I've done two days on a newly-installed set of Vesrah SS pads. I love the bite and stopping power, but the lack of feel/progression had me getting a bit dicey on a few entries. Of course, there's a price tag on these pads, and I'm trying not to take a bath on trashing or selling them. . . So I thought about taming the feel down by mixing a less aggressive set of pads in with them, just like mixing fork springs to get "in-between" two weights. Anybody ever tried this? Any reason this is a terrible idea? Of course, I wouldn't be mixing two different pads within the same caliper for fear of the disparity between friction coeffecients warping my rotors. Rather, I would run these SS pads on the right caliper, for example, while arming the left side with RJLs. for reference:
you can most definitely mix them. And you can put different pads on the same caliper. If youre worried about wear you can alternate the sides of the pad/rotor.
The most common example of mixing I've heard is using both SBS DS1 and DS2. SBS even recommends it on their website to tune braking feel. SS and RJL? I wonder how much different that will feel from just using XX.
Thanks, Ken! . . . and thanks for all those podcasts, too! I didn't know you were on here, or I would've reached out to say Hi long ago.
We do it all the time in pro racing - however, realize that you leave material deposits on the rotor, and sometimes they do not mix and will glaze. Pay attention, use one compound left caliper, one compound right caliper and mark the rotors so you know what compound has been used. DO NOT use one compound left, one compound right in the same caliper, bad idea. Too hard to track. I have done this for an entire season with great results, but you absolutely MUST track the rotors and calipers - or you must deglaze rotors with a diamond hone if unsure of the mix. khill knows the rider very well that did an entire season with the "cocktail". I think he had a very meticulous crew chief.
To follow up on what @stangmx13 mentioned, here is a link that some might find interesting: https://www.webbikeworld.com/sbs-brakes-shows-off-ds-2-dual-sinter-brake-pad-compound/
Same, ds1/ds2 combo. What's crazy is this is my first season running the more expensive SBS DS pads. When I first started racing I ran SBS dual carbons, they would last me two weekends if I was lucky. Then moved to vesrah SS and XX, little better pad life, maybe 3-4 weekends. Jumped up to the SBS DS and they last me 5+ weekends easily. My required brake pressure to get slowed down for corners has also plummeted with the DS, I usually am around 8-12 bar of pressure for heavy braking zones. I'm lucky if I get over 7 bar now with the DS. I plan on doing some A/B testing with the DS and Vesrahs to confirm that however. My limiting factor for braking hard is the rear wanting to come around and back in too much now so the stark difference could be bike setup related.
On my CBR1k I have oem pads in one caliper because they bite quick but have no progression, and vesrah XX's in the other caliper because they bite softer but have great progression.
