New Brake Pads on my S83

I

iluvcanadians

New member
Well, after hearing how easy it is to change brake pads on an S83 I decided to give it a try.

I had over 8600 miles on the original pads. Some were surprised I got that many miles out of them. Well this is what I found.

The front brakes - outside pad about 50% - inside pad about 20%
The rear brakes - outside pad about 80% (almost looked new) - inside pad was gone 0%. No pad left at all! Don't understand the differences in wear.

I replaced the pads with DP Sintered Metal Pads. OMG what a difference! Brake feel and performance reminds me of some sport bikes I've had and/or ridden.

After getting the pads seated in had a good day of hard riding. No brake dust, no brake noise and unbelievalbe brake performance.

Changing the pads was as easy as I'd heard also. No need to remove the calipers. Remove the cover shield on both calipers. The back one is a black plastic, pops right off. The front one is a metal chrome piece held on by two phillips screws. With needle nose pliers remove two spring clips, two retaining pins. Two metal rod pins slip right out freeing the pads to be lifted directly up and out. This is the same for the front and rear brakes. Before lifting out the old pads I loosened the caps on the brake fluid resevoirs front and rear and applied pressure against (between the two pad) the pads to push the caliper pistons back to make room for the new pads. Once the old pads are out simply drop in the new pads. Held new pads in position while replacing the two rod pins. Replace the retaining pins (cotter pins) and replace the spring clips. Snap on the rear cover plate and reattach the front cover plate. Tighten up the caps on the brake resevoirs and all done! Took all of 30 minutes. Next time think I can do them in about 15 minutes.

One of my complaints about the S83 was poor brake performance, brake noise and lots of brake dust. The factory pads just plain suck! I wish I'd changed over to these pads when I first got the bike! Unbelievable difference.


*edited to correct a typo*
 
Great job! I only have about 200 miles on my new S50 and the squeal on the front brakes is horrible. I want to run and hide at stoplights. Glad to know it is as easy as everyone says it is. I'll be doing mine soon.

Ride safe and enjoy!

-Dave
 
I just did front brake pads on my Intruder 800 today, using EBC pads. Took about 5 minutes, and it was the easiest task on my list (also did a complete clutch job with plates, steel plates, and springs plus a new battery). The stock pads really stink, both for their squeeks and the poor performance. Any quality aftermarket pad will be a big improvement. For all you guys with S50s and S83s, this should be your first modification tot he bike, and it will be the best $20-$40 you spend.

A word of caution about the Sintered pads: the rotors are not designed for sintered pads, so the pads will wear out the rotor fairly quickly. Each time you change the pads put a micrometer on the rotors, and when they get to minimum thickness (it is stamped on the rotor) replace them with aftermarket rotors intended for sintered pads.
 
I g0t 75,000+ mile out of the stock rotors with non-sintered pads, and only about 25,000-30,000 with sintered pads. For me, that's less than a year, so I stopped using sintered pads.
 
Thanks for the comparison. Were the pads you used that caused such excessive wear on your rotors DP Pads? Thanks for any further info.

I posed this info to DP the manufacturers of the pads I selected. This is the response I got.
 
I used a variety of brands...I don't recall if I ever used DP or not. But 'sintered' means 'bits of metal pressed into the pads', and the OEM rotors are not designed for metal on metal contact. Maybe their's are super-secret-special, I can't say. But I use non-sintered with an OEM rotor, then eventually upgrade to sintered pads and an aftermarket rotor intended for sintered pads.
Most people will never put 30,000 on thier motorcycle, and if they do the rotor will warp or get scored before it wears down, so I guess it doesn't really matter if the rotor wears or not. I ride 40,000 a year and have not owed a car 5 years out of the last 20, so I am more sensitive than most I guess.
 
OK thanks, was just wondering if you had an experience with DP pads contrary to what they advertise/claim. So far I'm totally pleased with them. No noise, no dust and unbelievable stopping power for this style bike. Brake feel and control are night and day difference. Will see how long my rotors last. Will give me a good reason to upgrade them too if necessary. I'm sure I ride these style bikes harder than manufacturers figure the average rider that buys these style bikes do. Otherwise they wouldn't sell them with such crappy tires and brakes. I'm going to have to move back into the sport/sport touring lines although the M109R may be promising. :mrgreen:
 
Yup, I flog my Intruder pretty hard also. Upgraded brakes, Metzeler or Dunlop tires, and progressive shocks make it a real performer, handling the twisties MUCH better than stock. Now if I can just stop grinding the footpegs down...
 
Back
Top