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The cause of pad retraction is not subject entirely on the return spring in the master cylinder. There is ALSO a significant reaction based on the characteristics of the main piston bore seal holding to the piston. This is why the retraction is only a slight degree compared to the extension of the piston stroke. The rubber seal gets deformed in its place to be pushed forward and forced outward from its recess groove. This coupled with the release of pressure in the fluid ( by the master cylinder return spring) allows the force now held in the deformed seal to pull the piston rearward enhanced by its secure fitment on the outer diameter of the piston. That is why the seal is square. Now the second realization is HOW the sliding caliper works. Since there is no hydraulic piston on the far side of the caliper, only a wall holding another brake pad....there is no hydraulic force generated behind this pad to bring it into intimacy with the rotor disk. This is important to realize. Without the sliding action of those pins allowing the caliper body to slide freely AWAY from its initial positioning on the rotor disk ( by not being a solid unit) to a more backward position, closer to the fixed part of the caliper mount...the outer pad will not be brought..INWARD...into contact with the rotor. This is done by a backward force pushing the caliper itself away from the disk while stil maintaining the first pad’s contact with the rotor.Its a first single inner pad contacting the disk...than pushing the caliper rearward to bring the outer(hub side) pad against inner side of the rotor. Now both brake pads are clamped against the disk. The only other way to make both sets of brake pads clamp onto the rotor... without the movement of a sliding caliper.... is by pro viding a hydraulic chamber and pistons on the far side of the caliper to give a moving brake pad its impetus pushing the pads inward while the calip[er body is fixed to its mounting on the fork leg. you will note that the pad spring actually is notched so that this pad will not slide by design. It is fixed against the back wall of the caliper. This now provides you with crucial information to realize how necessary it is to properly use the flexibility and the clamping axle bolts to center the wheel’s axle and rotor disks to maximize the outboard pad's clearance on caliper installation. There is a limited amount of pad retraction on the piston side of the caliper. Make the axle location adjustment for a definite clearance with the fixed brake pad.... when the brake hydraulic force is inactive. That way the retraction force of the pads is maximized( as little as it is.) Cleanliness and polish on those slide rods is critical as well as a good silicon grease., Inside the boot that covers their exposed end. And their freedom to move independently of the caliper body HAS to be obvious when its mounted on the fork. If the caliper is not properly positioned relative to the the disk, the pad retraction on the side without pistons will be slight to none at all and this all depends on the amount of return slide action it is permitted when the Hydraulic pressure is off. The only variable you can control is the location of the disk relative to the caliper and the free action of the caliper slide rods in the rubber grommets. This information is critical to understand why there is a drag on the brakes. And the reason for little free spin of the front wheel when brakes are released.

So as my stock brake pads got pretty worn out I decided to replace them with some aftermarket ones. I got three packs of EBC brake pads, one for rear and two for the front calipers. After taking the stock rear pads out I noticed that the metal shape supporting the pad looks different than stocks, and the bracket piece that goes over the whole assembly fits a little awkward. Still it seemed to fit in the caliper just fine, that was until I tried to put the retainer pin back in. Turns out the loops on the EBC pads are too low so they hit the top of caliper casing and won’t align with the pin holes... After considering all my options I filed the excess metal [it was just a few millimeters so it didn’t compromise the structure of the pad in any way] and got it to fit, and surprisingly work pretty well as well. Then I moved to the front calipers and the real problem surfaced. Once I got the stock pads out and was about to put the new ones in I noticed that the two small pad pieces were not mirrored, instead they were the same. I got confused for a second thinking I was looking at it wrong or something but no, small pads from ABC actually came both same sided. I than opened the second pack of pads I had and they were the same... So basically someone in EBC made the design for those pads based of Honda manual but never QA'd his work or even bother fitting them to a bike to see if they work. I emailed the company to see if they reply, if not Ill send them back to the seller I got them from over eBay and get my money back, than get new stocks. Funniest thing of all was the big logo on the pad pack saying "support America, made in America!", I'm sure to look for Japanese parts next time... I have a photo of how do they look like included, didn’t take one of rear set as I didn’t think about it at the time.