Re: 60mph front brake failure 06 Dyna
Well, I had my reply from VOSA today, after sending them the pads last week. A quick response: so quick they phoned whilst I was belting down the M6 in the rain on Friday, so I couldn't call him back until today.
I'm sure you will all be as relieved as I am to hear that the condition of my pads is quite normal, and no cause for concern. He has shown them to two of his colleagues, and they agree. Some delamination around the edges, and loss of adhesive is apparentlu OK, and they have seen this loads of times. I'm told I shouldn't worry, as even if the friction material becomes detached, the backing plate is made of pretty much the same material (really?), and the brakes will still work, albeit very noisily, which will alert me to the fact the pads have gone, and even if the backplates wear away, I'll still have the pistons bearing on the disc, so that gives belt and braces security (his words). Call me a fool, but I think going for the brake, and having the pedal hit the stop as I career into the back of a truck with only one brake to play with might alert me a bit sooner (albeit briefly, before life is snuffed out).
He tells me he would be quite happy to ride his BMW K series with pads in that condition, and so my intention is to refit them, and run them down to the service limit of 1.02mm. Of course, as the pads have broken up more than that away from the backplate, some of the pad will be fresh air bearing on the disc, but apparently I don't have to worry about that.
He seemed very concerned about the inspection interval, which is set by the manufacturers at 2500 miles. I thought it was at the 5000 mile service interval, but he has spoken to H-D's UK Service Manager, who confirmed it was 2500 miles. In that, he is correct, but at that interval the pads are only to be checked for thickness, and not removed from the bike for further inspection. In fact, there is no routine inspection of the brake pads other than checking the thickness of the friction material. However, unless you strip the pads from the calipers (which is not part of the scheduled maintenance) all you will detect is the thickness of the remaining friction material, and I only found the cracked up material because I had to take the pads out to change the wheel. I check my pads for thickness about once a month, or whenever I wash the bike, which is about 1000 miles intervals in the summer months, and I was going to keep them in there for another few thousand miles, as they had about 3mm of meat left on them.
So, the VOSA conclusion is, don't worry if your pads are breaking up, inspect the thickness every 2500 miles, as recommended by the manufacturer (but maybe you need to actually remove the pads, even though the manufacturer only recommends measuring the pad thickness) but if by doing so, you find the pads are delaminating and the adhesive is giving way, then that's no reason for concern, and you can just keep on riding until you reach the minimum pad thickness recommended by the manufacturer, which is 1.02mm in my case.
I'm sure you will feel as reassured as I do.
Frankly, I was more than surprised at the response, but you could hear the, "Oh God, here's another one of these amateurs whingeing on about things he doesn't understand again." in the tone. "Why don't they just take their bloody machines to the main dealer, and get them looked after by the professionals?"
To those of you out there who do use main dealer servicing, and don't do anything yourself, remember to get yourself booked in every 2500 miles for a pad inspection....
Next time, I won't waste my time.
