Best brakes?

[Shaft]

So, after more than 30 years of riding and maintaining bikes, I find myself changing my brake pads for what, I think, is just the third time!

The first time was in 1983, when sintered pads were what everyone was raving about, so I fitted a set of EBC's finest to my RD350 and they were truly shocking; so bad in fact, they indirectly led to me having an accident so serious, I'm lucky to be here at all.

The second time was 5 years later, when, having learned my lesson, I fitted a set of Honda pads to my (ridiculously overcomplicated) VT500.

Now, 25 years on, technology will have changed, so I'm asking the collective BCF brain cell what I should be buying for my 1983 Z1100.

This is not exactly a sports bike and it's a heavy old lump, so I don't want anything that takes any kind of warming up; I also know it's an antique, so there might not be much (or any) choice, but does anyone have any suggestions?

Cheers
____________________
Things get better with age; I'm close to being magnificent........
20 RE Interceptor, 83 Z1100A3, 83 GS650 Katana
WooHoo, I'm a Man Point Millionaire! https://www.bikechatforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=234035

[Noxious89123]

I didn't find EBC pads to be as good as people hype them to be.

I'd just stick with OEM brake pads. I find that "proper" Honda/Nissin pads are better than cheap EBC pads.
____________________
'06 Honda CBR125RW-6 ~ '00 Honda CBR600F-Y ~ '07 Honda CBR600RR-7 ~ Bikeless
'53 Ford Ka 1.3 ~ '03 Vauxhall Astra SRi 1.8 ~ '52 Vauxhall Astra SRi 2.2 ~ '53 Vauxhall Astra GSi

[Shaft]

The odd thing is, at the time EBC pads weren't the cheap alternative (in my memory, they were the same or slightly more than the price of OEMs) but they were genuinely thought to be better, but my bike just didn't stop!

When I had my big smash, I'd only had the pads in for a few days, but I already had a set of OEM's on the shelf, I just hadn't had the time to fit them.
____________________
Things get better with age; I'm close to being magnificent........
20 RE Interceptor, 83 Z1100A3, 83 GS650 Katana
WooHoo, I'm a Man Point Millionaire! https://www.bikechatforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=234035

[stinkwheel]

I've found armstrong pads to be pretty good and they are far from the most expensive.

I use sintered pads because I ride in the wet a lot and they are unaffected by water.

One thing I found with the EBC ones is they have different types of sintered pad too. I used to swear by their HH sintered pads for my GPZ. I ordered the same ones for my KLE500 on the basis that the brakes are exactly the same and the ones they sent were shockingly bad. These turned out to be "red stuff" ones, they are sintered but designed for dirt bikes (who presumably don't want to be able to stop?).

The trouble was, I couldn't get anyone to send me the road biased "gold" HH sintered ones I'd been using if I mentioned they were for a KLE "Can't do that mate, these are the list ones for that model, more than me jobs worth etc. etc.". Eventually I just told them they were for a GPZ.

Based on my experience, I'd expect the EBC HH gold sintered ones to work well on a Z1100.
____________________
“Rule one: Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's when you find out everything you want to know.”
I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.

[Damon]

I've never found EBC to be that brilliant personally.

I tend to use Goldfren sintered pads in all my bikes. This includes both my road bikes and track bikes. Always been great and they don't seem to fade unless I'm really going for it.

Did you overhaul your caliper when you originally fitted those ebc pads? Maybe it was just a poorly maintained caliper that made you think the sintered pads were cack?

My 2p

[Vincent]

I think people prefer different types of pads for different reasons. Personaly, I prefer organic ones for the feel. If you can afford it, buy an organic set and a sintered set and try them side by side. Just make sure you bed them in before forming an opinion.

[virus]

Personally I prefer goldfrens or vesrahs, the vesrahs are cheaper but work well wet or dry and take a lot of abuse before they fade. they wont stop you like an f1 car, but they'll stop you every time you pull the lever which i much prefer to be honest, i want my brakes to be reliable in all conditions rather than awesome in the dry and useless in the wet.


Cheers
John
____________________
own: 81 xs1100g...
owned: 85 rat CG (sold), 91 GS500e (stolen), 84 gsx400f (scrapped), 81 z250 (siezed, siezed, scrapped), 83 cb250rs (sold), 84 gpz750r ratfighter (killed) 84gpz400 (sold), '80 cb650 ratfighter (wrote off) 95gsx6/12f ratfighter (killed) 91 xj900 (sold)
stinkwheel Well I just had my hands up a pigs fanny. Which makes your concerns pale into insignificance.

[Noxious89123]

I wasn't aware that disc brakes were particularly affected by rain? I've always found tyre grip to be the limiting factor when braking hard in the rain. Never ran out of braking power before running out of grip!

Are people talking about for road use, or for track use? Does rain affect brake fade when on track? I've never experience brake fade as I ride on the road, not like I'm on a track.
____________________
'06 Honda CBR125RW-6 ~ '00 Honda CBR600F-Y ~ '07 Honda CBR600RR-7 ~ Bikeless
'53 Ford Ka 1.3 ~ '03 Vauxhall Astra SRi 1.8 ~ '52 Vauxhall Astra SRi 2.2 ~ '53 Vauxhall Astra GSi

[Shaft]

Thanks for the advice so far, although any more would always be useful.

I'm leaning towards trying something other than EBC, mainly because my fears have been confirmed by a couple of people and, surprisingly, there does seem to be a reasonable choice of makers.

Noxious, I don't know how long you've been riding, but when I started in the late 70s/early 80s, disc brakes could be appalling in the wet, which led to aftermarket developments like pads and factory solutions like the previously mentioned VT (and even more tricky, CBX) enclosed brakes.

I guess that pad and disc technology has moved on far enough that it's not as big a problem now; for example, discs tend not to have such a high Iron content now, so the pads aren't coated in rust, every time it rains (ask old Guzzi owners about that!).

As an aside, does anyone know of a David Silver equivalent for Kawasaki (I'm aware of Z Power)?
____________________
Things get better with age; I'm close to being magnificent........
20 RE Interceptor, 83 Z1100A3, 83 GS650 Katana
WooHoo, I'm a Man Point Millionaire! https://www.bikechatforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=234035

[JackDaniels]

EBC pads seemed to chew up my disk and had no stopping power at all
____________________
THEORY TEST - PASSED! - 02-08-11 CBT Passed - 09-08-10 MOD 1 - 09-08-2011 - MOD 2 - 28-09-2011
2006 Yamaha JOGRR>2010 Yamaha Ybr>1995 Honda CB400 Superfour >2005 Honda hornet>1999 Suzuki Bandit 1200 > 2002 BMW R1150GS > 2013 Tiger Sport 1050 > 2007 GSXR 1000 > 2005 GS500E

[Noxious89123]

About 4 years. My current bike is the oldest bike I've rode, never tried anything older.
____________________
'06 Honda CBR125RW-6 ~ '00 Honda CBR600F-Y ~ '07 Honda CBR600RR-7 ~ Bikeless
'53 Ford Ka 1.3 ~ '03 Vauxhall Astra SRi 1.8 ~ '52 Vauxhall Astra SRi 2.2 ~ '53 Vauxhall Astra GSi

[Kickstart]