While I know that we all love to focus on upgrades and mods to make our motorcycles faster, it's important that we keep in mind that a faster bike needs to stop. And how do we get it to stop properly? With the appropriate brakes. Often a forgotten part, brake pads are truly essential for safety. When shopping for these, it's inevitable to come across to very popular styles. Sintered or Organic. Let's dive into what are the major differences between these two styles.
SINTERED BRAKE PADS
This style of brake pad is actually the most popular of the two. Most bikes come stock with this style on them so that says a lot! But what does that name mean? Sintered brake pads got their name from the process that they are created. Sintering involves fusing metal particles under heat and pressure to create a compound that is resistant to friction. This style is great for almost all weather riding conditions and they perform at their best once they've get heated up.
Riders on the race track benefit the most from sintered brake pads because they are constantly heating those pads as they rip to the track. These pads also shine on those twisty roads and even those riding in very dense areas as they are able to handle the heat from a lot of braking.
ORGANIC BRAKE PADS
For casual bikers, organic brake pads can serve them well! This style of brake pad is made up of different fibers that are all bonded together with resin. Those who have switched to organic brake pads have noted that these have more bite in them initially. That "bite" allows for more control at lower speeds and it also creates a lot less wear and tear on the rotors. If you'd like to keep things low maintenance for your ride, then organic is the way to go.
This style is not only great for the casual bikers not doing to much hard braking, it's also great for show bikes seeing that they don't beat up the rotors. The price on these is always a lot cheaper than sintered so that's always a plus!
The major con on organic brake pads is that they do need to be replaced far more often than any sintered pad. This is because the softer materials that make them do wear down quickly. This style also does not perform as well as sintered does in many weather conditions like rain or mud. It all depends on your riding conditions with these!