Which new brake pads?

Eatmorepies wrote:

> Soon be time for my KLE500 to have new pads. The brakes are currently o.k.
> but not as sharp as I would like.

Whats the issue?, some would say sharp brakes are a bad thing on a boing
machine, and a more progressive feel would be better.

Are you getting to pressure on the lever fast enough, or are you tentative
on the front brake?

The feel of the front brake on the KLE is wooden and remote at the best of
times. Personally I'd go for feel, and to that end...

> Can I get sharper brakes from different
> pads? Any recommendations?
>

....Stick with the OEM pads, clean/overhaul the calipers and use the correct
greases on the slides and shim then fit steel braided lines. Bleed the
brakes with whatever grade brake fluid Kawasaki recommends.

Much better feel.

IME, all the aftermarket sintered pads have been OK. One thing I tried
following a suggestion from an enduro rider was to fit pads designed for a
proper off road only bike to my Transalp. His reasoning was they operated
better when cold and came up to temperature fast. Combined with braided
lines and fresh fluid it gave me brilliant brakes but at the cost of high
disc wear, ie, 20,000(ish) miles with the original pads gave no easily
detectable disc wear. 4,000(ish) miles on the MX pads and the disc had worn
nearly a mm. Blindingly good brakes for an 'alp though.

> John

--
Bandit 650
GHPOTHUF #30