Front brakes squeal...this feels like a saga in the making

[jtopiso_imp]

Acrobat, ABS sensors don't measure anything that has to do with the brake pad compound, so switching to aftermarket pads should have no effect on the ABS system. I changed pad compounds on my ABS-equipped XSR900, to no ill effect.

So, from what you're saying, the only remedy they've tried that worked (other than swapping pads) was adding grease to the back of the pads?

Yes, that's why when you're more hard on brakes the extra force minimize the vibration. Grease suppresses the vibration and there is no noise. Until Honda or their supplier come up with a new compound combination.

Of course this is also not a very elegant engineering solution like Triumph's ridiculous rubber patch.

You are right also about ABS sensors, but the job of ABS is to use this measurement to modulate breaking as long as you apply pressure on the lever after detecting locking. And friction characteristics plays a major role to the performance of the ABS.

The devil is in the details...

The ABS was tuned under a certain conditions, which are usualy diferent to what we find in real use.

So the ABS is tuned making several assumptions, and leaving some security marging to make sure the bike remains stable (even if it means losing some braking capacity). The biggest assumption, which varies from day to day, from bike to bike is the one which imposes the biggest limit on braking performance: tire grip against the ground. You can easily ride anyday with a fricition coeficient varying between 0.6 to 1.4, and the ABS programming is still the same wether you ride on wet cold morning with old tires, or you can have new sticky tyres in hot summer, mid day, on a race track.

So do brake pads matter to ABS? Yes they do, but in an order of magnitud (or two) less than the tires or the tarmac.