so after a long fun packed day out should my brake discs be getting very very hot?                                                                                                                                                                             

They should be pretty hot immediately after riding...not red hot, but easily too hot to touch comfortably.
Just make sure you don't have pads dragging on the discs, but that should show up in increased petrol consumption anyway.                                                                                                                                                                             

thanks will, if i am pushing the bike with the engine of i can just hear a slight metalic scraping from the front wheel                                                                                                                                                                             

That's fine Julie.  If it's hard to push at all then it's a problem.   Simple way to check if your brakes are sticking ... hold them on as hard as you can for at least fifteen seconds, then try and push the bike around.                                                                                                                                                                             

cheers Geoff, will give that ago, its just had its 4000 ml service so i would expect it to be ok.                                                                                                                                                                             

Do you have a centre stand? If so pop it up, on a flat surface & see if the wheels turn freely, when the brakes are off. The back will be harder to turn, because of the chain drive & gearbox. On big bikes, the rear will only probably do one & half full turn, when spun as hard as poss, is the guide, for butch men, . The front, mine does about 6-7, but think that's really damn good. 

Hold on, we can do bets on the number of spins, .
                                                                                                                                                                             

will need big butch man to hold front end up while i spin cos no centre stand, and scrawny mechanic who sorted my chain out lifted the back of the bike with one hand and spun back wheel quite easily with the other, i was very impressed! ps lol at butch, havent heard that used in yrs!                                                                                                                                                                             

The slightr mettalic scraping doesn't sound good. Are your pads worn down to metal? If it's due for a sevice, it might be a good idea to have pads replaced.                                                                                                                                                                             

If it's the gentle sound of summat just brushing the disc ever so lightly that probably is nothing to worry about. But a metallic scrape and grind that gets louder when you squeeze the brakes should certainly be investigated. At least pads on a bike are easily checked.

so what do you reckon is average life span of brake pads, bear in mind that i am a scatty newbie and its not the smoothest most accomplished braking technique ever seen, Tim i dont think its a drastic scraping.                                                                                                                                                                             

You should have a very slightly metallic scraping noise coming from the discs Julie.  Honda use sintered metal pads, which basically means the pads contain metal particles "bonded" together using a "sintering" process.   This makes the pads very metallic, which when then brushed against the disc make a metallic scraping noise.   As Wills says, if the sound gets particularly louder when the brakes are applied or if the brakes are sticking at all, then they need further investigation.   As far as life is concerned, anything from 12,000 to 20,000 for the front is normal depending on how much you use the brakes and perhaps twice that for the rear.                                                                                                                                                                             

Have a look at the knee pads on yer jeans julie. if there's scrape marks or you've noticed em getting closer to the ground going round bends. That'll be the reason why yer brakes are hot.                                                                                                                                                                              

hot pad's = one hot totty rider!!                                                                                                                                                                             

oi you two, dont know how proximity to the ground could poss, affect the temp of me discs, can see that it may set me knees a smouldering and put a grin on my face but tend not to brake whilst cornering so dont think its a factor, of to the garage to examine pads forthwith !

Is thwith a problem all pads can suffer from? Should I check my pads for thwith?                                                                                                                                                                             

Thwith is a condition that only affects drum brakes Geoff, Julie will not find any thwith on disc brakes                                                                                                                                                                             

Drum brakes?  Isn't this what happens when the guitarist does a solo?                                                                                                                                                                             

Duh!! - That's the signal for a trip to the bar!