Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums General Tech Excessive brake wear on young bike

I love my 2006 Bonnie, BUT...I've had two bizarre factory defects covered under warranty (ignition sender failure, carb overflow) and now, at the tender age of 5,000 miles, I discover that both my brakes are shot and have chewed up rotors beyond specs. Although still under warranty, Triumph claims "not their fault - rider style is the cause." I'm an easy rider, and this is bogus. Has anyone else had problems with unusually rapid brake wear?

Certainly have on the rear brake only got about 10,000kms front brake with twin disk got about double certainly worth checking every month

Blessings
Nigel

over 15,000 miles and my front are still in good shape on my 2nd set of rear. That being said they are correct about riding style in most cases,not saying if it is or isn't here since I never saw you ride. But lets say for the sake of argument you unknowingly rest your foot on the break pedal enough to make it drag some. That would wear your rear break out quickly. Same for resting your fingers on the front lever and front break wear. Hard riding and hard breaking will wear them faster too. I use my engine to do quite a bit of deceleration and only break near the end of my stop in many cases.

I think it takes the first set of pads on a new bike to bed into the discs/rotors, after that you should see some mileage on the pads.. But like everything if you use them hard they are going to wear out quicker. Using your engine as a brake as well help pads last longer.

The rear brake comes with very soft pads for a number of reasons, and they wear out in short order. Unless you ride very agressively, the front should last at least 3X longer. In any case, you will find a good solution here,

http://www.newspeedmaster.com/html/ebc_brakes.html

Now, a very long time ago, I would have suggested that they may have accidentally gotten a master cylinder for a drum brake and installed it, (drum brake master cylinders have an extra valve that holds some residual pressure on the brake) but I doubt they even make such a thing anymore.

I got my break pads from Eddy for less than newspeedmaster wants for them, got them fast too.

Had the rear pads as good as shot after only about 5k miles. Decided to check them out thinking they'll be fine and totally shocked to see almost nil pad left. Fronts had plenty but replaced both in the end.
I had the same feeling about the first set bedding in the roters and while this happens it uses up the pad quicker. This is exactly what happened on my mountian bike (with disc brakes), initially done in a set of pads over one weekend in the Forest of Dean, the set I replaced them with lasted 3 or 4 times longer.
While I replaced them I slightly lowerd the rear brake pedel just to make sure I wasn't loading it while riding.
New pads have been in for about 1K, can't see too much wear yet but It's worth keeping an eye on them.... I guess just like the pre-ride checks say...

L

On my 05 speedmaster the fronts lasted about 9,000 on stock pads and rear lasted bout 4,500. Im now at 19,500 on my speedo and second set rear pads look good. My front rotors need to be replaced per 5mm min thickness(going with some floating rotors)but the sintered metal pads I put on ftom NB.com still look good. I was harder on my brakes the first 5,000 miles, especially the rear, compared to now. I don't have much stop and go (CA center third lane rider when necessary)and I use gears to do most slowing for stops.
As everyone has said its hard to say its not your riding style that mostly affects the brakes. The sintered metal pads sure decreased the amount of brake dust on the wheels especially the front.
I got my rear pads changed out just in time to not get into the rotor with metal on metal. I swear the pad was paper thin on one side.
Thats too bad you got into your rotor. They aren't as cheap as my old ford rotors.
Speaking of rotors, do any of you all have experience with the floating rotors. I believe they are less than new stock ones.
Gary

Ooohh , you let 'em get so thin that they chewed up the rotors ? Bad , very bad . ALWAYS check the depth of meat on your pads when you do a walk around look . Didn't you hear them scrubbing ?