Hi,

Anyone got any recommendations for some front brake pads? I only use it for work and there tends to be lots of rain.

Thanks,

Toby

You cannot go wrong with the EBC HH. I bought my bike with those on and put the same when i had to change them.

Hmm,different from my experiences with them then,I had EBC HH in both my old SV1000s and my Mille when I got it,the only good thing I can say about them in hindsight is they kept the calipers off the disc's.

I found the feel akin to rock hard pads on an old pushbike in the wet,absolutely wooden and zero feel,they stopped the bike after considerable effort but just NO!.

After that I went with Vesra on the SV which was quite an improvement feel wise and put the standard pads back in the Mille,another improvement.  My Tuono came with Dunlop? pads which were worn out so I tried SBS after quite a few riders on here and other forums recommended them.

What a revelation   ended up with Race excell on the front and road on the rear both of which were an order of magnitude better both feel and stopping wise.

Since then I've gone to Race carbon on the rear which is another step up in feel and performance. The only time I rode in the rain I also had brand new tyres on as well so I was quite cautious but the rear braking seemed the same as I've now got used to,just reliable and immediate.

SBS all the way for me,even on track I'm not good enough to need more at Inters level.

I have to say I agree. The only time I fitted them was to my old GSX600F (Yes, the teapot but it was my first bike!) and as you say, no feel whatsoever. Good for unintentional stoppies though!

Not mine. And to be fair my experience of EBC is over twenty years ago but they were atrocious compared to what had been on previously and what I quickly replaced them with.

I've got Brembo in the front but SBS in the rear and they perform well in that position with dec0ent feel. I've got a set of SBS ready to go in the front when the Brembo's eventually need replacing.

 Whilst on a commute you might not be looking for ultimate performance you do need good feel in all sorts of temperatures and conditions.

An observation here is that I wouldn't have expected Griff to be selling anything that he wasn't totally confident in so maybe current EBC products are an improvement of their past?

Just don't fit Goldfren!

badapple wrote: I've run EBC GPFAX pads on my track bike which I used to replace SBS and although the SBS were fantastic the EBC were insane however I would wear through a set in 10 sessions so I'm now running accosato pads which are as good as the GPFAX but last way longer. This is all track I just wanted to dispell the EBC are rubbish comments as the modern race pads a f**king awesome so I can only assume the road pads have also improved.

Fair point, I believe those GPFAX are very good but it takes a giant leap of faith to go back to a product you've had a bad experience with in the past.

Case in point, for better or worse I'll never buy a Michelin tyre again after a couple of bad experiences with Pilot Sports.  I know the Pilot Road is supposed to be the dogs b###s but I'll spend my money elsewhere.

 I didn't think going radial master on the clutch would make such a massive difference but after first an Oberon slave then a Rcs Corsa Corta master I now have a one finger,featherlight clutch with awesome feel and control which shows up the somewhat unrefined brake action.

So after another wedge spent on a matching Corsa Corta for the brake side I expect to have more refined braking than I'll ever need as my T will never be tracked and my ocd will be satisfied by matching levers.

For anyone reading this and still using axial masters be aware its not only pads that influence braking, control and effort play a major part as well.

I guess brakes are like tyres & oils, everyone has their own personal requirements.

I was skeptical radial would make much difference even after glowing reviews from happy converts,but boy,was I wrong

I first fitted my resealed Factory / MPE? uprated slave cylinder and tried that with the stock axial master,that made a slight difference to lever pressure but not enough to really matter so I decided to just buy a new Oberon which seemed a bit lighter pull.

Next stop,throw caution to the wind and a new RCS 16 Corsa Corta radial master arrived,and after a bit of a faff with the reservoir I bled the system (yet again) and was pleasantly surprised,that changed to well chuffed when I altered the integral lever ratio,now it's one finger light with superb feel. 

Several points to note here,firstly I seem to have discovered a new way of bleeding clutches   I found if you slacken the slave nipple slightly and fit a short length of tube vertically gravity will bleed the line and slave from the res in just a few minutes. Just tighten the nipple once fluid shows in the tube.

Phase 2 involves just slowly working the lever on the bar,every squeeze and hold results in a quickly diminishing flow of bubbles passing upwards through the master into my (clear) tube into the reservoir, once they stopped appearing I just cracked the bleed on the master and purged the air from that and it's pretty much job done.

I think I must have used about 3 standard reservoir fills start to finish and got a 100% air free line in a few minutes.

I wanted to keep my stock Tuono mirrors which I have mounted on extenders so I bought a set of integrated bar caps that matched the RCS spacing ( not the genuine £50 a lever Brembo items) and made a reservoir mount that doubles up from there.

Result, I now have mirrors I can see in perfectly with no peering round my elbows doubling up as a neat and tidy res install. 

Clearance wise they're perfect all round, no issues adjuster wise as the Corsa Corta's span adjust parallel to the bars not @ 90o's like most radials.

On the topic of those HEL radial adapters,they do allow an instant conversion from axial and keeping the same lines BUT beware.   

 The first one I bought direct from Hel and the second from HPS with the radial master,same price so no issue there but be careful where the copper washers seal to the underside of the master as the milled finish was far from satisfactory on one of mine.

During the milling the flats on the bar op they used a small dia cutter and did 2 overlapping passes which should normally be ok as long as the cutter is sharp and the feed is slow enough,in this case the cutter was probably blunt or broken or they were ramping up the feed and had pinged off the last corner of stock and gouged a small divot out of the mounting face.

I bled the system twice before I found where the slight weep was coming from,it took dismantling and the use of a decent magnifying glass to inspect the machining and find the problem.

Que many minutes lapping on a fine whetstone to hone the faces flat enough to seal the copper washers.  

 Not a real problem but still a PITA that shouldn't be necessary if people cared more about QC.

My first decent ride showed up the difference in operation between the new radial clutch side and the stock axial brake master with radial calipers, very diminished feel under braking that I'd never noticed before. It's amazing what you can get used to over time.

Now I just need to find the motivation to install the new RCS 19 Corsa Corta brake master and the bike's pretty much totally finished.

The original hose isnt long enough even with a axial to radial adapter fitted 

The standard length levers hit the fairing  on full lock fortunately i put an alloy stick on wheel weight on the lock stops to stop this ,had one on the other side to stop the r&g brake lever guard hitting the fairing 

I had some hel hoses made to fit although the top part i had done the length as a tuono which is slightly long but works 

Would like a radial for the clutch side but is lower on list of things