Red brake shoes

[Monkeypants]

My Oz Rapide has one Red and one Green (Ferodo) brake shoe on each front brake plate. If the brakes on this bike were standard issue strength I would assume this was a case of someone cleaning out the parts bin, however the brakes are freakishly powerful, so I doubt that the choice of shoes is unplanned. By powerful I mean the front wheel can be locked at 50 mph with two fingers on the lever. It is going to be time to replace them someday soon and it would be niceto maintain that level of performance. Does anyone recognize this red brake lining material?

 

[chankly bore]

Possibly Ferodo MS3 and MS5. Was it red only for the Yankee market? Green could also be AM 4 if I see bits of aluminium in it.

 

[Monkeypants]

Thanks very much, your info was spot on. I did a google search using Ferodo MS3 and up came a good MPH article on brakes , written by Bill Hancock. According to Bill, the MS 5 is a red, or as he more accurately describes it, pink material. The green material does have aluminium flecks in it as you observed, so it is very likely AM4 . I have some new Ferodo AM4 linings here, but I wonder if Ferodo still makes the pink MS5? .

Glen

 

[vibrac]

put the red ones in a bank vault untill it is established if red was the original linings of Stevenage if so after £720 for a miller stop light you could have a fortune on your hands!
Seriously the green ones do sound like AM4 when my cartefully stocked ones finnaly ran out (racing) I found a good substitute from Safetek - I am a bit cavalier about health and safety but even I wear a mask dealing with AM4 dust...

 

[A_HRD]

I have pink/red shoes in the front of my Rapide. They have been in there for over 25 years. Every now and again, when I come to clean and fettle the brakes - I expect to find them worn out. But not so. They seem to last for ever and they are wicked brakes. I have replaced the drums though - once in that time. If these pink/red linings are still available I will be first in the queue!

I also have a bike-set of over-thick AM4 lined shoes available from my old stock (bought before the H&S brigade banned them); when I lathe-turn these to fit, I use a fine water-spray which means the asbestos doesn't become airborne but comes off as sludge and is easily collected-up and disposed of.

Peter B
Bristol, UK.

 

[johnmead]

The green linings were put on the leading shoe and the red on the trailing shoe. The green was "harder" and worked better on the leading shoe. The red is "softer" and works well before the green gets up to temperature.

I still have a dozen or so new green linings, but currently use bonded linings on my Vincents.

John Mead

 

[Monkeypants]

My other Rapide has bonded linings which have been arced to the drums. It is a repectable stopper, but nothing like the bike with th red/green combo, which also has finned drums and lightning style back plates. I will enjoy these great brakes as long as they last, maybe another two years of touring. I expect the replacements will be inferior.
Glen

 

[clevtrev]

The red linings were on my Comet when I bought(?) it in 1957. So I have no reason to believe that they were other than original. Suffice to say, that they worked, are still there still plenty of life left in them and over 200,000 miles on them. So what material are they ?
I had them on the twin until an ear broke, the subsequent repair did not include the linings, used AM4, and never had another brake from then on, in spite of a million permutations of set up.

 

[Ken Tidswell]

The MS3 was a lining designed to run in water or to operate in a damp condition.Used on trial bikes, they are or were used in conjunction with AM4 on the leading shoe to improve the braking as they wore more quickly, and made the other shoe work harder.When AM4 gets hot it is more effective, but tends to grab when first applied.Ken

 

[highbury731]

So is there a modern equivalent of the MS3 trailing shoe + AM4 leading combination, from say Safetek?