With the cold weather peaking this week with 6 inches of snow where I live, biking was pretty much an impossibility. Couple this with a garage with no heating, meant I'd barely laid eyes upon my bikes this week. So today, with free time on my hands, I showed the FireBlade some love and changed up the front pads in readiness for the great 2018 and gave her a clean to boot.
There is no getting away from it, but riding a bike in winter takes its toll on the exposed components as you can clearly see from my front right caliper. I'm not overly precious about the FireBlade, using it as more of a work horse than a cherished possession, but seeing the calipers like this made me feel a little guilty. There had been no discernible dip in braking performance, but I could have probably cleaned the bike more. It's only when you take bits apart that you can really get into the deepest recesses of the machine. Thankfully is all superficial and not structural.
The pads that came off weren't too bad, with a few mm of life left in them, but even seeing that, I wanted to get some new pads in there. Being a fan of EBC brakes for both their price and quality, I ordered up a pair from Sportsbikeshop and they arrived quickly and safely.
After a clean, I had a slight issue fitting them this time as the backing plate on each caliper was an extremely snug fit over the lower pad mounting. What followed was a few choice words, a bit of persuasion and eventually two fully fitted calipers. I really must invest in a workbench for the garage as working so close to the floor is a pain in more ways than one.
The weather this week looks to be okay, with half decent temperatures for good measure. Following the Siberian blast the UK was exposed to this week, it will feel positively balmy out there. Not quite vented leathers time yet, but soon dear friends, soon.
The pads that came off weren't too bad, with a few mm of life left in them, but even seeing that, I wanted to get some new pads in there. Being a fan of EBC brakes for both their price and quality, I ordered up a pair from Sportsbikeshop and they arrived quickly and safely.
After a clean, I had a slight issue fitting them this time as the backing plate on each caliper was an extremely snug fit over the lower pad mounting. What followed was a few choice words, a bit of persuasion and eventually two fully fitted calipers. I really must invest in a workbench for the garage as working so close to the floor is a pain in more ways than one.
The weather this week looks to be okay, with half decent temperatures for good measure. Following the Siberian blast the UK was exposed to this week, it will feel positively balmy out there. Not quite vented leathers time yet, but soon dear friends, soon.
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