Just looked at my invoice from 4/24/18. They were $10.88 delivered. My mistake!

 

No, my mistake, I bought the complete sintered set, front and rear; $34.46. Did you only buy the rear set?

 

Yes, just a rear set. Wanted to try them first and my fronts are okay.

I was getting 25% off email offers from them on a regular basis. I unsubscribed since I won't be buying anymore. lol...

 

Thanks for the feedback, both positive and negative guys. Pads just came today. Planning to install them Friday - if I get a chance I'm gonna try doing some measured max effort stops before and after to see a comparison. Not a truly fair test since my current rears are done, but might be informative nonetheless.

 

Got the Volar sintered pads installed today on all three calipers, and did a pre change braking distance test yesterday, and a post change test today.

Some observations;

immediately after change had a little intermittent squeak from fronts, but disappeared after a couple of moderate brake engagements. Also had the 'buzz' early on, presumably from the holes in the rotors hitting the leading edge of the pad. I did not bevel them prior to install. That also went away after several brake engagements.

"Feel" is less progressive than the previous pads (presumably stock - they're brembo pads, I didn't check part number), more steady feel right up to abs activation. This is more pronounced in the rear, and in my testing I struggled to get a good feel for where the threshold is in the rear. This resulted in more, earlier abs activations on the test runs. Fronts are also less progressive feeling than the previous, but not as dramatically. Still decently predictable for where the abs kicks in though.

I don't have a good parking lot for higher speed measured tests (only ones readily available are small), so I measured out 40' and did testing at 20mph. Bike in steady state, clutch disengaged so stopping was from brakes only. New pads were essentially the same, or maybe slightly better than previous pads when using front only and rear only, and a mild improvement when using both front and rear. For lack of a better reason, I suspect this may be due to the slightly higher pedal engagement point with new vs almost gone pads, so I'm getting more rear brake in the 'both' scenario...

Test results:

Old pads
85F mostly sunny
37.5 psi front 41 psi rear

Best rear only:
25', abs on at end
27' abs on full
31' no abs

Best front only
19', no abs, all abs
20' late abs

Best all brakes
14' no abs, full abs
13' late abs

New pads
78F, mostly sunny
40psi rear 37psi front

Best rear only
25' abs full on
26' early abs
29' no abs

Best front only
20' full abs
19' no abs, late abs

Best all brakes
10' no abs
11' late abs
13' full abs