Opinions on disc brake pads?

Uplifting to hair raising motoralchemist to picture your routine conditions of front brake use. I don't get into city rush hours any more but do get to test dual modern and plain old Norton brake in panic too often & like factory Norton pull down better as I can't hardly squeeze the Lockeheed hard enough to cause anything but squeal over 90 so nil skill braking on hwy steeps as log truck, tractor or cattle spill out across my path while my Suzuki duals must be thoughtfully modulated. Below 65 not hard to lock up the Norton but way more controlable than the dual modern in wet and loose and close call traffic conditions. I for one don't want no two finger lock up effort. Surface texture has a lot to do with the pad/rotor friction so will have Norton rotor and pad sand blasted to see if that improves my control of avoiding lock up or too reactive for panic reflex use. Wave rotor say its the edges of pad and rotor lips that develop the main friction factor so one reason for all the holes and wavy cuts and wonder if some advantge to put a hole or 3 in our big ole pads. Will drill Trixie's and let ya know as testing my braking bravery is how I know if I'm up for riding with any spirit on not.

http://s814.photobucket.com/user/xbacksideslider/library/Cracked Norton Disc

Look closely to see the tiny cracks; easier to see in the third pic; they radiated outward from every hole in the second row of drillings.

Relating to this thread, I thought that the cracking had to do with the mystery pads I was using, they were very aggressive and worked great but they did create a lot of heat. They were given to me, unused but without any packaging.

I don't believe single disc is the way to go. On my bike one finger can stop the front wheel at almost any speed. For me, that is the way it has to be. You cannot race waiting for the front brake to work.

Well the reason I ask the question in the first place was because I have a slightly used Norton disc that came drilled from Oldbritts with the large holes in the mounting flange and the three lines of small holes in the area the pads touch. It is less worn than my original one so I thought I would change to new pads when I installed it. Now with this info about the heat from the sintered pads I'm thinking if I do use the drilled disc it may be best to stick with the Ferodo platinum or the AP pads. are those both "non sintered"? I need to look up exactly what a "sintered" pad is. I really don't know. I do remember the guy from vintagebrake.com saying it is NOT a good idea to drill the cast iron rotors such as the stock Norton ones. I guess this is why. If I just road the bike like we old people fornicate I might not be concerned but I occasionally ride my Norton hard enough to hear the banshee's wail. Glenn T.S.

gtsun said:

Well the reason I ask the question in the first place was because I have a slightly used Norton disc that came drilled from Oldbritts with the large holes in the mounting flange and the three lines of small holes in the area the pads touch. It is less worn than my original one so I thought I would change to new pads when I installed it. Now with this info about the heat from the sintered pads I'm thinking if I do use the drilled disc it may be best to stick with the Ferodo platinum or the AP pads. are those both "non sintered"? I need to look up exactly what a "sintered" pad is. I really don't know. I do remember the guy from vintagebrake.com saying it is NOT a good idea to drill the cast iron rotors such as the stock Norton ones. I guess this is why. If I just road the bike like we old people fornicate I might not be concerned but I occasionally ride my Norton hard enough to hear the banshee's wail. Glenn T.S.

Click to expand...

Sintered pads are made with powdered metal -usually iron or bronze -mixed with other compounds like carbon or ceramic materials.
They are usually capable of providing a high co-efficient of friction when they are very hot where other pads will begin to loose their bite. Due to this they will make the caliper and rotor hotter also.
When I tried using them on a racebike with stock rotors and calipers I found I would boil even the highest temp racing fluid on tracks that required heavy braking. Cracks like yours were normal. Better brakes were the next step. Jim

comnoz did you groove these pads and was anything detectabe to do so again?

hobot said:

comnoz did you groove these pads and was anything detectabe to do so again?

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They came with the grooves. Jim

Ok we see grooved slotted clutch pads and plenty of two part disc pads and sintered pads make hi heat so think I'll put Ti dics spacers behind drilled pads in Peel. see EBG HH sintered pads advertised for the modern bike rotors. I can imagine over heating brakes practicing but hard to imagine over heating for racing to me. Only fade issue I could ever induce was on factory Trixie that still had micro bubbles in line but after they cleared could not cause brake fade just tire melting and rotor side rows spoke rusting.