To bed or not to bed?

[pitbull113]

I'm running Hawk Blues on my ITA protege and will need front pads before my next race weekend. I hate to waste a track session bedding in the brakes because this will be my first time at Sebring. Is bedding the brakes that necessary?

[erlrich]

You can just use the first 5 minutes or so of your next session to bed the brakes in. I'm sure all cars are different, but on my car new pads (I also use Hawk blues) tend to be a little too "grabby", and feel like they're not holding evenly on all corners until they're bedded in. YMMV

[joeg]

I never bed Hawk Blues. If you have new rotors, just go easy for a lap or two.

[trobbins]

We have bed in brakes on our Honda Civic and CRX with the front of the car securely up on jack stands and the jack in place under the lifting point and the rear wheels were also chocked .
This was used as a last resort method at the track .
Usually we just take the cars out on the road next to our shop and do it that way .
Yes I know this sounds redneck , but we live in a pretty rural part of our area .
And the neighbors have never complained , Yet .
Besides my brother is a cop .

I would rather go out on bedded brakes and know they are going to do what I'm asking them to do .

[pitbull113]

Thanks for all your input guys. I may know a closed industrial park I can run the car around in. If I can't get in there then I think I'll do the jack up the car deal.

[Tak]

"bedding" in the brakes is a bit of a misnomer. Getting the brakes to match the contour of the rotor is not terribly important (assuming you have good rotors on your race car!). What IS important is thermally cycling your brake pads so that the compount and adhesives used in manufacture can degas gradually (as in over 3 or 4 laps, not 3 or 4 braking applications). And yes, this applies to Hawk Blues.
Why is this important? A rapid initial thermal cycle will cause enough gas to bake out of pads that the gas will dramatically reduce the friction between the pad and rotor. This is called "green fade" and is characterized by a hard brake pedal and alarmingly little deceleration. It typically happens at the end of a long straight while braking for a slow corner. It will make you a candidate for a brown shorts award. Carroll Smith describes the cause and effects much better in his books.
Whatever method you use, you should see the brake pad discolored from heat at least 1/8 of an inch deep in the friction material (viewed from the side of the pad). I don't believe there is a need to allow the brakes to cool--so as mentioned above, start the session easy on the brakes, and progessively build up to threshold braking over 3 to 4 laps. If you feel green fade, back off for a couple laps. Then resume.

Tak
#29 ITA
SFR SCCA