Ferodo SinterGrip ST brake pads

[darthmoto]

Just a little review on these HH Sintered front brake pads for my 696.

After going through a set of the oem brembo pads, I decided to order a set of pads from Ca-Cycleworks.com. Chris' site has a good meter on how the different pads do, and I ended up choosing the Ferodo ST pads for their low dust, good power, and good feel qualities. So I got em in today, and installed them. Brakes on this bike is easy as pie to replace Ive discovered. One thing I learned was to loosen the plunger screw in the lever, so the pads spread. I forgot to do this, and as I was putting in the 2nd pair, I was having a tough time spreading them and keeping them apart. I then discovered there was fluid squirting from the brake fluid reservoir! Doh! so I backed out the screw to let out the plunger, and that did the trick.

Once I got em on, I stuck 4 pad sized strips of wet 600 grit between the pads and the rotor and pushed the bike while gently squeezing the brake to get off the glazing from my previous pads. After rinsing em off, I decided to go for a spin to bed them in.  So I go out and apply some light braking pressure once every block, about 5 times, then I speed up a bit and progressively apply harder everytime. I could definitely feel the pads getting more and more powerfull with every application.

The initial impression I got was that you really do feel the brake more. And the progressive qualities of the 696's brakes are pronounced even more. They dont bite so hard initially, but once you start laying on the pressure, you feel the brakes grab really hard. I tried a few panic stops and I felt pretty confident with em, rear tire skipping and all... I could see these pads improving your trailbraking because of the modulation and feel.

So thats my amateur review of these pads. I think theyre pretty good, and I payed like 80 dollars for both pairs. My dealer was gonna charge me 120 for EBC HH sintered + labor.

[gearhead]

 Thanks for the review. I find that my 1100 is starting to pulse when I brake hard. I don't mean at the lever but it feels like it grabs harder on a certain part of the disc because it feels like I'm pumping the brakes when I'm not.

[Bones]

yes, thanks a lot for the write-up. very helpful, as I'm looking into pads as we speak.

and gearhead: damn you for that avatar!  I friggin' HATE clowns!

[erkishhorde]

[snip]
Brakes on this bike is easy as pie to replace Ive discovered. One thing I learned was to loosen the plunger screw in the lever, so the pads spread. I forgot to do this, and as I was putting in the 2nd pair, I was having a tough time spreading them and keeping them apart. I then discovered there was fluid squirting from the brake fluid reservoir! Doh! so I backed out the screw to let out the plunger, and that did the trick.
[/snip]

Huh, what? Did you open your brake reservoirs to relieve pressure on the system? Easiest thing to do is loosen the bleed screw so that you can spread the pistons.

[darthmoto]

Yeah, probably should have done that.. I was too lazy to worry about getting air in the system and having to bleed them, since at my 7500 service they already bled them and put in fresh fluid. Should have thought a bit more!