I got 18,000 miles on my stock rear brake pads. YMMV.
Brake pads come in a few formulations. Generally, sintered pads will give you better performance at a higher price. The front and rear pads are the same size and shape, however some companies make different formulations of pads for the front and rear. If you switch brands of brakes, it's probably a good idea to switch all three sets of pads at the same time, or the linked brakes are liable to have a little stroke due to the different friction coefficients of the different brake formulations.
The CBR 1100 XX, VFR 800 ABS, ST 1100 '96-'02, ST 1300, and GL 1800 all use the same brake pads.
Vesrah VD165 price unknown.
Dunlop DP DP124 DP125 price unknown
Tufstop, available from DennisKirk.com and JCWhitney.com, about $30 / pair.
At the time of this writing, no one makes braided steel brakes lines for the ST. Because of the linked brakes, there's a lot of pieces and this would cost a couple hundred dollars. A couple of the companies have expressed to me that they are not willing to work on bikes with ABS.
$540 from StarCycle #TB620406D, 800-990-2453.Kim Leong, STOC 3073, California Sport Touring has them too.
Required tools: 5mm allen wrench, 10mm wrench, screwdriver. All are available in your ST1300 tool kit.This job is a bit easier if you also have a work light nearby to help you see what you are doing.
How to adjust your engine balance shafts
Picture and text by Don in Vancouver