I was a brake tester for 13 years and part time crash investigator. When truck brakes fail it is not nice. What is posted above is correct.

The front brakes provide anything up to 100% (stoppie) of the deceleration forces on a bike simply because the front loads up and the rear unloads quite significantly. Ride like you have only half the braking available and you will not be short of mechanical advantage. Look at all the cruiser riders too terrified to even touch the front brake that survive for years using about a tenth of what they have.

Backing material will chew up the disc, so just don't use the worn brake unless those last few fractions of decel are going to make a trashed disc the least of your worries.

We stopped riveting friction material to shoes (I've never seen it done to a pad) for commercial, employee safety and vehicle safety reasons. I have seen rivets fail and the friction surface fall off, jam the brake on and set the hub on fire. That would be lethal on a bike. I dread to think what sort of adhesives would be used, but anyone daft enough try gets what they deserve (the pad factories control the surface finish, temperature, humidity and all sorts when they bond friction material in it's part finished state to the backing) . They are probably the same idiots who will give themselves lung disease by drilling and cutting pads to shape. The latter might work, so long as the pad is free to float if it works once it'll work again. It is still an untested bodge.

Any "mechanic" who is handed pads and can't change them is best avoided. On the Wee you remove the calliper (one bolt and a sliding pin), push the pads back, remove a slot headed cover, remove an allen headed pin, collect the old pads and spring from where they shot out and fit the new ones in reverse order. Takes ten minutes using the tool kit Suzuki supplied. If you buy pads you also want to buy copper grease to go on the back of the new pads, multi-purpose grease for all the pins and sliders and something like brake spray or petrol to clean off all the dust and gunk. This is similar

Howto: Replace Motorcycle Rear Brake Pads in 10 mins ('09 Ninja 250) - YouTube

I'd ride the 1000 Km and just keep 4 seconds from the vehicle in front.

Good Luck and Enjoy your trip.

Andy

thanks all for the replies. the main thing i was hoping for from this thread to not hear people telling me that it would not be safe to ride as is - i've not heard this, so we're now a quarter of the way to mumbai

it's interesting to read that the strom is known for wearing through rear pads quickly - we've already replaced them once in india, and they have been wearing much faster than expected for the whole trip (and at a faster rate to the front than poor braking technique alone would account for). india particularly seems tobe wearing through the brakes quickly...

our plan had been to have new sets sent to us in delhi - however, we got to within a few hundred Km's of delhi when we read about the recent attack on the cyclist in pakistan, and decided to turn south and ship to dubai and iran, rather thn riding through - hence why we've been caught without

Brake maintenance tip:
A couple things could be wearing your rear pads quickly. I mentioned one of them above. Rider's rest their foot on the brake pedal unknowing, over heating and wearing pads quickly.

The other thing that could help:
When you replace the pads ...
1. carefully clean caliper pistons once old pads are out. Gently pump brake so pistons are exposed. Try not to let them pop completely out. Use one of those green kitchen scrubby things (or similar). clean all the crud and corrosion of both pistons, shine them up nice. (NOT emery cloth, steel wool or sand paper) Use brake fluid to clean up, wipe clean.

2. Push pistons back IN. Use two small wood blocks and a tire iron to force them back in near flush.

3. Before installing new pads, sand down edges of pads slightly.
4. Make sure you re-install the anti-squeak stainless backing plate on new pads.
5. Make sure pad is installed correctly and that spring clip is in place.
(be careful when you remove pad, leave spring clip alone and notice how pad is placed in caliper before removing them.)
6. Put wood block between new pads. Pump NEW, FRESH brake fluid through your system. Do not let fluid reservoir run dry, keep topping it up every few pumps on the brake pedal. Once fluid runs clear, you are done.

Fresh fluid and clean caliper pistons can keep brakes from dragging .. thus your pads will not wear out prematurely ... if you keep you foot off the pedal.

Best of luck on your journey!


DL1000 in Baja, 2003. 90,000 miles trouble free. (good maintenance!)

Check that your pistons are not Teflon coated before you start to scrub them 'clean' !!!!