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brakes & stuff





Because stopping is done better when the motorcycle handles it.





Over the years I've played around with so many brake components that I couldn't begin to remember them all. This page is dedicated to the ones which stood out.





brake pads



Tried one, tried them all, right? As far as brands, yes. At least that's been my experience when comparing the same types of pads. Without a scientific analysis of wear patterns across various types of riding conditions, who knows? They're all the same to me.


Where they differ is the pad material, and I've tried them all. Over time I settled on sintered metal for rear brakes and the super-sticky compounds for front brakes.


Front Brake Pads

Back in my super frugal days, I usually defaulted to long-lasting products. Sintered metal was just that for brake pads. They lasted a good long time but weren't as sticky and responsive as organic compounds. For many years I suffered through what I thought were mushy front brakes on KTMs, when the real culprit (in my opinion) was pad material. Once I switched to organic compounds, my front brakes became strong again and I never looked back. The pads don't last long in extreme mud, but I came to realize it's more important to feel safe on the bike. Stopping power comes mostly from the front end, so I was willing to replace pads more often, knowing I could make the bike stop on a dime with minimal effort.


Rear Brake Pads

On the contrary, I have stuck to sintered metal for rear brake pads. I never felt the need for super-responsiveness at the rear, like locking up the rear wheel with the touch of a feather. Just enough to get the job done was fine with me, so it's sintered metal for life.



Brake rotors





Many types of brake rotors have graced the wheels of my motorcycles. As of today, the standard wavy kind which seem to come with most European bikes are fine by me, front and rear. But it wasn't always that way.


When I first began riding and racing, rotors were all perfectly round and came with holes drilled into the braking surface. Those holes helped cool the rotors, but they also turned the rotors into brake pad grinders in muddy conditions. The holes would fill with mud and work over the pads so much that one ride or race would be the end of them.


Solid rotors were designed to alleviate this issue, and they worked very well to extend pad life. The compromise was cooling. Solid rotors heated up more than drilled rotors.


During the peak of my Illinois mud riding days, I mostly used solid rear rotors. In an fit of extreme spending weakness, I even bought a spare front wheel for my KX250 and mounted a solid rotor, just for those horrible mud races that make short work of brake pads.


Then came wavy brake rotors. At first I thought the waves were just a goofy style gimmick. Then I bought a KTM with these rotors. I don't understand how or why the waves make brake pads last longer in muddy conditions, but they just do. Since then, I've never had a thought of changing a rotor on any motorcycle that came with the waves.


Oversized Rotors

For many years I scoured eBay for deals, and once found one in an oversized front rotor kit for my KX250. For $60 delivered to my door, I gave it a chance.


The kit came with the oversized rotor and a bracket that replaced the KX's stock caliper carrier. The bracket used the stock slider bolt and the little rubber booties. The bottom line is, it will stop you in a hurry. However, I can't say it was a huge improvement over the stock front brake, because the KX's brake was pretty good to begin with. For $60, compared to around $300 new, it was a good upgrade but I probably wouldn't buy one of these brand new. The only real downside is that these larger rotors aren't always compatible with rotor guards.





Oversized front brake rotor kit on the Kawasaki KX250



Brake Rotor Guards





Looking for Protection



Over the years I experimented with front brake rotor guards, thinking they might help keep out mud and trail junk from the rotor and brake pads. Any type of riding which included tall grass or weeds would sometimes cause plant life to wrap around the brakes and hang up in the pads, so a guard seemed to be a good solution.







Above are the two styles that were common back in the days of my experimentation. Both are Acerbis brands mounted to KX250s. The top photo shows the kind which must be removed before the front wheel can be taken off. I didn't really like the extra hassle of that, so when Acerbis came out with the style shown in the second photo above, I bought one. The newer-style guard didn't interfere with wheel removal, which was nice.


The updated Acerbis version came in two pieces: the plastic guard and a metal mounting device which replaces the stock wheel spacer. The plastic guard stays very close to the rotor, which keeps out plenty of trail junk and doesn't make the front end any wider than stock, which can be helpful when navigating deep ruts. I used this on my 2004 KX250 and liked it. One advantage is the plastic guard can be replaced if it cracks or wears out. A disadvantage is that the metal mounting part uses its own wheel spacer. All wheel spacers eventually end up with grooves which reduce the ability for seals to separate the dirt and grit from the wheel bearings. I ended up selling the KX250 before the grooves became an issue (although they were becoming evident), so I'm not sure what could be done if the wheel spacer needed to be replaced. It was pretty much integrated into the metal mounting device.

​

Rear Rotor Guards

The advent of affordable CNC machines has added many new types of aluminum rotor guards, both front and rear. When I moved to Missouri in 1998 and began riding in the rocks, I invested in a cheap rear aluminum guard which mounted to the brake caliper. The guard itself was strong enough, but its mounting points were weak. I bought a few of these guards for various bikes, and in almost every case the caliper mounts eventually broke off.


After that I switched to the high-priced Scotts Performance guard, which is one solid hunk of aluminum:





This is the best guard I've ever used. It's the thickest and also the most expensive. The guard is integrated into the brake caliper and mounted through the axle. Nothing will break on this behemoth.


Other companies have copied the through-axle design of the Scotts unit, but for reasons unclear to me, the "fin" is bolted on, like this Enduro Engineering guard for my Beta 300RR:





The bolts are the weak point, and I don't understand why they're even part of this to begin with. Eventually the fin will break off, as happened with one of my KTMs many years ago, and then you're stuck buying a replacement. This would never happen on the Scotts version.


If money is no object, get the Scotts, or investigate some of the newer competitors.



Brake Snake





Protection from snapped brake pedals.



You've seen these...a piece of wire, more or less, which connects to the brake pedal and the frame. It's designed to keep a tree branch or other trail object from wedging itself between the pedal and the frame and bending or snapping off part of the pedal.


My recommendation? Save your money. Mine didn't survive its first ride. I wasn't sure if I installed it wrong, but a couple strands of safety wire work just as well and cost about 1% of the brake snake. This was a one-and-done product which, fortunately, didn't cost that much.



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