Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums General Tech Need Opinion on Rear Brake Pads

My bike's in the shop for unrelated work when I receive a voice mail from my mechanic asking if I want him to install new rear brake pads. I can't call back until Tues as they are closed Sun/Mon. Should I be leary? The bike has 7500 miles. I'm not hard on my brakes. It's not making any noises and they are working fine. Whatdaya think?

I would at least have them measure the pad thickness, as the rears seem to wear out very fast. Even for those of us who don't think we're hard on the brakes. I certainly didn't think I was, but they were gone before 7000 miles...

How many miles on them? If they're stock pads and they have over 4000 miles on them, they could be worn out.
Ask him how much to do it and decide from there. It's not a hard job - you can do it yourself if the labor is too steep. If you give them the ok, tell them to save the old pads so you can see how bad they are.

He could show you any old pads, if he wanted to - unless you see them on the bike yourself, I'd be wary. I have over 6700 miles on my SM, and still have over 50% left on rear pads. Lot of distance riding, though. If you trust him, and don't have interest in doing it yourself, he could be right. No two people ride the same, even on the same horse.

Thank you Grump, Bayern and Blackwind. The consensus seems to be that It's no surprise that I need brake pads after 7500 miles. I'm not setup to do the work so hopefully the labor won't be too steep.

As long as they are not worn out completly, I would wait and get a new set from Brent at NewBonneville.com. A FAR superior product. Don't use your back brake for a while until you get them put on. I only use my back brake for emergency stops anyway!

My rear pads were gone at 6800 miles.........I put new pads on in about 15 minutes....there's a page with pics on changing pads somewhere....Also sintered vs not....my dealer told me sintered pads stand a greater chance of scoring the rotor......If he's gona charge ya more than $20.00 labor to put the pads on...I'd do it my self...

Here's a good site for maintaining your Triumph.....I'll post the brake installation link...http://members.bluefrog.com/~pwhitbec/Triumph/brakes1.html

Paul,
I know this is an older post but thought I'd jump in anyway. I'm a rank apprentice when it comes to mechanics on the bike but I'm learning. I changed my brakes last week and it was a fairly easy job that shouldn't strike fear into even a novices heart.

Point being, I have almost 13,000 on them. There essentially were NO rear pads. I was stopping myself partially on metal. My fronts were a little better but under a mm of material left.

so, seeing as how they are essentially GONE at 13,000, they'd be half gone at 7500. I do a lot of engine braking so that may have given me a little more life but still would think that between 6500 and 8500 sounds about right.

Pat's instructions are great even though they don't include any parts about drinking beer like his carb pages do. And once you do the rears, the fronts are a snap. And for $60.00, a pretty cheap investment in safety.

My tuppence worth.

BB

And the nice thing about our brakes is you don't have to pull the wheel or repack the hubs AND only one set of brakes per axle!

Edited: Except for Speedmasters front wheels...