Changed brake pad of my Suzuki V-Strom 250 SX in 2200 km of ownership

With the little experience I've gathered thus far with brake pad wear, the Strom's pad wear gotta be the fastest wearing material I've ever experienced as a petrolhead, to-date.

BHPian VijayAnand1 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Major Update:

The Strom's strumming at a snail's pace clocking the miles with the ODO currently pointing at 2214 kms within the 1.5 months of ownership.

The SVC didn't inspect the airfilter during my first service, which was already overdue by 300 kms. My priority was to replace the engine oil and oil filter rather than the nitties, which were scheduled for a check the following service. Being the OCD guy I am, the itch to check for the variables had started to fester, and hence the rather surprising find!

The airfilter for the most part was spic-and-span apart from a couple of dead mosquitoes, strands of cloth fibers lodged in between. The AF access is pretty much a 5 min job, though it can be a bit unnerving for a newbie as to where to start, as it requires the removal of the side quarter panel and requires a little fiddling with the wiring loom to gain access and removal of cover.

Cleaned, and reinstalled.

Le Vanish:

With the little experience I've gathered thus far with brake pad wear, the Strom's pad wear gotta be the fastest wearing material I've ever experienced as a petrolhead, to-date. The least lasting was on my R15's front with 8k being the dire minimum. The Strom's Bybre unit capped it all with an amazing wear rate, close to 90% in a span of 2.2k KMS. Yes, I am very, VERY aggressive on the front brakes, but this is just surprising and an interesting find.

I'd sourced a spare brake pad set for my Strom during my first service (read previous post) both front and rear just as a spare as I always do, owing to the nearest SVC is only a million miles away. And boy did it come handy!

Front brake pad of my V-Strom @ 2.2k KMS 1.5 months old.

Pad right out of the caliper:

A quick comparo..Jeez:

New pad for with pad material:

Now that the pad had to come off, wanted to delve a little deeper, went ahead and dismantled the caliper spring along with the carrier... The pistons were otherwise spotless.

Dirty caliper carrier and the sliding pins:

Getting cleaned:

Caliper, carrier slider cleaned, lubed and ready to go:

The part number and part used! Quickie comparo! Mirth:

Old pads on the caliper:

In goes the new!

I'd really hoped to measure the new pad thickness using my vernier. Being already late night a session it was, the vernier stuck in my room, any stomping would mean the little one gets woken up and I go the patio.

All back & back to bed!

Shame I didn't receive the owner's manual yet for my Strom. My R15's front caliper torque spec was rated at 35nm. Went ahead and dialed in the same on my torque wrench and set it to 40 nm for the Strom and it was perfect!

Post the brake pad swap, clean, lube session, the lever feedback and consistency seems to have returned and feels, if not better than what I felt brand new. The firm yet progressive consistency that it lacked over time seems to be back, and I reckon the consistency would fade as this brake pad wears over time, which I'd have to keep tab of.

Outro:

Strom owners and Gixxer 250 owners do keep a tab on your brake pad(s). Accelerated pad wear has been documented, but mine seems to be the first V-Strom in its class to wear a brand new brake pad set to silt in less than month and 2.2k KMS of glorious ownership!

Definitely happy that I purchased a spare set. I could have squeezed 1000 kays more out from the old grazers, but that'd be an overkill for a part that designed to save you. Considering a couple of after-market brake pad options for the future, will log them if and when necessary.

Ciao!

Cheers!

VJ

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