Thanks for the detailed reply @shv18. The brake oil has been recently drained and changed when both the pads were changed. Dot 4. So no issues and i know exactly what you mean by sponginess due to air lock/water content. There is no proper bite at all. My mechanic might be right about the plates. But i never trust the Honda SVC guys here in my place as they dont have any basic knowledge about these kinda things. But i'll take your advice , will try to find a proper SVC for an checkup as they would cost me almost 3000 for both the plates. And i definitely want better brake pads as i'm an aggressive rider. So let me try those if i get a chance to grab them. Did a bit of research after seeing your post. Thanks again!

Cheers,
Maneesh S

ADDITION:

I would also advise you to first get both the rotors cleaned with surf water or detergent as it may have been the case that during one of your rides or getting your CBR washed outside, there might have been oil or diesel spilled on the rotors. under such circumstances, the braking efficiency reduces greatly. Get the rotors and the brake calipers pressure washed after application of detergent on it. Is has happened once with me due to sheer ignorance of the local washing shop's new recruit and post the clean up session, the braking was back and spot on. Just a thought!

Cheers,

Shv18...another good share from your side...
The Steel braided brake fluid hose is used wherever higher temperature, harsh external conditions like pebbles or any sharp objects are likely to hit the hose..The most important property of the hose is to stop elongation of hose ,while braking,which happens to some extent with plain rubber hoses.In effect the Metal braid hose gives same brake feel every time while the plain rubber hose is likely to loose that feel through aging.

Similarly the Sintered brake pads are performance pads meant for high speed , high temperature operation without brake fade. Most commercial 2 wheelers Brake Pads are made of either Organic pads with steel particles or Copper/Brass particles embedded in the organic material to give better friction, or of Special material like Sintered metal, or Kevlar.. The down side of Organic pads is that it suffers Brake Fade with temperature...some of them also loose their friction co-efficient when wet. But these are cheaper to replace ..The metal Sintered brake pads are costly, and have no heat or water/moisture ingress fade. so from cold start to hot operation, the Sintered pads are uniform in braking.
Sintering is the name given to a process by which, there is fusing together under heat and pressure of metallic particles and in the case of brakes it blends various other elements to enhance friction properties and wear life .
Sintered brakes last longer and generally speaking handle the heat of heavy braking better.

Although attempts were made by the OEMs a few years ago to cut costs of Sintered brakes by using sintered IRON, that was deemed a failure and these days the base material is copper.
Sintered copper brakes are made by one of two processes, pressure sintering in a vacuum furnace or sintering through a belt furnace in a controlled atmosphere. The steel backing plates for the brake pads are copper coated and a preformed sintered copper “Puck” is located onto pips in the plate (either male or female) and the parts are passed through a furnace. At a pre-determined temperature the copper coating under the pad puck melts and fused the puck and plate together.

Hope the explanation is helpful

@shv18 i enquired abt the HH sintered pads and it costs a whooping 8k. I think u mentioned some where around 3k right? Also the tapered bearings cost the same while the stock cone set bearings costs 2.8k. Are these prices reasonable?

@shv18 i enquired abt the HH sintered pads and it costs a whooping 8k. I think u mentioned some where around 3k right? Also the tapered bearings cost the same while the stock cone set bearings costs 2.8k. Are these prices reasonable?

not sure of 8k . we managed to get galfer pads for CBR abs and non abs for 1800 odd however the abs ones were useful and the non - abs ones are the one that fit US non abs model hence lying unused with me.

for OEM coneset there are 2 bearings each costing 400 bucks each so total coneset is 800 + 400 labour - costs 1200.

@shv18 i enquired abt the HH sintered pads and it costs a whooping 8k. I think u mentioned some where around 3k right? Also the tapered bearings cost the same while the stock cone set bearings costs 2.8k. Are these prices reasonable?

Thank you. As far as the brake pads they are not urgent as she is on a new set of pads.

And I meant the the total cone set ~cost. I enquired in Honda spares. What abt the cost of the tapered bearing? 7.5k?

for OEM coneset there are 2 bearings each costing 400 bucks each so total coneset is 800 + 400 labour - costs 1200.

not sure of 8k . we managed to get galfer pads for CBR abs and non abs for 1800 odd however the abs ones were useful and the non - abs ones are the one that fit US non abs model hence lying unused with me.

for OEM coneset there are 2 bearings each costing 400 bucks each so total coneset is 800 + 400 labour - costs 1200.

The cone set is not just the bearings alone. Replacing just the bearings has no point since if the races are scratched or worn, the new bearings will be worn out faster. The total cone set includes Top and Bottom steering cone races and 2 bearings. Total cost goes to over 2300 excluding labour.

i have had my coneset changed twice and once at 12k and another time at 27k and i am sure it was not 2300 in any case.
i over tightened it first time and it went bad.

second time i had wobble issue and got it changed however the wobble was not due to coneset but i still went ahead and changed it.

I think you didn't have the races changed at all, just the bearings as you mentioned, and that is why they went bad so fast. The cone set should last well beyond 25K at least (depending on road conditions). Many mechanics are lazy and prefer not to use the Honda tools to remove the races from the frame and the steering stem. They will just put in bearings and give the go ahead. In my case, I had the entire set replaced.

Please refer to the below. You need to change parts 10,11 and 12 as well as 14, 15 and 16 to actually change the 'cone set'.


Photographs of cone set being changed.

in ideal situation yes it should last well over 25k however i am 100% i have had all those parts changed as i had pitting on the races as well and not just the bearings.

first time blame it to my ignorance due to pressure washing and over tightening killed it at 12k itself and it was badly rusted with heavy pitting.
the second time includes a ladakh trip in worth of weather and some serious offroading for over 20 days. also it wasn't really gone bad but i anyways got it opened
and i had my doubts hence got changed. along with races.

and i am 100% it was not anyways close to 2k mark including labour and part. as i am always present when the work is done . be it a 10 min work or a 5 hour long service with multiple parts checkup and replacement.