Hot rear disc

[TunturiSport]

Dear experts, my GSA 1200 (model year 2006, 42 000 kms) has "eaten" rear brake pads very rapidly from the new. Usually I have to change them after 5000 - 8000 kms. Rain + gravel road is a combination that especially increases the beemer's appetite for rear pads. I and the local dealer have tried to find reasons for this, without success. When in the center stand and on neutral, the rear wheel seems to rotate freely.

Now to the question: after a very peaceful ride, I have noticed that the rear disc is hot while the front discs are cool. Is this normal, have you noticed such a temperature difference?

Tunturisport

 

[smartbear]

its rubbish

my servo bike is the same,it seems to apply the rear brake far to much in relation to the fronts-dont think the balance is adjustable either

 

[Bear]

Assuming you have ABS the front and rear brakes are linked. If you use the foot pedal you will apply the rear brake as you would expect. If you use the hand lever the initial braking is with the rear brake, with the front brake being used to assist it. The consequence of this is that rear pads wear very quickly (mine last 8000 miles, which is good for this model) but front pads last a long time (mine are still good at 22,000 miles). The theory is that braking the rear wheel is safer than braking the front.

 

[RickG]

The short life of rear pads is well known, 8000km on the road wouldn't be that unsual if you ride hard. It's very unlikely to be the case, but you could check the wheel/brake carrier hasn't worn its splines (and the circlip is still in place).

 

[nedflanders]

Mine suffers from the same, nothing can be done except fitting better rear pads. You'll eat the rear disc at a faster rate though but thats to be expected, mine also gets hotter than the front without using the rear pedal at all, but it doesn't get hot enough to 'blue' the disc so it's not binding constantly, the only conclusion I came too is that BMW programmed in to much rear bias on the linked system, getting them to admit it is a different matter all together

 

[John Armstrong]

IIRC a BM service mechanic had the opinion that those who keep on dabbing them on, ie comfort braking, have the worse wear rates for the pads. Not necessarily what you're doing, YMMV

 

[Taff]

Just a thought, but have you checked the little metal plate in the rear caliper is set correctly? I had a similar problem with my 1150 GSA a couple of years ago. When I used to wheel the bike out of the shed, you could hear a high pitched squeel from the rear wheel, and after a ride the rear disk was too hot to hold even though I'd deliberately used no brakes at all for the last few minutes of the ride. On closer inspection, I can't remember now whether the little metal plate was missing altogether or wasn't set correctly. Either way, the pads were taken out, a new plate was fitted and I haven't heard a squeek since.

 

[TunturiSport]

Thank you all for comments! However, I would like to get more direct replies to my specific question: have you noticed the same as me, i.e. that the rear disc is much hotter than the front discs after ride? If that is really the case in all bikes, the only conclusion is (as some of you have also suggested) that the integrated brake system puts disproportionally more pressure on the rear brake.

 

[cookie]

Thank you all for comments! However, I would like to get more direct replies to my specific question: have you noticed the same as me, i.e. that the rear disc is much hotter than the front discs after ride? If that is really the case in all bikes, the only conclusion is (as some of you have also suggested) that the integrated brake system puts disproportionally more pressure on the rear brake.

it's a sliding caliper at the back and the rubber bellows on the pins tend to push the caliper onto the disc whether any brake is applied or not.

that is why the disc gets hot and also why one pad is fatter than the other (i reckon).

 

[GSmonkey]

Yes - the rear disc of my servoed 04 bike was always much hotter than the front. The non-servoed bikes (07 onwards) don't seem to have as bad a wear issue (at least not on mine)

 

[theop]

Dear experts, my GSA 1200 (model year 2006, 42 000 kms) has "eaten" rear brake pads very rapidly from the new. Usually I have to change them after 5000 - 8000 kms. Rain + gravel road is a combination that especially increases the beemer's appetite for rear pads. I and the local dealer have tried to find reasons for this, without success. When in the center stand and on neutral, the rear wheel seems to rotate freely.

Now to the question: after a very peaceful ride, I have noticed that the rear disc is hot while the front discs are cool. Is this normal, have you noticed such a temperature difference?

Tunturisport

I think 5k miles is pretty good actually... at 11k miles, my second set of reras is on the way out and I only use rear braking to smooth out the lie of the bike when entering corners at more than pottering speeds, which in itself is a rare activity for my open face + sunglasses attitude to biking, ideally smoking a ciggiw with my clutch hand...

so I am told, and it seems to be the case that the servoed system applies the rear brake always, regardless of what you do with the pedal...