Brake pads for GS1000

[debby]

Brutus is going to need new pads soon. BikeBandit wants $81 for a pair of OEM front pads and $43 for the rear! So I'm thinking aftermarket, which is more like $25 per pair. Or evil-bay, where I can get old NOS aftermarket pads for like $10.

But what to get? There's organic pads and there's sintered metallic pads. Any opinions on which is better? Would the metallic ones wear out my rotors? Would the ancient but cheap ebay pads still be any good?

Debby
Brutus - 79 GS1000N
Suzy - 77 GS550B

[KGB]

I went with sintered pads on both my 1000S and 1100E.
No big wear on the discs.
And as you've seen lots cheaper.

Amy be agood time to replace the fluid also


Still work well in the wet.
technology has come along way in 25 years

[Hoomgar]

Debby, the older pads sold on eBay should be fine as long as they were not stored wrong or damaged. Most of that stuff comes off a warehouse shelf and is fine. I have bought from many sellers on there and all pads have always been good.

I find that Vesrah pads work best on my GS1000 and if you look up rdracervirtuallyjunk on eBay you can just email him and ask for some. He has them and will most likely ask 10 dollars or less for them plus a few bucks shipping. I have bought them from him recently and been pleased.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=4541439020

There are others too but this guy shipped fast and was really friendly. He has a funny web site.

Hope that helps

[debby]

Is this forum great or what? My questions answered in minutes!

So Vesrahs it shall be. Hoomie, I'll see if your ebay dude can set me up.

Thanks guys!

Debby

[KEITH KRAUSE]

The brand I have now, EBC, seems to work well. Just thought I'd add that.

[Hoomgar]

The brand I have now, EBC, seems to work well. Just thought I'd add that.

I have some of them in stock too.

Keith, next time you put fronts on, try the Vesrah pads. You should find a noticable difference in how well they grip the rotor.

[KEITH KRAUSE]

The brand I have now, EBC, seems to work well. Just thought I'd add that.

I have some of them in stock too.

Keith, next time you put fronts on, try the Vesrah pads. You should find a noticable difference in how well they grip the rotor.

Tried the Vesrah's. The were "ribbed"? They were the first brand I tried after the stock ones wore out. They were supposed to mimimize squealing. They squealed worse than the stock pads.
The EBC's and my drilled rotors work fine now.

[Hoomgar]

The brand I have now, EBC, seems to work well. Just thought I'd add that.

I have some of them in stock too.

Keith, next time you put fronts on, try the Vesrah pads. You should find a noticable difference in how well they grip the rotor.

Tried the Vesrah's. The were "ribbed"? They were the first brand I tried after the stock ones wore out. They were supposed to mimimize squealing. They squealed worse than the stock pads.
The EBC's and my drilled rotors work fine now.

Ahh! Got ya. Yeah maybe the rotors have something to do with it. My experience is exactly the oposite. EBC first, squeaked and carried on, lots of dust, stopped OK. Vesrah's went on because I couldn't take it anymore long before the EBC's wore out and they are silent, a lot less dust and stop noticably better. These were none ribbed. They are still on that bike. I currently have a new set that is ribbed like you mentioned. I'll be putting them on when I go to dual disk up front and drilled rotors. We'll see how it pans out. Maybe I should stock another set of EBC's awhile to go with the set I have in case I need to swap them out.

Thx for the heads up.

[debby]

Well now I'm confused :?

Vesrah or EBC??? I do have drilled rotors and the pads in there now do squeal...

Debby

[Hoomgar]

Debby, the only thing I can say to that is this.

My info is right on given my setup. My rotors were not drilled. Keith's advice is just as if not even more valuable than mine if you ask me and he has even more years of experience so given all that I would say go with EBC's then.

I know they work good as far as stopping the bike. For me the Vesrah pads worked better. Mechanics of old UJM's like ours in this area recommend the Vesrah over other brands too. But EBC is a close second in my opinion.

I really don't know what would work best for you because although we have the same bike we do not have the same rotor/brake setup. Your brakes are more like Keith's.

There that helped huh? LOL!

I sure hope whatever you go with works first time!

Anyone else with experience, opinions?

For what it is worth, I will be using the Vesrah pads on my dual disk drilled rotor setup when I put it together. And it will be the Vesrah pads with the ribs. But that will be a while so unfortunately your going down this path before me.

Let me know what ends up working for you. Sorry I couldn't be more help.

[KEITH KRAUSE]

Debby, I think you'll be happy with either brand.
When I tried the Vesrah's, that was way back in the early 80's. At the time, I had a lot of squeal and Vesrah claimed they helped stop squealing. They didn't. I took them off and never put them back on. I can't say much more about them because I barely ran them. I went with genuine Suzuki pads until my restoration. The Suzuki pads squealed too. :roll:
I learned since then that my squeal was mostly glazed (shiny) rotors. Drilling my rotors has helped a lot. So I can't really give credit to the EBC pads regarding the squealing stopping. But the EBC's work fine for me. I think the Vesrah's would too.
I may be wrong about this, but I "think'' I've heard the Vesrah's are a little harder than the EBC's. I don't think there's a huge difference. If they are harder, the only negative could be the tendency to gall the rotors. You have to inspect for any grooves wearing into the rotors. Of course, drilled rotors are supposed to provide a cleaning action to at least minimize galling. If the drilled notches/holes have good sharp edges, you're usually OK. It's when someone de-burrs the holes that you lose that cleaning action and galling happens much easier.