Best Brake Pads and Shoes

[Boxer_Bolshie]

I have dual Brembo calipers and the standard rear drum and am looking for info on what the best pads and shoes would be for my standard '84 R65 including part number.  I'ma großer mann und so need maximum stopping powah!

Have always used Hawk or EBC on my Subie calipers as they're the best for that application.

Thanks!

[Bob_Roller]

EBC make some pouplar replacement pads and shoes, for the R65, the FA18 is for the Brembo calipers .

I have these on both of my road worthy R65's, I didn't notice any real noticeable improvement in dry braking, but wet braking is greatly improved over the OEM pads, at least in my experience .

 Don't know the part number for the rear brake shoes, i replaced mine about 14 years ago, for oil contamination .

[Boxer_Bolshie]

Thanks Bob!

It seems, from what I've read so far, that the standard R65 used a smaller shoe than did the LS and thus the LS doesn't fit the standard R65.  However they're both listed as using a Simplex drum brake which is 200mm/7.87 in diameter so a little confusion there.

14 years eh!?  I guess $60 for a pair of shoes which lasts a couple of decades isn't too bad!

Now if I can only figure out whether to get the organic front pads or the sintered pads...

[bruce_launceston]

I saw some specs somewhere a few weeks ago that said that the rear brake surface area was 2 or 3 times greater on the LS than on the standard model. I guess the drum and shoes are wider?

[nhmaf]

The front pads on the bikes are the same/identical.  The rear shoes on the LS are different (larger) because the LS's rear wheel "hub" where the brake lining is is somewhere between 1-2 centimeters larger in diameter.
The regular R65 shoes aren't quite "long" enough in the arms to make good contact and aren't quite the proper radius/arc.   The LS shoes are too long in the arms to fit properly inside the non-LS wheel hub, so that isn't so likely to happen.  But, if someone unwittingly puts regular R65 rear shoes on an R65LS rear wheel, you'll basically have little-to-no rear brake power, even with the brake rod adjustment cranked all the way.  

[Barry]

Rear brake shoes are known to last almost forever without wearing out although whether they last forever and maintain performance I'm not so sure. Possibly the brake material eventually degrades in some way. Having said that mine are 33 years old and still work as well as I want them to. Excessive power on the rear brake is usually not needed or desired. Once the rear wheel locks up it will tend to drift sideways and then snaps back in again when you release the brake. That's a potential high side if you are going fast enough. I only ever locked a rear once and it wasn't something I want to repeat.

All of which makes one wonder why they bothered upgrading the rear brake on the LS.

[Bob_Roller]

I would stay away from sintered from sintered pads, they don't work well, until heated up a bit, I don't know if it's true or not, but I've heard they are pretty hard on stainless rotors .

I doesn't sound like you need rotors, but steel rotors seem to work a bit better than stainless, down side is rusting in damp weather, which I'll assume you have a lot of .

[Boxer_Bolshie]

Thanks for all the great information everyone!  Organic brakes it is then!

[montmil]

Thanks for all the great information everyone!  Organic brakes it is then!

Last month, I replaced the front pads on the '81. EBC FA18 organics -made in England, BTW- slipped right in. Do your due diligence in web shopping; there are big swings in prices.

"I saw some specs somewhere a few weeks ago that said that the rear brake surface area was 2 or 3 times greater on the LS than on the standard model."
Now that's a honkin' BIG brake!

Best price I found was from Powersport Superstore on Amazon Marketplace.
http://tinyurl.com/73va9ex

[Matt Chapter]

I just got new brake pads from the BMW dealer, they didn't have my size EBC in stock so I ended up with BMW logo.. cost 45$ instead of 30 (or less!) for the EBC.

And yesterday on the way home from work it was rain rain muckity rain... I was disappointed with the wet braking performance, despite my new rotor.  Some portion of it was my reluctance to really bear down on the front brake (it was rush hour), but some was definitely lost performance due to wet brakes.