Motorcycle brakes are just as important as the tyres, a helmet and ensuring your bike is in good health. Without looking after the brakes on your bike, you're signing your own death warrant and it's due to this that it's recommended to inspect, maintain and replace parts of your brakes regularly to make sure they work the moment you pull or stand on the brake lever. It's often forgotten about buy checking the brake pads is important as pads that are worn or 'shiny' will not grip the disk hard enough, or if you have a rear drum brake, then you need to check the shoes, the adjustment level and basically make sure they clamp the wheel properly.

The pads are just part of the brakes on your bike. It's important to clean and check the condition of the callipers, drums, brake lines and fluid. If you are going to overhaul your brakes make sure you have them tested (or fitted) by a reputable garage after you change them. Use manufacturer parts or upgraded parts that are suited to your motorcycle. If you upgrade them, make sure your motorcycle insurance company knows about them so that your policy is still valid.

There are different gradings of brake pads that are available so you can choose harder, race-spec pads if you're taking it onto the track or slightly different ones for road use. Depending on what is available for your particular bike and the way you ride the bike will depend on what pads you choose. Whatever your riding style, you need to make sure that there is plenty of meat on the pads and that they are replaced before they reach the indicator level. The difference between old pads and new ones is huge so that should be even more of a reason to replace the pads sooner rather than later.

However, it's important to bed the brake pads in when you change them. Different manufacturers say different things, but riding with the brakes slightly on and then doing hard braking from high speed a few times to get the heat through them and take the 'factory layer' off is usually good enough, and it will help them sit properly in the carriers so they won't squeak.

Watch out for brake pads that aren't approved by the EU. Even if your brake pads cost a lot, they are the only thing that will stop you from going into the back of a car or slowing for a tight corner. Having trust in your motorcycle's brakes is more important than how fast it goes.

Always make sure your brakes are are much faster at braking than the bike is at accelerating. If you upgrade the engine, you should have already bought bigger discs, better callipers, new brake lines (stainless and braided) as well as good brake pads. If you are going to be running on track then make sure you upgrade to race brake fluid to combat the high temperatures it will be subjected to.