I’ve had to fit a brand new rotor to a used caliper with used pads. Do I need to sand the pads down and then bed in before I ride or can I skip the sanding of the pads and just bed the used pads on the new rotor. I’m never really sure.

Thanks
James

I squirt the pads with disc brake cleaner and rub them together then rinse under a tap, final squirt optional, always works for me, I think its one of Marshy’s tips.
I only ever use wet n dry when they’re obviously glazed over, using the wet n dry on a nice flat surface.

Just bed them in as normal. Might take a bit longer to get them to conform to the disc

As above, just bed them in.

I’ve just ridden them and bed them in as normal. Didn’t know people swapped out or sanded them. Unless they’re contaminated, then I bin them.

I’ll usually change the pads, unless they’re pretty new- not because there’s any harm in it, but just because pads are cheap (well, mine are) and it means less time doing boring service jobs

I’ve always used the blow torch method for contaminated brake pads. There are plenty of vids on YT of motorcyclists doing this to their contaminated pads.

If you heat up the pads, the only thing in them that can burn off is any contaminates.

If there’s any black stuff or shiny patches on pads I’ll run a clean wire brush over them to bring them back to the raw friction material. This works for rim brake blocks, too. Removing (or at least exposing ready for the pick) any shards embedded in there.