keep an eye on brake pad wear, no matter front or rear.

[Angel-be-Good]

My rear pads were completely gone around 13,000 miles, but still had a bit of front left (I should've swapped them both out around 10,000). I tend to use a lot of rear in general street riding (parking lots, supplement to engine braking at speed, last few feet at stops), but none during aggressive twisties. I guess the commuting wore the pads faster. I was definitely surprised that the rears were more worn.

...Not quite gone at 3,000 miles, though. I don't even know how you could do that.

[kkim]

Originally Posted by Angel-be-Good

...Not quite gone at 3,000 miles, though. I don't even know how you could do that.

unintentionally dragging the rear brake when you ride.

[CRXTrek]

Originally Posted by kkim

unintentionally dragging the rear brake when you ride.

If you are a taller rider you probably need to adjust the brake pedal position down lower. I had to adjust mine on both of my bikes so as not to ride with pressure on the brake pedal.

[zail]

Originally Posted by kkim

unintentionally dragging the rear brake when you ride.

That was what Paula reckoned... in CBT training here in the UK new riders are taught to apply a bit of back brake when setting off, although quickly releasing it. She saw them leaving the dealership car park dragging the back brake (and going off down the road with it still applied for a few yards) and concluded that was what was going on... Both the lads were trying to claim it was a fault with the bike though rather than their riding styles... Looking at mine you can barely see any wear so they must have been dragging the brake A LOT....

[CZroe]

I'm positive that I don't ride around with my foot resting on the rear brake and I always strive for 70/30 rear/front braking per the manual/MSF. My rear wore completely away at around 8K mi. I was only regularly checking the front, so I unexpectedly heard the hideous sound of rotor vs. brake pad shoe when it happened. Yeah, it was about time for a new front too.

Since replacing it I deliberately used a lot more rear brake to stave off replacing the front. Don't worry, I still reflexively used it properly for emergency/reaction braking. Also, the no-name pads I used were super-thick and I figured that I needed to wear them down a bit in case they were TOO thick.

FWIW, if there is a problem, what would be the cause and how would we go about fixing it? I get poor fuel economy too (can't recall ever breaking 50MPG). Seeing others actually consider "pulse and glide" hypermiling techniques for this bike that I could never dream of doing it on, I suspect that I have a much higher rolling resistance than I should. I can put it up on a rear stand and spin it in neutral but, without another to compare it too, that wouldn't help much. It does seem to stop more quickly than I would expect.

Edit: Should I record it and let you guys look at it?

[Alex]

Are people riding with any part of their foot resting on the rear brake pedal? If so, consider instead placing the balls of your feet on the footpeg, and only slide your foot forward when you're actively braking. Otherwise it's quite likely that the rear pads will wear quicker than expected.

[Seth]

Guys,

A couple of friends and myself had to replace the rear brakepads at about 10k. The dealers here recommend a service at 12k, no one has been able to make it to a service without replacing the back brakepads.

[Alex]

Mine still look almost new at 8500 miles; I doubt they will be close to replacement by 12K...

[rockNroll]

Mine will probably last forever.

[Momaru]

When Ifirst started riding, I was braking a ton more with the rear as the front brakes showed relatively little wear compared to the rear when I really started paying attention around 5,500 miles early this year.

I've been having a little bit of a concern lately. At speeds under ~40mph, I feel a slight grind or drag through the footpegs that varies directly with speed. Can only feel it coasting, but I figure that's just from engine rumble.

Turns out it seems my outboard rear brake pad is wearing a lot faster (it's 2-3mm thinner now at 9,500mi) than the wheel-side one. The drag seems to be an uneven spot in my brake rotor. I haven't ruled out either crud in a chain link or dirt in a rear wheel bearing as the 'drag', but the brakes are wearing unevenly. I wouldn't necessarily say quickly though; these are still the original pads.

Just my

[littlemike]

Originally Posted by rockNroll

Mine will probably last forever.

+1

Your riding style/situation, and location (city or highway) will have a big influence how long your pads will last, if you brake hard at every stop light and chance you get, it will not last very long. Opposite is true, if you coast to a stop light/stop sign and with light pressure on your brakes then your brakes will last a very long time. I have 4500 miles on my bike and both of my pads have lots of life and probebly will last over 10,000 miles before changing.

[Anteraan]

Originally Posted by rockNroll

Mine will probably last forever.

+ another 1

I never use my rear brake unless I'm in slick conditions and want to split my braking force between the two tires. Think about it, in dry conditions, racers brake entirely with the front, as you can see the rear wheel lifting/hopping under extreme braking. Imagine how little effort would be needed to lock that baby up. Due to the nature of the motorcycle, maximum braking under dry conditions occurs by using ONLY the front brake.

Now, if you're in the rain, or you approach a dry intersection but see oil/fluid on the road (and you can't steer around it), a bit of rear brake is prudent.

[capt_bugaloo]

My 250r has about 5200 KM on it, and the rear pads look close to new.

They sound like newbie riders using way too much rear brake.

[KELPHYN]

28000kms pads hardly look worn, but then those things slow you down right?

[delvey91]

Hmm, My front pads were completley worn out at 5000 and the rears about 7000 miles.
I never used to drag the brakes though.

[zail]

interesting delvey91... Hard riding lots of hard braking??? lol

[diablo250]

I thought my rear pads were wearing quickly as well. I'm at 7400 miles and the fronts look fine. I have dialed in the brake pedal, and I know I'm not accidentally resting my foot on it. As mentioned above, I also do use a bit more rear brake in the city, especially when lane splitting on the freeway. I go for an aggressive ride probably 3-4 times a month.

[i916it]

My first stock front pads wore out at about 4.75K miles.
My 2nd stock front pads wore out at about 10K miles.

My first stock rear wore out at about 10K miles.

Best place to get brake pads are at vendor sales with GALFER or EBC.
OEM ones cost $40 for the front from the dealer.
GALFERs cost about $40 also for HH for the front from Cycle Gear.
At the vendor sale, GALFER has the black compounds are $15 and the HH for $20.

[CZroe]

Originally Posted by i916it

My first stock front pads wore out at about 4.75K miles.
My 2nd stock front pads wore out at about 10K miles.

My first stock rear wore out at about 10K miles.

Best place to get brake pads are at vendor sales with GALFER or EBC.
OEM ones cost $40 for the front from the dealer.
GALFERs cost about $40 also for HH for the front from Cycle Gear.
At the vendor sale, GALFER has the black compounds are $15 and the HH for $20.

More info needed, plzkthx. Where are these "vendor sales?"

[delvey91]

Originally Posted by zail

interesting delvey91... Hard riding lots of hard braking??? lol

Nah only ever used that bike for commuting most of the time. The only thing i could think off is lots of road salt and mud etc grinding about making them wear out quicker?

This is what they looked like after i removed them. The rears were metal on metal!

[CZroe]

Originally Posted by delvey91

Nah only ever used that bike for commuting most of the time. The only thing i could think off is lots of road salt and mud etc grinding about making them wear out quicker?

This is what they looked like after i removed them. The rears were metal on metal!

*PIC*
*PIC*
*PIC*

Exactly the same as my experience! I had 1,000 more miles on the bike but that wasn't hard to do considering that over 3,000 of that was US interstate travel... that means hundreds of miles of freeway riding at a time without even touching the brakes, even then only using them/stopping for fuel or lodging before resuming for another couple hundred miles at a time. I, too, had metal-on-metal contact on my rear only a couple days after I was told during servicing that I had 30% remaining on "my brakes" (they probably only looked at the front).

[kkim]

Mud will absolutely destroy brake pads. Don't have any experience with salt, though.

[i916it]

Yes at 4.75k miles, mine were metal on metal with a slight sliver left.

[TheDuck]

Hate to wake this from the dead, but at 13,000 miles and ONE of my rear pads was completely worn out, too, but the other pad looked no worse than the front ones did.

I did find a problem though:

The calipers on this bike are "floating" meaning they are allowed to (re)center themselves on the rotor when they are actuated, they will shuffle side to side as necessary.

One of the caliper shafts (The little part that boot #49006A fits over... which has no part number, blah!) was frozen in the caliper. If the caliper can't float on that shaft it gets stuck in one position, and every time you get on the brake, the mount may just bend a little allowing hte brakes to get tighter but probably won't return properly on its own causing it to drag a little. The one pad will just grind and grind and grind.

Anyway, it looked like that seal wasn't on right and leaked and got water in it, and that rusted it up. I managed to get it removed, cleaned the rust off, polished the hell out of it, regreased (even greased the inside of the seal to repell water) and put it back together ensuring that it moved nicely, problem solved! Maybe there is a design flaw based on the angle of the caliper and how it mounts and how water gets into it? The front caliper is identical, but I don't have any problems up there nor have I heard anyone else saying such. Anyone else check this yet?

For reference:

[Yoda]

Floating calipers definitely can freeze up. The 01-04 mustang GTs were well known for the front calipers freezing up, I ended up upgrading both of my fronts to the cobra calipers.

Checking that the pads arent riding the rotors is always a good idea, I had my rear pads start riding the rotor the other day (hello screeching noise). Couple good taps on the caliper and and a handfull of press on the brakes worked it loose and got it floating again.

Personally checking the calipers on vehicles is always part of my maintenance, on my mustang the calipers freezing up made steering very difficult Id imagine a caliper locking up on the bike would be much much worse.

[demp]

Originally Posted by CZroe

I was only regularly checking the front, so I unexpectedly heard the hideous sound of rotor vs. brake pad shoe when it happened.

That noise is just terrible!, I replaced both front and rear at about the same mileage

[capt_bugaloo]

Weird. I just took my 250r in for a service. With 7100 KM on the clock, both the front and rear pads still have about 70% of their life left.

[CZroe]

The_Duck: I checked my current rear pads and the inner pad is wearing much faster than the outer pad (almost gone vs. quite a bit left).

[ScorpionNinja]

Im at about 12,465 miles on my Original Front & Rear brake pads still!

50% of my miles are 2UP with my GF on back too!

They are near the 1mm "replacement mark", but with only 2 months of riding left in Michigan and 2 Moto's to split up the miles, im sure ill just save me some money now and just replace both F&Rs when i bring the 250 out in spring!

Like my MSF told me to do, i use F&R together 95% of the time i use the brakes on my bike! Only drag the rear while slowly crawling past a 3-4 way Stop sign.

[demp]

Originally Posted by CZroe

The_Duck: I checked my current rear pads and the inner pad is wearing much faster than the outer pad (almost gone vs. quite a bit left).

I found the exact same thing - my dad kept telling me something is very wrong with that


Edit: Has anyone tried to put EBC HH pads on the rear? I remember trying, and finding it impossible to make them fit, they were too thick

[CZroe]

Originally Posted by demp

I found the exact same thing - my dad kept telling me something is very wrong with that


Edit: Has anyone tried to put EBC HH pads on the rear? I remember trying, and finding it impossible to make them fit, they were too thick

I may have written that backwards. I think it was the outer wearing faster than the inner but I'll have to check again. They seemed REALLY thick (Sixity pads) so perhaps the dealer filed one side down a bit to fit or something! One thing I've been noticing for many thousands of miles is that I can feel a "click" when I push my rear brake pedal down a bit farther than usual. If this is due to something being stuck on one side of the caliper, it may explain it. The click feels like it's coming from the pedal itself though (I can hear it if I stand next to it).

[JA-Moo]

Originally Posted by Anteraan

+ another 1

I never use my rear brake unless I'm in slick conditions and want to split my braking force between the two tires. Think about it, in dry conditions, racers brake entirely with the front, as you can see the rear wheel lifting/hopping under extreme braking. Imagine how little effort would be needed to lock that baby up. Due to the nature of the motorcycle, maximum braking under dry conditions occurs by using ONLY the front brake.

Now, if you're in the rain, or you approach a dry intersection but see oil/fluid on the road (and you can't steer around it), a bit of rear brake is prudent.

I'm with Scott on this one. Rear brake on snow, water, gravel or if the road is slick with anything. I have been riding since 1971, never wore out rear brake shoes or pads. Properly using the front brake will have most of not all weight on the front anyway.

The problem is in panic situations, most will use both brakes much harder than normal, and the back wheel locks up and you lose control, or slide into what you are trying to avoid. Panic stops are great practice, to learn just how hard you can brake.

[nezumiamalek]

Both of my pads went out around 5k as well. I'm glad they did because now they are a lot better. (Galfer HH)

[CZroe]

My rear brake ran out of meat first even though I try to follow MSF guidelines of 75% braking power on the front. By my second set, it was clear that my rotor had also wore in a strange pattern (thickness varies creating a wave from the center and concentric rings). Many others have had their rear wear out first too, leading me to believe that there may be a design issue.

[EsrTek]

Just changed my front at 8k, they where down to almost pure metal.
Meanwhile the stock back brakes have at least half their pad left, so didn't end up changing them.

PS- Vesrah pads in front are awesome!!