Brake Disks

Purchased from Trade Direct after seeing their ad in MCN.www.stealthproducts.co.uk/

Want to hear a story?

My trusty 900 Divvy (part exed recently for my SV), in need of some new front brake discs after failing MOT. I scouted around, as you do, in search of a bargain in the brake department. Bought a copy of MCN and checked out the advertisements. I found several companies selling discs and decided upon Trade Direct, as they were known then.

Sure enough after only a few days the discs arrived and I duly set about fitting them. Straight away I noticed a potential problem. The discs were quite a bit thicker than the manual stated they should be. Well I thought, perhaps this is to obtain more wear from them. So I carried on fitting and managed to get the callipers back on OK.

Brakes being quite important I carried out a good check and, statically, every thing seemed OK. However when I rode the bike within a hundred yards I noticed a scraping sound coming from the front. I stopped straight away, using the rear brake, and took a looked at the callipers. I noticed a bit of swarf from the soft ally castings of the callipers, the discs had rubbed the pad carrier of the calliper.

So off came the discs and off I went checking everything again. A thought accrued to me, the discs are thicker than they should be! And because the discs on a Divvy are solid and not floating this had the effect of moving the outer edge of the disc further away from the wheel, so much so that it touched the calliper. To allow the same length bolts to be used, Trade Direct had machined a recess within the mounting holes of the disc. This created a weakness within the mounting of the discs and actually caused the discs to appear warped!

Well we all make mistakes, so I contacted Trade Direct, explained the problem and was told to return the discs. This I did and awaited their response. Mean while I had no bike. The response was slow in coming. So I contacted them and asked for a refund, something anyone can do under the Sale Of Goods Act. Again I became frustrated by their procrastination and failure to honour my request. So I contacted MCN to see if they would help since they were carring their ads. MCN promised to talk with Trade Direct on my behalf. Trade Direct then told MCN that they had supplied me with front discs for a 600 Divvy by mistake. This was not the case, besides I would have thought that MCN would have known that a 600 Divvy has only a single front disc, not a pair like the 900.

So I contacted Sheffield Trading Standards who confirmed that they had received a number of complaints about this company. I was told it would be looked into, obviously not too deeply, because after well over a month of hagling I eventually got about 50% of my money back. Trade Direct disputed my claim because they said the discs had been fitted. Well if I hadn't fitted then how would I have known I had a problem with them, UH QED!

Trade Direct wouldn't even refund the carriage. And in the end in order to speak directly to one of their directors I had to lie about my name, otherwise I was told "sorry he is out of the office"!

The moral of my little tale is BEWARE. In the end I bought some EBC discs, more expensive, but at least they worked. I suppose you really do get what you pay for.

Oh dear, sorry to hear of your problem.

I have stealth discs on my Daytona 955 and yes they are a tad thicker but so far no problems (fingers crossed, touching wood etc etc). There are other posts that indicate differences in experiences. I have to say I'm suprised about the service you received, I did ok but I certainly be more wary in the future.

that really sucks i hate companies that wont stand behind there products. But thanks for posting so other will not make the same mistake