Rear Brake-Pad Wear

[Top Ten]

FYI, 2018 ST non-ES at 18,544 miles. Original factory brake pads up to now.

I just did a front and rear brake inspection on my bike. The front pads still look great and have quite a bit of life still left in them. The rear brake pads were a different story. Looking at the rear brake pads while still on the bike, it is easier to see the inside pad than it is to see the outside pad. The inside pad looked good, but when taking the caliper apart and examining the outside pad, it was obvious the outside pad was wearing at a faster rate than the inside. It is a deceptive situation, because I thought I still had some time miles to go before replacing the pads. My outside pad was down to 0.080"/2.032mm. It was wearing smoothly and consistently.

I have installed a set of new EBC V-Pads on the rear, #FA319/2V, cleaned up the pot, cleaned the caliper, cleaned and re-greased the pins. An easy job.

In Summary: (1) I got 18,544 miles from my rear brake pads. (2) The rear pads are wearing faster than the fronts. (3) My outside rear pad was wearing faster than the inside pad. (4) A visual inspection without disassembly would not have easily detected the un-even wear.

Addendum: I use my front brakes almost exclusively. I am not on the rear brakes often. So I assume the Yamaha linked-brake system is using my rear brakes a lot more than I knew.

 

[bimota]

i get only 12000 out of oem rear pads 26000 miles now on my 3rd set

rob

 

[WJBertrand]

Yeah, it's the linked system. The same scenario was present on my previous Honda ST1300 that also had linked/combined braking system. I too mostly brake using the fronts, adding rear as needed for the situation at hand. At 78K I've worn out 3 sets (probably close to 4) of rear pads but the fronts are still serviceable.

 

[Sierra1]

My ST1300 wore the pads out at the same rate. I was replacing the front/back at 5k miles. The RT was 10k miles for back, and 30k miles for front; or 40k, I can't remember. Is the Tenere's back caliper opposed piston? If not, that would explain the uneven wear. Car pads wear slightly uneven, but they are not opposed piston systems.

 

[Top Ten]

My ST1300 wore the pads out at the same rate. I was replacing the front/back at 5k miles. The RT was 10k miles for back, and 30k miles for front. Is the Tenere's back caliper opposed piston? If not, that would explain the uneven wear. Car pads wear slightly uneven, but they are not opposed piston systems.

The rear brake caliper has only one piston; it is unopposed. The piston is on the outside of the caliper and pushes toward the wheel. But the caliper floats. That's what those greased pins should do, allow even pressure on both pads. I know it may not be a perfect system, so maybe cleaning and re-greasing the pins will help.

 

[~TABASCO~]

You're totally on track and "normal" for this machine. Keep an eye on the rear disc specs as well. The disc wears pretty fast, I have changed out many over the years. I use to have a whole stack of them before I recycled them. After ten years I have never replaced front disc on a Tenere.

"Typically" (NOT always) folks will get the use of two sets of rear pads per each rear disc.

Front pads and disc wear like IRON !

 

[Cycledude]

My previous 2013 rear pads were shot at 25,000 miles. My new 2018 seems to be wearing about the same, it’s at 20,000 right now and the rear pads are nearly worn out, will be replacing them soon. I’m thinking 2 sets of rear pads to 1 set of front pads. Traded the 2013 at 50,000 miles, it was still on its second set of rear pads and original front pads still had decent life left.

 

[TomZ]

With 95K miles on my 2015 ES, I'm on my 3rd rear disc and have gone through many sets of brake pads. The original front discs and pads are still good. The problem with the rear brake is that the floating caliper sometimes sticks and the brake overheats. In one case, the disc was so overheated that warped into a dish shape. So I've learned to occasionally check the rear brake for heating and wiggle the caliper by hand to get it floating properly. I have also rebuilt the caliper with new seals a couple of times and made sure it was properly lubed and that the piston moved smoothly. No sign of warpage in the wheel or axel. I'm starting to wonder if the problem is upstream in the master cylinder, and may rebuild that too.

This is one of very few problems I have had with the 2nd generation ST. Others were a sticky, galled shifter pivot and occasional failure of the cruise control caused by a sticky front brake switch. The rest of the bike is strong and should give many, many more miles of trouble-free riding.

 

[Top Ten]

With 95K miles on my 2015 ES, I'm on my 3rd rear disc and have gone through many sets of brake pads. The original front discs and pads are still good. The problem with the rear brake is that the floating caliper sometimes sticks and the brake overheats. In one case, the disc was so overheated that warped into a dish shape. So I've learned to occasionally check the rear brake for heating and wiggle the caliper by hand to get it floating properly. I have also rebuilt the caliper with new seals a couple of times and made sure it was properly lubed and that the piston moved smoothly. No sign of warpage in the wheel or axel. I'm starting to wonder if the problem is upstream in the master cylinder, and may rebuild that too.

This is one of very few problems I have had with the 2nd generation ST. Others were a sticky, galled shifter pivot and occasional failure of the cruise control caused by a sticky front brake switch. The rest of the bike is strong and should give many, many more miles of trouble-free riding.

I noticed the shop manual recommends replacement of rear brake-pad shims and rear brake-pad supports as a set with the installation of new rear brake pads. I re-used the existing shims and supports, as they all appeared to be fine. What has been your experience?

 

[WJBertrand]

My ST1300 wore the pads out at the same rate. I was replacing the front/back at 5k miles. The RT was 10k miles for back, and 30k miles for front. Is the Tenere's back caliper opposed piston? If not, that would explain the uneven wear. Car pads wear slightly uneven, but they are not opposed piston systems.

Wow, that's some fast wear! I was getting 15-16K on the rear pads and around 20-25K on the fronts on my ST1300. This was using exclusively OEM pads. I noticed with most bikes I've owned that aftermarket pads (EBC, Ferodo, SBS, etc.) wore faster than the OEMs.

The rear is not an opposed piston design on the Super Tenere and none of the ST1300's brakes were opposed design. Some cars have opposed piston calipers, my 2013 Mustang GT, with the Brembo brake package, has four piston opposed front calipers, for example.

 

[Sierra1]

Yeah, the Honda was ridden hard, but was a very good bike. Some EBC pads got installed in one time. I discovered very quickly that what ever compound the pads were did not work well with the rotor material. Brake fade was horrible to the point of dangerous. I am NOT saying anything negative about EBC. Those specific pads were not compatible with the OE rotor. I also learned the same lesson with my 1/2 truck. Used AM pads on the OE rotors. . . . and destroyed the rotors. Those two lessons are why I stick with OE.

 

[Sierra1]

. . . . That's what those greased pins should do, allow even pressure on both pads. . . .

It's more like "even-ish". IIRC, the pad the piston pushes on directly wears more than the other. Totally normal.

 

[TomZ]

I noticed the shop manual recommends replacement of rear brake-pad shims and rear brake-pad supports as a set with the installation of new rear brake pads. I re-used the existing shims and supports, as they all appeared to be fine. What has been your experience?

The shop manual recommends many replacements at intervals that seem overcautious --washers, o-rings, locknuts, crush seals and spark plugs to name a few. Sort of a CYA I suppose, but you have to judge for yourself where these do not affect safety or performance. Recommended lubrication I do follow. I have replaced brake pad shims and support pads after the brake overheated. With the history of rear brake problems on this bike, I occasionally remove, clean and re-lube the caliper to make sure everything is moving smoothly. (It still sticks anyway).