"Rhino" brand brake pads review

With not a lot over 8000 miles on the clock (if the previous owner was telling the truth!) the Z250SL had eaten the organic EBCs that were in the front brake caliper. EBCs are not original fitment so I don't know what's going on here but they were plenty meaty at 3200 so they've not lasted long at all. They were also cracked!

I found this out since I had to clean out the calipers after a few days of winter riding.. It only took me until June to get around to it. I'm busy, y'know? Anyway, this meant I was in need of some new pads. Being tight I went straight to ebay looking for FA197 sorted by price and postage (lowest). This brings up some openly Chinese pads at £6.70 or the next step up is supposedly German quality pads from Rhino at £8. I have tried Chinese pads before and actually liked them very much, but I went big with the Rhinos because they're completely new to me and I haven't seen a single proper review of them. Very quickly they popped through my door..

They look very fancy in gold with a nice thick back plate, not like the thin thing that the Chinese pads get. They fitted into the caliper beautifully and took around 50-60 miles to bed in against the disc. Initial impressions are that they actually work okay, plenty powerful if I squeeze the lever hard (I did have the rear slewing about one time!) but they do lack a certain feel, there's a good initial bite and then not a lot more until a lot of squeezing takes place when they seem to really come alive. They do feel more slippery than grippy though, a lot like Kyoto and Vicma pads do - as if the disc is getting away from them rather than the pads biting the disc to slow it down, if that makes any sense at all.

I have not yet ridden with these pads in the rain but this review will be updated when I do, along with pad life if I keep this bike long enough.

**UPDATE**

With 7121 miles under their belt the Rhino pads look like this:

After around 5000 miles they started to exhibit quite serious wet weather lag which has only become worse with time and they do show signs of brake fade if given the task of a serious stop. Combine this with an overall lack of power and the only thing these pads have going for them is long life, which is a shame when all I want to do is replace them

**FINAL UPDATE**
12859 miles:

I probably could've squeezed a few more miles out of them but the wet weather lag and the fade continued to get worse and frankly I couldn't wait to swap them for something else. So overall not completely terrible (they do at least kinda work as brake pads and never fell apart) but long lag, noticeable lag and annoyingly long life makes these a 3/10 at best. I also disagree with Rhino that these won't harm your discs, my disc seems every bit as worn as I would expect after this. Properly Chinese AKA pads have been fitted in their place, a review will of course follow.