Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums General Tech Rear brake replacement

I took my America in for it's annual safety inspection and the inspector said that I need to replace the rear brakes "very soon".
Question 1 - The bike has slightly over 5000 miles on it. Should the rear brakes need changing already?
Question 2 - How much should I expect something like this to cost from a stealer?

Thanks in advance.

If you do it yourself, its easy, it should be about 35 bucks for pads. 5000 miles? I had a little more than that for my first replacement, but not much.
You dont need to open the valve to replace them, just squeeze the pistons back in the caliper with a C-clamp or something, no bleeding required.

The pads are easy to replace and the mileage people get out of them depends on your riding style. A lot are replacing around the 7000 mile mark. I have over 10,000 mostly city miles and ride fairly aggressive, yet there is quite a bit of pad left. I use the gears alot and use the front and rear brake together always, with more front brake.

Thank you both. Unfortunetly I'm an electronics guy and pretty inept with wrenching so unless it's a stupidly simple procedure, I'll be paying someone to do it. I just thought it odd that it would need to be replaced that soon. Learn something new every day!
I didn't understand what the inspector was pointing too but I have to assume it was the pads, I'll probably hit the dealer to be sure.
Any ideas of how much I should expect to pay?

should be less than $100, but I'm no shop estimator

If you're mechanically inclined and have the tools required it's a stoopidly simple procedure.
If you aren't, then it's better to have the dealer do it...

However, brakes are an important part of life on 2 wheels - you may want to get familiar with the concept just in case your dealer's mechanic is stoopidly simple.

And btw, if you got 5000 miles out of stock rear pads you did good.

Pick up the pads from Fast Eddy and bring the bike over. I'm ASSuming you're still in NoVA of course.

I have everything necessary to do the job. I replaced "my rears" not too long ago, when "my front's" failed inspection. I figured I might as well do them both. Very easy job by the way. I got just shy of 8k out of the front's.

As you know I have a pretty bizarre work-schedule, so we'll have to coordinate a day and time ......

Up to you.

Regards,

Tom

5000 miles on my speedy and I JUST changed the pads.

If you can follow directions then you can change out the pads in about 20 mins. The cost then will only be about 35-40 bucks.

Dinqua has a STEP by STEP write up on this.

Thanks to all. Tom, I sent you a PM.

Noticed no one mentioned the Dinqua site, as I used his very good pictoral instructions to do mine. I also was going to let the dealer do it but he was ridiculous in price, as was the tire replacement which he'll not do again.
So, I bought the pads and followed the Dinqua site and it's pretty simple. I did bleed them a couple times and took them on and off a few times because I felt the rotor might be too warm. Now they are fine and it was 100 dollars cheaper than the dealer. Now I'm warming up to attempt the fronts soon.

5500 on my America. Very easy job to do as was said earlier. DIY and spend the leftover on an accessory.

I suggest getting some high temp anti-seize lube and clean and lube the pins that the caliper slides on when you do the job. Doesn't require any extra disassembly , you have to remove them anyway to change the pads.