My 2006 is at 3700 miles. I ride about 15 miles daily in city stop and go traffic.

Look what I found today when I changed the brake pads!  



Oh yeah. Maybe that squeeking noise really WAS the pads (or in this case the lack thereof).
Note the thickness difference in what is left of the original stock pads and the new EBCs.



And may I add that the 'dealership' said the original pads should be good through 6000 miles? Huh. Right. Maybe true, if I was using my Fred Flintstone feet to stop the bike instead of the pads.  

One last thing - a huge THANK YOU to the Tech Section contributors WITH PHOTOS that helped me through this task.

Girls, take note! The only thing I had trouble with was getting the piston back in place. None of my tools were wide enough to clamp it, and I was not strong enough to manually push it in, so I ended up placing a big fat wooden dowel into the bowl and hammered it in with a rubber mallet. Set the brake fixture on a prop (a short stepstool was my choice) for stability during this procedure. Mission accomplished.

Now I am off to slowly putt around my block and get the new brakes set a bit. Whew!  

I did try using my C clamps, but could not get a decent grip on either side.  I scratch damaged to the case trying to get the clamps to work.  

The outer shell is curved, and the inside piston looks like soft brass which marred easily.  None my my clamps worked, even using various pieces of wood and cardboard to pad the sides.

However, using the old brake pad might have been an option.  In any case, the wooden dowel and rubber mallet were used on a soft pine wooden stool, all of which muffled the blows.  

I took a peek at my break pads the other day when I had to get a new front tire. The pads themselves look fine, but the metal that holds them is flaking. Rust has gotten a hold of those. I'm not sure if that's going to affect my brakes. My back breaks are the ones that are squeaking when I use them. Not a good sign I suppose. Looked in the manual, but that job is just a tad too intimidating!

I'm all for being economical, but maybe you did squeeze a few extra miles out of those pads!  You certainly got your money's worth out of them.

If you had placed each pad back in the calliper, you could have worked a wedge between & pried the piston back into position. Smacking on these items is not an okay thing. Glad you made it. I use C-clamp vise grips instead of C clamps. Much quicker to adjust & the job goes very quickly. They are cheap if ya get the Buffalo brand instead of Vise grip..Look in the discount bin at the auto parts store.

Skatnbnc,
   The bottom right pad is showing signs of metal to metal contact.  That's not good, wears the rotor fast....You should get the rotor measured.  Manual says 4.0 mm (0.16in) limit.

Also look for groves cut in the rotor.  Grooves will cause minor premature wear on the new pads.

How was the front bumper on that T-Bird? Maybe he was just hitting things instead of hitting the brakes?

Light scoring in the rotor will cause a bit of wear on the first set of pads after the metal to metal contact, but it will polish down from the pad friction. I did that to several cars & didnt turn them. Had excellent barkes as soon as the pads wore to fit the grooves. Then, after it ate a set of cheap pads, I would put good ones on & as soon as they seated to the depth of the grooves, excellent brakes!

justin_o_guy2 wrote on 12/31/69 at 16:00:08:


It wasn't me I swear!  
I bought this Suzi from a girl who went up to a HD cruiser because she felt this bike was too "light".  She also drove in traffic, and obviously had a heavy hand.

I'm the one who skidded my BACK tire by using the BACK brake more during a quick stop.  My front tire still has the little rubber 'hairs' sticking out, and the tread still sharply delineated.

"The bottom right pad is showing signs of metal to metal contact. "
I know, and it worried me as soon as I saw it.  So I cleaned the rotor using a tissue and rubbing alcohol to inspect every milimeter for wear or roughness.

Thankfully it seems that metal wear on the pad is fresh and did not seem to have made any groove in the rotor. The brakes have been fairly quiet up until a week ago, which is when I ordered the new pads.