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EBC Discs

Ray1150

Ray1150

Cruisin' Guzzisti
GT Famiglia
Joined
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21 k miles on the clock and my front discs are so warped they have become unusable.
They started to warp quite quickly (around 5k) and although I have found reasonably priced replacement Brembos at Bike Torque Racing I'm wondering if I should replace them with EBC who I have always found good.
Has anyone tried EBC discs?
 
Get a cheap set of stud extractors on eBay or Amazon, some brake cleaner and a power drill, then use the appropriate extractor to spin the bobbins.
That should free then up.

I've done mine couple of times now, works ok, no pulsing at low speed and much cheaper than a pair of discs.
 
Regarding the warped rotors on the Stelvio: my NTX also had started acting up around 5K miles. I of course cleaned the bobbins and did the whole dance just like on older Aprilias. It helps somewhat temporarily, if that is what the issue really is. Warped rotors produce a particular pulsing feeling, which is particularly noticeable at slow speeds but is also present at higher speeds. My stelvio sure felt like that, so I had my dealer, who has been fantastic with support and dealing with MG when needed, check this. Couple of interesting facts turned up: the rotors were indeed warped but MG did not have the runout spec for the Stelvio! My dealer kept pressing them so they finally produced the runout specs based on a V11, i think. The rotors on the Stelvio exceeded the specified margins. Then it turned out that MG does not really cover any wearable brake parts after 600 miles. However, at the persistence of my dealer they did exchange my rotors under warranty at nearly 6k... With your mileage it may be a lost cause but who knows -- may be worth checking, especially if it started at 5k and you had it documented...

I did have EBC prolite rotors on the V11 and have only good things to say about them.
 
I'll check the bobbins again certainly worth a look as there's plenty of meat left on the discs, really annoying, I did ask way back when but was told they weren't covered under warrantee.
I'll e-mail EBC and check that their discs can accommodate ABS then I think I'll give them a go.
 
Ray1150 said:
I'll check the bobbins again certainly worth a look as there's plenty of meat left on the discs, really annoying, I did ask way back when but was told they weren't covered under warrantee.
I'll e-mail EBC and check that their discs can accommodate ABS then I think I'll give them a go.
Click to expand...

The trick would be mounting the ABS ring. Any machine shop should be able to handle that. Then you would have to do the spacing for the sensor. If you don't want to go to this trouble, then you are pretty much stuck with stock rotors.
 
Just called EBC the MD624 listed as fitting the stelvio (no mention of abs) and also the ntx (listed as radial abs), comes drilled and tapped ready to swap the abs ring over.
£153.09 a pop, let's hope these don't warp like the brembo's.
 
Ray1150 said:
Just called EBC the MD624 listed as fitting the stelvio (no mention of abs) and also the ntx (listed as radial abs), comes drilled and tapped ready to swap the abs ring over.
£153.09 a pop, let's hope these don't warp like the brembo's.
Click to expand...
Any brake disc can warp. But the Brembo's (or any quality brake disc on a motorcycle) are not PRONE to warping. In fact most reports of "Warped" brake disc's on motorcycle are either floating discs that no longer correctly float (dirty/binding bobbins) or uneven pad deposits on the surface of the disc.
It takes a massive amount of heat to warp a brake disc, especially if the disc is a floating disc. Putting that much heat into the discs on a motorcycle is incredibly hard to do.
It is far more likely and common to have either issues with the bobbins or uneven deposits.
Brembo is one of the top brake companies in the world. Granted, the discs used on production Guzzi's are not the best Brembo makes. But even a standard production grade Brembo is of higher quality than the OE discs on most non-Brembo equipped bikes. Can any disc have issues? Sure. But it is very unlikely you have actually warped the Brembo discs on your Guzzi (or any other modern motorcycle with floating discs).
 
Well fingers crossed that I was wrong, I did as Campagman said and with a big stud extractor I found in my box of taps ran all the bobbins round a few times wiggling them about a bit (too technical?) without mashing them up with a cordless drill.
I can't get going round where I live on the edge of London but certainly at low speed the pulsing has gone.
There were no black spots on the disc (as the video) but braking at speed was none too clever.
It'll be next week before I can get out for a proper ride but I have a good feeling I won't need to call EBC.
Thanks
Ray
 
You will need to bed in your disks and pads again - steady application on a long downhill run a few times. I overdid mine and now they (the disks) rattle on the bobbins - no binding though
 
Mine did warp early and MG refused to warranty. Todd replaced them and verified that it was not the bobbins but truly warped. :D
 
So the whole story is that coming back from France last year I noticed two problems.
The first and most serious was that the cams tappets etc all needed replacing, that meant I dropped it into Haywards at the end of September 2013 and have only just got it back.
The second was the front brakes, riding it back from Haywards they still didn't feel at all right. I was hoping it was a bobbins problem but we've just been to Westonbirt Arboretum today, lovely day, lovely ride, missing the motorways out about 300 miles.
The bad news is that breaking from speed is no better after making sure the bobbins are all free.
For some reason never made clear to me I've got to pay for the labour on the top end replacement. The phrase sold not fit for purpose keeps coming to mind, can you imagine someone like Toyota pulling a stunt like this?
Now I need a new set of front discs & pads too after just 20k miles.
Lovely :angry:
 
When I bought my '08 Stelvio I noticed some pulsing from the brakes and put a dial gauge on the disks, one had a 1mm run out :o
Thought it might be bobbins so tried freeing them all off (brake cleaner + drill etc) but no significant difference. Close examination showed that the wear on the disk was in agreement with the dial gauge readings so something WAS warped.
Took them into work and had a play in the mechanical workshop (rather distructive) using a surface table and some measuring equipment, it was not the disc itself but the center rotor that was bent or warped, my best guess is that it was leant on by a 'technician' during a tyre change at some time because I can't believe it came out of the factory that way, at least I hope not.
Aquired a set of front discs from a Griso (same dimensions but gold in place of black rotors) and everything now 100%.

Can't give any feedback on EBC brakes on the Guzzi, ran them on a previous big Suzuki and they were excellent.
 
OK, all good.
The discs turned up next day delivery but it was Saturday before I could get into the garage.
I haven't got access to a surface plate or any thing properly flat but just putting the discs together tou could see a lot of daylight between them.
The EBC's are a gold colour as opposed to the black on the brembos and are a bit lighter, 530 originals weighed 650 grams. They came drilled and tapped ready for the abs ring.
I also took the opportunity to change the fork oil going to a 10w as I'm always 2 up and have already put a heavier spring on the shock.
The rear pads were looking a bit low so I replaced them too, all pads are HH. They took about 15 miles to start grabbing properly. Sunday we went for a run into Kent and Sussex, brakes now all as they should be.
 

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I have never had much luck with ebcHH pads on their prolite rotors, I have always(like on 4 occasions , slow learner) had very poor rotor life and galling. to their credit 3 times they replaced the rotors and said they had never seen that kind of chunks torn out of a rotor surface before....but 4 times over 7 ears is bad.

I did wind up using their rotors with excellent results...but with Galfer, ferodo, and Vesrah pads.

I had to use ebc hh pads on my suzuki dl-650 on a long trip last year(all avail) and they decimated the rotors...their reputation for killing rotors is WELL DESERVED

Get some Galfer or ferodo and you rotors will last longer
 
Funnily enough I had a spare set of new brembo front pads in the garage so I used them. I ordered a new set of ebc's for the rear as they were on their last legs so I'll keep an eye out.
 
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