Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums General Tech Wont be soon for long...

Hey All:
Noticed my ride was a little squishy on the way in to work yesterday so checked my tires and lo and behold a big fat nail / spike pierced the outside of the tire clear through the middle of it. Looked liked it had been crucified. Poor thing. Air pressure read 25 lbs.
Ok, now I get to check out the tire maint. plan purchased with my TBA back in June of this year. I am certain this is going to be a fiasco! After a rather lengthy, (an hour, two disconnects, I wasnt in the system, blah, blah, blah...), administrative debacle with the plan managers over the phone, they told me to go ahead and get it fixed at the dealer of my choice. I limp along to my Triumph dealer, (Erico Motorsports, Denver, CO), who slapped on a brand new rear tire for me, no questions asked, no cash laid out! How slick is that? (If this were to happen just one more time within the remaining 2.5 yrs in the life of the plan, it almost will have paid for itself).
Also, the boys at Erico reported I had about 10% left on my rear brake pads... Having put 7000 miles on it already and knowing I rarely use the front brakes, seemed to make sense. Thanks Erico!
In my quest to become intimately linked to the "Dream Catcher", (Yep, I named her during a trip through the Painted Desert on the way to the Grand Canyon, an epic story for another time), I decided I would slap on the pads myself. And so I begin with my Haynes manual lightened by my trouble shoot light,by my side. Turns out its a rather ez task, no fuss no muss. At least up to this point, where I have it dis-assembled. (Dont ya love taking shi* apart?!)Iam looking at the pads; one side has remaining visible grooves, the other, (outside pad), is gone, looks like a sheet of paper, perhaps even thinner. Holy crap Batman! What forces came together to cause this conundrum? How is this possible? Why would one pad be soo much thinner than the other? Is this normal? I run my fingers across the disc, seems ok, no serious grooves or anything. All the parts look ok upon cleaning them up... the pistons, (or whatever you call 'em), move.
Can you help to put a brothers mind at ease before I restore the Dream Catchers power to stop again and slap on her pads?

Thanks All!

Most of the force, and therefore friction and wear, happens on the piston side.

They're not different thicknesses when new. At least not the ones I buy.

thanks everyone.

The uneven wear of the pads is a sign that your brake caliper is hanging up. Oil pressure working on the backside of the piston works two ways. It forces the piston out against one pad but it also forces the caliper to move in the opposite direction to the piston. This portion of the caliper is attached to the other pad. If everything is free to move, you should end up with even wear.

PS - My pad wear is even on my rear brakes. Still have lots of life with 9500km on them.

Mine wear almost perfectly even, if yours are not the caliper is most likely dirty or corroded and needs to be cleaned and a light lube such as lithium grease or high temp never seize on the slide points after cleaning to help reduce corrosion and help in the caliper motion.

I just installed a new ebc rear rotor and pads. The piston side pad was thinner than the inner pad. I can't say that I remember this the last time I changed break pads but it was certainly the case this time.