Topic: Wet braking performance or the lack there-of

[Garage_guy_chris]

Well got caught in a good downpour on my CB450 for the first time tonight.  Surprise surprise the brakes went from working fine (1 finger brakes dry) to (4 finger can't pull hard enough and still not stopping wet) 

The brakes are as follows
-cross drilled rotor i think 80-90 or so 7/32" holes?
-EBC FA-13 standard pads
-Rebuilt CB500 caliper (new piston, seal)
-Stainless braided one-piece brake line
-CBR600F3 master cylinder  1/2" (12.7mm) bore

I knew the brakes went down hill in the rain but holy dangerous. anybody used different pads or different setup with stock components that didnt suck so bad in the rain

[ekpent]

Be nice to have a stock set-up to compare--  Sound like it should be better. What do you think was the weak link, the pads or the rotor ?

[seanbarney41]

Huh...I thought a drilled rotor was supposed to cure this problem?  I have definately noticed that an undrilled rotor is terrible in the rain.  It actually feels like you go faster when you hit the brakes ...until the pads clear the water and the rotor heats up...scary.

[HondaMan]

It's those pads.

I even have a particular comment about them in my book, on page IIIB-9. They almost killed me during a Denver rainstorm.

Find some pads that have, at the VERY least, sintered bronze bits in the pucks. You can likely look at yours right now and find an opaque, dark, smooth, solid, granite-like surface on them that will last many thousands of miles, because IT DOESN'T WEAR OFF TO STOP THE BIKE.

Better yet: dig around and find some asbestos ones. The fibers that will fall off those pucks will only hurt the lungs of the bureaucrats who work for places like EPA or DOT, which might even help the rest of us out...

...end of rant...

[Wobbly]

I use the original Honda ones and never had a problem. I was riding in heavy rain for 9 hours on the German Autobahn last week. No problem--other than the water stood in my boots. Although since last year I have a drilled, dual-disc setup, I never had a problem with the original single setup, and I never used anything but Honda pads--for 37 years. Again, Honda parts work for me.

[Garage_guy_chris]

I had a feeling it was likely the pads. I know EBC has the FA-13V's which are sintered. only problem is price typically there $35+ a set...     

just one quick question are more aggressive sintered pads gonna chew up the rotors

I think i have collected enough caliper's and rotors to do  dual 77-78 cb750 42mm calipers on both my 450 and 750 this means 4 drilled disks = about 400 holes in that stubborn stainless    and 4 sets of pads if i went with the earlier mentioned pads $140 worth of pads

the other newly manufactured pads available are any body had good luck with these?:

EBC          Standard    Sintered
finned       FA-12         FA-12V
smooth     FA-13         FA-13V
* bad pads not re-useing
Vesrah       
finned       VD-101      SD-101
smooth     VD-102      SD-102

SBS
finned       502-HF  < may be ceramic
smooth     501-HF  < may be ceramic

Cruzin-image (on ebay, $120 836cc kits)
Smooth     CI-102BP  < only $7 a set?!?!?


   

[PeWe]

I use these, OK so far. CB750 K6 (same pads as all older CB750's)
SBS 502HF
It took a while of hard braking to get them to work as a bike stopper.
Photo after installation

EDIT: I had to grind the paint off from the sides of the pads when they were too tight in the caliper.

[trueblue]

I had a feeling it was likely the pads. I know EBC has the FA-13V's which are sintered. only problem is price typically there $35+ a set...     

just one quick question are more aggressive sintered pads gonna chew up the rotors

I think i have collected enough caliper's and rotors to do  dual 77-78 cb750 42mm calipers on both my 450 and 750 this means 4 drilled disks = about 400 holes in that stubborn stainless    and 4 sets of pads if i went with the earlier mentioned pads $140 worth of pads

I see you complain about price a lot.  I also see you complaining about how your cheap pads don't work real well in the wet.  When it comes to brakes, shocks, and tyres you get what you pay for.  The real question is, how much is it worth to you to not get run over? 

[Dunk]

Agreed, don't see the problem with $35 brake pads. Seems pretty cheap really. IIRC I used the EBC sintered pads on mine. They are noisy but seem to stop pretty well. Only got caught in a downpour once and didn't notice a lack of braking power but I'm always easy on brakes in the rain because I worry about locking the front. I'd be thrilled to get rid of the squeal though and I'd be willing to pay a lot more than $35 for that. I do have an OLD set of new pads that I think are asbestos, I may try those.

Don't recall what I paid for the EBC pads but it's trivial compared to the total cost of restoring the bike. I did not cheap out on anything suspension/wheels/bearings/brakes. Brake pads are cheaper than hospital bills and we're talking about $35 pads, not junky $100 shocks vs good $200 shocks vs really good $400 shocks.

[Garage_guy_chris]

Thinking about it you guys are right its totally worth the $35 or $70 (For dual calipers).

My 750 project has made me very broke over the last 6 months so i have to budget and be careful how much Im spending and try to save when i can. 

[strynboen]

sbs are/vas danisk..they vas named svendborg brake systems..but get international think some svedish put money in,,and took kontroll..but still heigh kvality

[Retro Rocket]

Thinking about it you guys are right its totally worth the $35 or $70 (For dual calipers).

My 750 project has made me very broke over the last 6 months so i have to budget and be careful how much Im spending and try to save when i can.

Never ever save on safety my man....

[strynboen]

i hold the brake light inn  in some intervalls..it dry the disc up..if you light breakes in evry 2 minuts just for some sekunds...then the full breake power are there in sekunds vhen needet

[HondaMan]

I had a feeling it was likely the pads. I know EBC has the FA-13V's which are sintered. only problem is price typically there $35+ a set...     

just one quick question are more aggressive sintered pads gonna chew up the rotors

Not any time soon: my rotor is worn 0.48mm after 140k miles with sintered pads for almost the whole trip!

...except the month I had those EBC pads, and then I also had dual disks! When I got the sintered pads back, I also went back to one disc (for other reasons), and never had any trouble stopping, even on high mountain roads at (illegal) speed.

Honda used to say to replace the disk at 0.5mm wear, but since all their new disks are 2mm thinner than ours are, I think they were just being conservative?