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Blk4blk2k1, You sound like your a little discouraged about the POSITIVE affects of big brakes.. Here's a few..

1) big brakes put less load on your wheel bearings since they are closer to the OD of the tire, the wheel assembly has less of a counteracting leverage against the caliper while trying to stop your car.. It's like prying with a screw driver vs a more favorable prying bar against your wheel assembly..

2) Although your tires DO stop your car and are responsible for getting braking force to the ground. Big brakes offer MORE leverage to the wheel assembly.. In the race world where sticky tires are abundant, your brakes become a weak link VERY quickly.. Through "Weight transition" best identified as gradually pressing harder on your brake pedal as opposed to just slamming it.. Weight of the car will transfer to the front, placing more weight on the front tires therefore offering more stopping ability or traction.. This additional traction offered CAN possibly overload your brake system if it's too small due to the upgrade to performance tires.. I know for a FACT that my stock EJ6 DX brakes were WAAAY too small and I could literally push the pedal as hard as I wanted and the front wheels would still spin with race tires on it.. =D The other half of this argument that weight transition is everything is the fact that the REAR brakes are REPEATEDLY stated to only do a small portion of your stopping while the front takes all the load.. This is because the rears MAIN job is to help the weight transition process. If there was no such thing as weight transition, you could expect to see 60/40 or 50/50 brake proportions on cars that are 50/50 balanced like the S2000 as opposed to the more realistic 80/20 proportions in most cars..

3) BIG BRAKES GENERATE LESS HEAT!!!! Not only do they generate less heat because you effectively have more leverage on the tire/wheel assembly and therefore takes less friction to induce the same amount of stopping force, but they also DISSIPATE HEAT MORE RAPIDLY because there is more surface area to the rotor AND Typically big brake kits like AEM, Tenzo R, And good Willwood kits will use aluminum rotor hubs. They use the aluminum hubs for 2 reasons.. 1, they are lighter and have less rotating weight, 2, they act as a heat sink to the wheel and improve cooling of the hot steel rotor through dissipating heat through the wheel!!

My DX (Disc/Drum) I could get 1-2 good stops on a mountain run before inducing brake fade.. The GSR/LS (Disc/Disc) I can get most of the way through without even worrying about it.. With my old 12.8" Tenzo R brakes, I could almost make my car do a nose stand, literally, and I'd NEVER have to worry about brake fade..

Also, just a little FYI..
ABS BLOWS.. It's been proven time after time that a skilled driver can stop MUCH FASTER than 99% of OE ABS systems EXCLUDING M-Benz S-Class which DOES NOT have a "Peak and release" style ABS system.. who the hell says you stop faster by releasing your brakes 100% anyhow?? that's all ABS does, pulse a release.. it's retarded.. =/ there is an exception to some of the newer 2007 cars as well with built in yaw control and yadda yadda.. For the most part, unless you're driving like a 2005+ car, the ABS is junk in my opinion.. =)



Conclusion..

You're right about the fact that pad upgrades are about the most anyone should have to do to upgrade their brakes (If they're using stock type tires and drive mildly aggressive)

HOWEVER...

If you have moderate engine mods OR you are into performance driving, you definitely need to upgrade your brakes to prevent yourself from getting in a accident and it also enhances your driving experience..

 
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07's.....

 
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most people on here will never need anything more than a pair of upgraded brake pads, hawk hps or hawk hp+ work really well, i go to the track all the time and have never experienced brake fade with them, brake ducting also helps, for how much the civic weighs, all you would really need are pads unless you are doing some crazy endurance race haha

 
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great first post.. was a nice read.

 
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yeah, nice post. i know that going from stock civic brakes to RSX-S discs all around made a huge difference, and I like having no ABS. I think it offers a better pedal feel.

 
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thats why buy my AEM BBK for 01-03 :P

 
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eh, stock brakes are more than fine for a civic. im surprised how good they are, just a bit more prone to warping if used too much.

 
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i agree that the stock brakes on our civics are fine. i go to the track often, and just this past weekend i was doing stops from 120MPH in 20 minute sessions. i didnt get any brake fade at all. good pads and good fluid matters the most after tires. oh yea, stainless steal lines wouldnt hurt either.

 
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well my 2002 LX has some fade down-hill.. i have to pump it to stop.. but i dont have upgraded pads or rotrs.. i know replace them, and thne try again! i will..