BMW R1200R R1150R/T F800 K1200R R1100R/T R1250R RnineT Message Board

This is the first time I have changed these. Unusual design in several respects. Could only find one pin holding the pads in place then when I removed the calliper to investigate, the pads fell out. I guess they are meant to because of the inherent design - but unexpected.
Then when I was putting the new pads in place, after cleaning everything up, I noticed the piston side brake pad was thicker than the other side.
Just like the 'worn' pads!- which was my reason for deciding to change them. Seems I have just spent £20 as an excuse to play with my tools.
Is this a deliberate ploy by BMW garages to sell more pads to gullible DIYers?

Just rang the supplier, Motorworks, who confirmed this is indeed correct! So watch out.

gregor wrote:This is the first time I have changed these. Unusual design in several respects. Could only find one pin holding the pads in place then when I removed the calliper to investigate, the pads fell out. I guess they are meant to because of the inherent design - but unexpected.
Then when I was putting the new pads in place, after cleaning everything up, I noticed the piston side brake pad was thicker than the other side.
Just like the 'worn' pads!- which was my reason for deciding to change them. Seems I have just spent £20 as an excuse to play with my tools.
Is this a deliberate ploy by BMW garages to sell more pads to gullible DIYers?

It's deliberate. You can only really see the thickness of 1 of the pads - the one on the 'outside' of the floating calliper. That pad will have a hole drilled into the 'back' of the pad. The hole will go 2mm (ish) into the thickness of the actual pad material.

The idea is that if you can see the disc through that little hole in the back of the pad, it's time to change the pads. HOWEVER - seeing as you can't see the thickness of the other pad (the one bearing on the pistons), they make that one a fair bit thicker, so you'll ALWAYS wear through the 'outer' pad earlier, and thus not wear the invisible pad out first and damage the disc.

hope that's reasonably clear!!

Oh - and yes, there's only 1 pin holding them in - the other end of the pad is 'captured' by the shape of the calliper - and the spring pad at the closed end. It's obviously when you look at it.

Riceburner , thanks for the lucid explanation.My Wunderlich hugger blocks the view of the outer pads.
But, the old inner thinner pad (Brembo) had one deep hole in it and the new inner thinner Ferodo pad does not have any.

gregor wrote:Riceburner , thanks for the lucid explanation.My Wunderlich hugger blocks the view of the outer pads.
But, the old inner thinner pad (Brembo) had one deep hole in it and the new inner thinner Ferodo pad does not have any.

yeah - that often happens. Its still the case that the more visible pad will be thinner.

Interesting. As you'll notice from my post, I am going through a similar scenario as Gregor. Now that I have it squared away, one of the things I noticed is both of my pads are the same thickness. I got them from the BMW dealer although they were EBC not BMW due to the extreme difference in price and the dealers recommendation that the EBC's are actully better.

I replaced the rear pads on my '02 r about 15 months ago, found the same scenario, one pad was worn almost to the backing plate, while the other pad had a fair amount of material left .
I installed EBC HH pads and both were the same thickness .
Not to hijack this thread, but the increase in braking power is quite noticeable from OEM pads to EBC HH pads .
I installed EBC HH pads on the front two years ago, and I won't go back to OEM parts, the increase in brake effectiveness is quite noticeable, over OEM pads, regardless how fast the rotors wear !!!

I chose the Ferodo Platinum pads as they are non sintered. ie Not the most powerful braking performance but less likely to wear the discs/rotors out. Interesting about the differing thicknesses of new pads. I think both pads should wear at the same speed and one should not have to allow for the calliper sticking in the first place. The materials and design should be appropriate to always allow free movement.
I always used standard pads on my K75 as EBC etc were noisy and too grabby.
Thanks for all the input guys. An interesting thread.

gregor wrote:I chose the Ferodo Platinum pads as they are non sintered. ie Not the most powerful braking performance but less likely to wear the discs/rotors out. Interesting about the differing thicknesses of new pads. I think both pads should wear at the same speed and one should not have to allow for the calliper sticking in the first place. The materials and design should be appropriate to always allow free movement.
I always used standard pads on my K75 as EBC etc were noisy and too grabby.
Thanks for all the input guys. An interesting thread.

Materials and design is best when it appreciates the real world and the facts of dirt and wear etc. Calipers get dirty, are often not washed as assiduously as they could be - so the developers take account of that.

It's deliberate. You can only really see the thickness of 1 of the pads - the one on the 'outside' of the floating calliper. That pad will have a hole drilled into the 'back' of the pad. The hole will go 2mm (ish) into the thickness of the actual pad material.

The idea is that if you can see the disc through that little hole in the back of the pad, it's time to change the pads. HOWEVER - seeing as you can't see the thickness of the other pad (the one bearing on the pistons), they make that one a fair bit thicker, so you'll ALWAYS wear through the 'outer' pad earlier, and thus not wear the invisible pad out first and damage the disc.

hope that's reasonably clear!!

Oh - and yes, there's only 1 pin holding them in - the other end of the pad is 'captured' by the shape of the calliper - and the spring pad at the closed end. It's obviously when you look at it.[/quote]



WOW!!!! the Germans....

I made an elaborate, fully detailed post about purging, bleeding and servicing the calipers and master cylinders back in Nov 2013, with an R1150R update in Aug 2014. It was worded to guide even "experienced novices" that pool their resources and tools while patiently following the carefully worded procedures. It even warns what NOT to do and common pitfalls to avoid. It essentially applies to ALL motorcycles with hydraulic brakes, as the main components are all very similar. The procedures are important because they are in proper sequence and they detail the quickest, easiest, least expensive, most thorough way to service the non-ABS portion of your brakes. If you take the complete disassembly route, desirable with a dark/filthy system or binding caliper(s), the result will be a much cheaper, fully functioning like-new system -rather than- a dealer replacing very expensive parts, so he can easily/quickly guarantee "like new" performance. Here you go . . . and you're welcome:

http://r1150r.org/board/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=30659

CycleRob serviced my brake system while patiently walking me thru the steps as we proceeded just as described in his exceptional thread and my brakes work like new !
Thanks again Rob
Mike