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JimLor

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JUST A QUESTION ON BRAKES!

Noticed just the other day that my front brakes squeak at low speed. Not while applying the brakes, but while free wheeling - in fact, stops when I squeeze the lever. Question - how many miles do most folks get outta their brake pads? I've got 7.2k and wouldn't think they'd be ready to replace yet. What do most go with, OEM paks

 
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Some squeaking is normal. Especially if you've ridden a lot in the rain and have picked up small amounts of debris between the pads and rotors. No worries there. If it bothers you, remove the caliper, pads, clips, and pins and clean them up with brake cleaning fluid and an old toothbrush. Also "Westley's Blech White" at the auto store works very well. Please protect your skin, face, and eyes when using these products!!!!!! Can't stress that enough.

I am hesitant to recommend a brand of pads as they are all really quite good.

Yamaha R1 2002 pads will fit and have a higher friction rating. Any aftermarket with the "HH" or "HH+" designation will be good replacement pads offering better stopping power.

I've tried SBC, Galfer, Carbone Lorainne, and stock on my '03. I like the Galfer metallic/carbon the best, but they are matched to the Galfer rotors I'm using. They heat up quickly and provide stunning performance without any unusual wear.

Wear will depend on how heavy you and your bike is, your mix of sport vs. touring riding, your riding style, etc. Mine wore out at 8K, but in reality only 1 pad out of 4 was badly worn (due to sticking calipers and too much crud in the pad clips/pins). I ride fast twisties often and brake quite, so a pure touring riding will get much more life out of them. Also am using wave rotors which reduce pad life somewhat.

I would say on the average if the calipers, pads, pad clips, and pad pin are kept clean, you should get about 15K miles before replacement. The problem is unless you maintain these very often, gunk will buildup on the pins and clips, causing pad drag and more wear. I try to maintain them twice a year.

Try to clean it up and see if the squeaking persists. If you hear any grinding or squealing, that may be a sign on worn out pads or bad bearings..but some squeaking is fine.

 
I've got over 18K miles on my stock pads and haven't noticed and decrease in performance and there's still lots of pad left

 
Yamaholic - thanks for the reply. I will take the calipers, etc apart and clean them up. It'll give me the experience and I'll bleed them while I'm at it. Thanks again.

 
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