I love white wheels on white Gem’s but they are a ■■■■■ to keep clean. In a short period of time the front would start turning black. I coated the wheels with Rejex but it didn’t help. I got sick and tiered of cleaning them and decided time for a change.
This is what the fronts look like compared to the rears. That black dust is glued to the wheels. An hour per wheel and they are almost white again.
Having owned many exotic cars and having the same problem, I knew what the solution was. Ceramic brakes. Problem is no one makes them for a Gem. So set out to have a custom set made. Not easy or cheap. Then I remembered that in 2013, Gem upgraded the brakes to the Razor brakes. They are pretty impressive, dual piston with drilled rotors. quick search and found ceramic pads for Razors.
This Gem only has 3,000 miles on it and I was surprised to see the pads were almost worn thru. I guess 45mph and driving it like a Porsche takes its toll, Gentleman Ceramic is the future.
Ceramic coating the wheels this afternoon, will let them cure overnight and test tomorrow. Hope this works as planned, if not, well at least they’re gold.
Thanks for the photo! I’m zooming in (i.e. downloading pic) looking at the space between the Hub bore and the wheel spacer bore. I see this is using a 4x100 spacer on a 4x4 hub. Maybe it’s the camera angle but there appears to be a more narrow space at the 2 o’clock position vs other gaps around the rest of the circumference. It would be interesting for you to put a feeler gauge in to check this distance at different positions around the hub bore. If there is gap variation, then the spacer is not truly centered. Which is why I’m reccomending 4x4 over 4x100 spacers.
Actually new thickness is .188". I did a post earlier with Chinese parts. Here are the service manuel specs. The duel piston calipers were standard for GEMS on the 2013 and 2014 models. They were interchangable with Razor brakes which make parts a lot less expensive. I believe Michael just replaced the standard pads with ceramic pads.
Not sure what year you are trying to replace. It’s completely different than 2013-2014. Here is my 2014 example. The rotors are secured on the back of the hub. It does look like a 4x4 hub pattern, which pre2016 Gems have, but lots of ATVs have that pattern too.
Don’t think it will work on 2016+ either since the hub has to screw into the rotor and there aren’t any threads on your rotor.
I had so much regen in it it would snap your head forward and we are Tesla drivers. Had to back it down a little. Regen in these things is awesome, one foot driving. Been driving the 2018 some and the regen only when you hit the brake sucks. Looking forward to modifying it.
Surprised your pads wore out in 3000 miles with that amount of regen. We have Model 3 and Model Y and love the one pedal driving. Rarely ever need to use the brakes—
yet another reason for going EV… hardly any brake dust polluting air, lungs and water ways.
And in areas when it doesn’t rain much, when it does rain the water running off the roads are dirty and oily. EVs don’t have leaking valve covers, engine oil pans, etc.
Am I to understand that 2013 Razor disk brake pads will fit my 2009 E2 GEM? I’d like to take advantage of these ceramic pads if so.
Also, would they be Are the RZR front disks or the rear? Is it limited to the RZR or will any of the year Rangers work as well. I noticed that they seem to be interchangeable on Amazon in some cases.
Currently I think my original front disk pads are glazed. Until I get some replacement pads I may take some 400 grit to them (and the disks).
Mike why not just turn the regen all the way up?
Are you able to do that? (I’m not sure what you can and can’t adjust on your car) my 2016 with non stock Sevcon S-6 controller
The regen is adjusted way up. I almost never use my normal brakes cause regen is so good.
On my classic regen was pretty high. But regen stops below 10mph and when you change parameters for higher speed it stops at an even higher mph. So still used brakes more than I would of liked. My 2018 is using the factory controller, regen SUCKS. Regen only comes on with application of brakes. With the low resistance of lithium ,as soon as you touch the brake pedal, you gem friction stopping and big regen all at once. really hard to modulate braking. I love the big regen on Tesla’s, easy to modulate and it does 95% of the braking.
