Brake pad recomendation

[Drumnagorrach]

This last MOT has an advisory on pads,so I suppose I better change em. Any recommendation both for which pads to fit and where from ?
I find the brakes fine at the moment but would like a bit more braking from the rear at low speed,I know from past bikes that the modern way is a fairly ineffective rear brake ( my old Buell and Guzzi Sport 1100 had useless rear brakes ) but maybe there is a softer compound I could use on the rear, perhaps like the very soft linings fitted to the old Bultaco Sherpas .

[Flip]

Personally I don't use my back brake much and prefer it not to be too harsh and as you say because of the current trend for not too vicious rear brakes I don't think there are any pads available in more grippy compounds like the fronts are.

However, for my old race bike with a double sided front drum (four shoes) and single rear drum I need all the help I can get so you could try the very excellent Safetek:

http://www.saftek.co.uk/

They did an excellent job of re-lining my original shoes with a race compound liner which made an unbelievable difference so you could try emailing them and asking if they would do a similar job on your existing pad backs.

[Nickj]

The rear is just pants and the pads make little difference really. I always used cheap crap in it because it didn't work so well. Well that was until I stripped and rebuilt it when it was much better though I still stuck with the same pad type.
So cheap, soft but OK for the rear would be Brento
Fronts I liked the Carbone Lorraines, lots of feel and acceptable wear for an organic pad. Organic as the sintered just eat the disc rotors away and unless you're nailing everywhere the heat transfer of the sinter isn't a real help to you.

[Darren69]

Sorry can't be much help as I'm the same, don't use it other than for low speed turns/hill starts etc, so I have no idea what's in mine the same as when I got the bike 5 years ago! 2 bits of ply cut to shape would probably work just as well for me! :)

[Zimbo]

Bendix is a good pad at a reasonable price, both front and back. I can also recommend Carbon Lorraine or Performance Friction.

[Mr Gazza]

I really liked the EBC pads I used in my last two Ducatis. I am sure that I used "Greenstuff" pads back then but this is not available for the Dukes now..Or is called something else.

Apparently it is bad to mix sintered and organic pads, but I prefer Organic anyway, so last time I went for EBC organic, front and rear.

EBCFA244 front, and EBCFA047 rear. From Demon Tweeks.

I do use my rear brake. I can't not, after years of riding quaint old bikes, It's a habit I can't break. If nothing else I would drag the rear just to show a brake light (with no switch on the front), but it was needed to help the quaint old front brakes anyway.

There is a noticable improvement in the power of the rear with these pads, and they nicely balance the front, which is very powerful and progresive, and seem to be getting more feel as the miles rack up.(maybe just me?)

I did fit new Arashi wavey discs shortly after the pads as I discovered all the discs to be warped. The pads had only done a couple of hundred miles so I re-used them. They soon bedded into the new discs with no problem. Braking is now luxurious, but I would not claim any performance gain for the discs, other than that they are smooth due to be being straight.

[jerry]

I find the rear brake very useful for trail braking and on wet surfaces and down hill braking one reason ducati rear brakes appear weak is not being bled properly and moisture in the fluid ,, if sdone regular they are good brakes IMO ,, but it groans and squels a lot even after putting copper slip on the back every 3 months ,,, Im using EBC at the moment but might try an organic set in the rear next time .

[Drumnagorrach]

Thanks for that,the ebc part no.s was particularly usefull.
I have had two Guzzis with linked brakes,once I got used to slaming my right foot down to stop it was very effective ,but it never got to the point that I instinctively used my foot to brake ,I always had to think about it,what a f88kin relief when I got the Duke.
I briefly had a Harley XLS 1200 all three of its discs were the same size and the back brake could be locked quite easily, which again like the guzzi had it's novelty value.

[Nickj]

I briefly had a Harley XLS 1200 all three of its discs were the same size and the back brake could be locked quite easily, which again like the guzzi had it's novelty value.

Last Hardley I had the misfortune to ride had disc brakes but they didn't really seem to do so much. If I'd had to put as much effort in on the monster I would have locked up the front.

[Mr Gazza]

Ah. hardly Dangerous...I believe they employed an electrically operated drum brake a very long time ago....But not for long....:chuckle:

I read about it in a magazine years ago, but I can find no reference to it by googling.