Do brake pads have a best before like tyres? Does the material go off? Or is it fine if you have plenty of wear left?
I'd imagine that they would start to break up at some point but if the overall condition looks good then I'd bash on
Having recently purchased a runaround that had been stood a few years, before I had a run on it I striped the drum brakes only to find the friction material had completely dropped of the shoes.
are they expensive? check for any sign of separation, remove them look for little cracks that might suggest overheating do they feel powdery around edges. did they come out easy?
have found with age and use pads tend to go hard and wooden feel to them been told get some heat in them through use and the compound softens a bit and more usable but personally found if they have hardened and cracked a bit bin them and put new in brakes better safe than sorry but that's just me
Best brakes before..........?? Sliced bread?? I dunno, never tried stopping with sliced bread........
Is it worth the risk I would ask myself. I do know of someone who used a really old pair of brake pads and the first time he braked hard both pads separated from the metal backing plates and he ended up with the backing plates grinding on the disc as they crumbled away, it could have been far worse. Personally I would seriously consider replacing them if I was refurbishing any bike that had been standing a while.
Am I right in saying that you want to use this bike on track this year? If so it might be a good idea to put some good road\track pads in it whilst you are changing them. I used a set of P4/34 brake calipers on a track bike that had rubbishy pads in them that were new with the calipers when I got them and after a few laps they started to fade badly, quite worrying down the back straight at Snetterton when I felt them going. Decent pads are worth that little extra money and there is no excuse for poor maintenance if you know deep down that all you are trying to do is save a few quid. I won't even start about who you could take off on a track day if you can't stop!!! seen it happen in racing due to someone not bothering about their bike. His comment to me was I thought it might happen some time!!!!!!!
I would say so, EBC are good although I tend to use other makes like SBS, Pagid etc. Just bought an EBC front disc for one of my bikes and I am very pleased with the quality and much better than OEM in fact.
