I was a bit surprised recently when cleaning the 2013 Suzuki SFV650 that the rear brake pads were so worn with only about 12,000 miles on the bike. The front pads are hardly worn at all and I feel that I am much more on the front brakes than the rear. I am now wondering if maybe the previous owner was resting his foot on the rear brake lever as it doesn’t appear that the rear brakes are sticking or rubbing at all.
It seems most riders end up using EBC sintered pads when they replace the OEM pads, but I have heard good things about Vesrah and bought Vesrah replacement pads for both the front and the rear.
- Rear – Vesrah VD-147/2JL – Sintered Metal Brake Pads – Ebay.com
- Front Pair – Vesrah VD-352/435 RJL : SV-650 (99-09) – Ninja 650 (06-09) – KurveyGirl.com
Kurvey Girl also provides a sanding block with each order so that you can clean up any old brake pad material from the rotors.
Previously I had upgraded the OEM exhaust to the Yoshimura TRC Exhaust. This exhaust is a bit higher and longer than the OEM and prevents access to the rear brake caliper, so that had to be removed to get started.
With the exhaust out of the way the Allen head bolt can be removed that mounts the caliper to the swing arm and the plug and pin that the brake pads slide on can also be removed. The caliper then rotates forward to allow the brake pads to be removed from the caliper.
Now, the brake caliper piston was pretty far extended due to the brake pad wear and had to be compressed back into the caliper to allow the new pads to be inserted. I first hit the piston with brake cleaner fluid and a toothbrush to try and remove any debris/contamination before it was pressed back through the piston seal. A clamp was needed for me to easily compress the piston.
Compressing the piston forced brake fluid back to the reservoir, which was not going to have capacity for the amount of movement that was required for the piston. I had to add a catch can to the caliper bleed port to remove some additional fluid from the system.
Then it is just inserting the new pads, tighten everything back down, and pump the brake pedal a few times to get the pads back in position.
Since the front pads have a lot of life left, I did not continue with the front pad replacement for now. If I feel much difference between the front and rear pads, I will go ahead and replace the front pads to match. I’ll also keep an eye on any abnormal wear of the rear brake pads. Time to go break in the new pads…
Two Wheel Junkie 