Brakes

[charismaticmegafauna]

<snip>How long a brake pad lasts is a very subjective question, the answer is it depends on conditions, how you ride, and WHERE you ride...Brakes are too important to even risk it in my opinion... It costs nothing to check em....

Riding style and environment apart -- brake pads (like tires) have a 'shelf life'.

About 5 years is the industry standard -- I'm told. They're made of substances that are constantly out-gassing and, after time, become something different (and maybe less?).

Yamaha's OEM pads appear excellent, to me -- great stopping power and long life (easy on the rotors, too).

 

[boomerang]

9200? You gotta be kidding me! You must be hearing things.
Fronts should last 30-70k. My rears lasted 120k.

Yeah I did a little better inspection and they look fine. They should have several thousand miles left in them. The noise went away and all is well. Must of just been some road grit. The rotor's are good, no grooves, lines or ridges.

 

[GPRIDER]

I had 44,000 on my 04 before I crashed. My pad still had quite a bit of miles left on them. Geezer has a good basic philosophy.

GP

 

[Harald]

I just changed my rear pads at 24k because one side of one pad was down to the wear dot. The fronts will go just a little bit longer, but not much because one of the 8 pads is nearing the bottom of the groove (and others look almost new). There's some serious uneven wear going on up front, but I've seen this on other bikes.

BTW, I was surprised that the rear was so worn because I'm not one of those guys that is afraid of the front brake. I generally use both brakes for stopping, but do use the back alone often for parking lot maneuvers or minor speed adjustments in stop and go traffic. Clearly I use the back brake more than I thought. And I obviously use both brakes a lot compared to other riders due to lots of stop and go highway or city riding.