Sintered brake pads

Can anyone provide some input on running sintered brake pads on bikes made before around '79? I've seen warnings that sintered pads should not be used in bikes not originally equipped with them.

My impression is that the later bikes have an insulating disk to thermally isolate the pad from the piston. Did the bikes with this insulator come with sintered pads? Does this mean sintered pads should only be used with bikes that have the insulating disk in the piston?

For example: 1979 KZ1000-B3 front caliper piston

As opposed to my '78 KZ1000 Z1R without the insulator: 1978 Z1R front caliper piston

And why did the '78 Z1-R get its very own set of brake pads, 43050-5003, that the database says were never used on any other bike?

It really comes down to this. The front brakes on my Z1R have pretty much no bite at all, feel very wooden, and require a ton of lever force to stop with any real urgency. For reference, I believe I'm running EBC brand (FA33) pads in the front.

I've rebuilt every part of the front system, and I believe it is in top mechanical condition. Some feeling is certainly lost in the oddball cable, and some blame may be with the dinky 38mm pistons found in the Z1R (less hydraulic mechanical advantage).

But I figure a pad with more initial bite would be helpful. Recommendations?

After trying the EBC HH pads, I won't use anything else. They're the grippiest pads you can buy.

guitargeek wrote: After trying the EBC HH pads, I won't use anything else.

Looking at the EBC catalog, they list the FA36 (organic) and FA36V ("semi-sintered"), but do not list an HH pad for any KZ1000 made before 1981.

It looks like they don't make an FA36HH (searching the catalog turns up zero hits). Are you running these on stock KZ1000 calipers?

dohc wrote: Can anyone provide some input on running sintered brake pads on bikes made before around '79? I've seen warnings that sintered pads should not be used in bikes not originally equipped with them.

My impression is that the later bikes have an insulating disk to thermally isolate the pad from the piston. Did the bikes with this insulator come with sintered pads? Does this mean sintered pads should only be used with bikes that have the insulating disk in the piston?
?

I just rebuilt and painted one front caliper and one rear caliper for my bike. Mine has the insulated pistons, but I bought some kevlar-organic pads and put in these that I rebuilt. I also put the same pads in the rear(the one currently on the bike now) about a month ago. I am going to put all this on the bike when I rebuild the front forks with new NOS tubes in a month or so.

According to my manual it says - "WARNING" - "Do not try to use later sintered-metal pads in calipers with early non-insulated pistons. The heat produced could boil the brake fluid and cause brake failure".

sbc1320 wrote: According to my manual it says - "WARNING" - "Do not try to use later sintered-metal pads in calipers with early non-insulated pistons. The heat produced could boil the brake fluid and cause brake failure".

Well, there you go.

I've got some sinter'd bronz pad's in the front stock
1980 650F1 calipar and have seen no issue with heat.
In fact they don't stop that good and squeal a little till they do build some heat
but once hot they'll lock the front tire with a single disk setup.

SOHC I'll be down at Doc's tomorrow night come and say hi.

Under normal driving conditions I don't think they would get hot. Under more extreme conditons or track time could be a different outcome.

sbc1320 wrote: normal driving.

Does not apply.