Front brakes, how hard to service them?

So I did my 90k service today, and noticed that I'm almost to the wear clips on my front brakes. My rears still have plenty of meat on them, so it's just the front that I need to worry about. How hard is it to swap the front pads and rotors? Should I go OEM, or would an upgrade be in order? EBC pads and rotors for example.

 

Stick with OEM.

I've used EBC on my bike and have not been happy with them.

 

And shortcuts.

EBC specifies the same pad for the front and rear right side of the Vulcan 1600.
It's a 4mm pad.

OEM pads have two different part numbers for the front and rear. Front pad is 4mm, rear pad is 9mm.

The Kawasaki pads lasted 15k. The EBC pads lasted 7k, and were very "grabby"... had a few "oh shit" moments where they locked up. But even though they were "grabby", they didn't stop any better.
Kawasaki pads were less than $10 more than the EBC pads... $170 vs $150 for the set of 3 pads.

 

Thanks guys. And thanks chris for the video. So easy a caveman can do it, or me, whichever. Time to order me up some new pads.

 

Front brakes is much easy. I'm in the middle of drum brake hell with my passenger rear right now. Gotta wait for the dealership to open up tomorrow so I can get new shoes. The old ones got warped when the e-brake lever froze out of place then slipped outside the reaction lever. It was a mess in there...broken return spring, I had to file down the lip of the backing plate so it won't rub and squeal on the drum... to top it off, Autozone gave me the wrong aftermarket brake shoes.

Only went with them because the dealership was closed today. Returning them in the morning and picking up the OEM stuff.

 

Thanks to the video, I had the fronts done in 45 min. The pins were rusted in pretty good, but a brass drift and a hammer fixed that. No shimmy, no squeal, and I have brakes that will last another 90k kms. Thanks again guys.

 

They are very easy to do. You might want to consider getting the ceramic pads because they release less brake dust, I little more pricey but well worth it I think. One thing that hasn't been covered in this thread is Don't forget to remove the fluid reservior cap when you press the calipers pistons back in, keep an eye on the fluid level constantly as you do this step, you might need to remove some fluid out. good luck man

 

What kind of lubricant does he put on the back of those pads?

 

its not really lubricant.. it is an ant vibration compound to keep brake squeal from happening.. that tab he pointed out but didnt know what it was is actually a built in squealer that lets you know your pads need to be replaced..

 

sub'd. can't wait to replace mines. noob question, but how do you actually loosen the fluid reservoirs?

 

Just open the cap.

 

I am going to need to do mine soon. Do you have to have the rotors done everytime you replace your brakes, or is that a dealership gimic to get more money out of you.

 

haha thanks, and I thought I had loosen things up or something.

 

We always machined rotors if we could or put new ones on when I was working in a repair shop. Bendix Brakes seminar I went to recommended the same thing to ensure proper mating of the new surfaces. Downside to not doing it is lack of stopping power, squealing, chatter etc. but I've never experienced any of those. YMMV

 

I mic'd the rotors, and there's plenty of meat left on mine. All I did was rough up the surface with some 400grit sandpaper to help the bed in process. The rotor surface itself was plenty flat, without ridges from previous pads, to need a resurface.

 

So you're saying don't do it exactly like the video?

 

LOL...

I leave the old pads in place to compress the pistons. Makes it a lot easier on dual-piston calipers. Never done 4-piston (that I recall)

 

Same. And yeah I'd do one caliper at a time like Chris said.