Brake advice please

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peter12 said:
Thanks, brakes are good, perhaps a bit too much lever travel and not enough feel.
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There might till be a little air still in the system. Try zip/cable tying the brake lever as near to handle bar grip as possible and leave it overnight you should find an improvement in the morning.
Dave
 
acotrel said:
...The GS1000 Suzuki had a chromed disc up front, but everything else had alloy steel which could rust slightly, but is very strong...
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I had a Ram Air GT250 when dispatch riding in London in the mid 70's with a single stainless disc upfront, it was terrifying;y useless in London traffic when wet (the rear drum was, in contrast, extremely fierce)! In 2000 I used the Commando to commute from Kingston to Lewisham, the Norton disc was much better!
 
Mike Sullivan said:
I had a Ram Air GT250 when dispatch riding in London in the mid 70's with a single stainless disc upfront, it was terrifying;y useless in London traffic when wet (the rear drum was, in contrast, extremely fierce)! In 2000 I used the Commando to commute from Kingston to Lewisham, the Norton disc was much better!
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God yes that brings back memories... I started with a GT250a then progressed o an air cooled RD250
The suzi was bad enough but with the extra grunt of the yam made a terrifying situation heart stopping at times
 
peter12 said:
Thought about having the disc ground but it looks a little thin, would rather replace. Thanks.
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Blanchard grinding the chrome only takes a couple thou off each side. If it's still chromed, it must be stock, so plenty of meat left. I was in the same boat as you with my '74. Went the aftermarket 13mm M/C that had an adjustable lever, stainless braided line, Ferodo pads, and it's much better than stock. 'Pretty much a two-finger operation now, even under panic stop conditions.
 
Buy the Brembo master cylinder kit from CNW, install SS brake lines, Ferodo pads and a cast iron rotor. The bike will stop as well as a current bike and have great feel at the brake lever.
 
MexicoMike said:
Buy the Brembo master cylinder kit from CNW, install SS brake lines, Ferodo pads and a cast iron rotor. The bike will stop as well as a current bike and have great feel at the brake lever.
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What about the caliper though. Should that be upgraded as well? Lockheed Racing, Grimeca, Wassel?
 
When I upgraded using the cNw brembo master and ss hose kit , just upgraded stock caliper with ss pistons and new seals along with good cleaning , as mentioned stops very , very well with great feel ....
 
TomU said:
That is so simple, it's brilliant (or was that already common knowledge)
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Don't know if this is common knowledge
But I had to do this once on a car clutch that wouldn't bleed
It worked really well and instantly
 
TomU said:
What about the caliper though. Should that be upgraded as well? Lockheed Racing, Grimeca, Wassel?
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Define “should”
My dechromed disc and sleeved master with Ferodo pads will overpower the front tire.
I am a safety geek, lighting, brakes, tires, signals, gear.
unless you have tiny hands, and/or the years have mitigated your strength, it will work well.
You can spend tens of thousands to make the bike look/perform like a modern, but, isn’t the essence lost?
 
concours said:
Define “should”
My dechromed disc and sleeved master with Ferodo pads will overpower the front tire.
I am a safety geek, lighting, brakes, tires, signals, gear.
unless you have tiny hands, and/or the years have mitigated your strength, it will work well.
You can spend tens of thousands to make the bike look/perform like a modern, but, isn’t the essence lost?
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Yes, asking about "should". A lot of comments i have read reported improved results from MC/pad upgrade (leaving the stock Lockheed caliper), but still overall subpar braking. Good to know it is sufficient (not planning any 100-0 stops)
 
This is a good time to remind everyone...
Practice.
Practice stopping.
Practice stopping frequently.
Practice stopping hard.
Practice stopping REALLY HARD.
Practice the “PANIC STOP”
On a road with no one behind you.
It will SAVE YOUR HIDE when the shit goes down in front of you, and you are able to put into practice what you’ve rehearsed.
 
The OEM caliper works fine - plenty of stopping power with the CNW Brembo MC/ss lines/ferodo pads. As noted, it will have enough stopping power to lock the front wheel - so the front tire becomes the limiting factor. Any braking "power" beyond that is just wasted effort/money as far as performance is concerned. Of course, if you want to change the front brakes for a different appearance - dual discs, whatever, that's a different issue.
 
Mike Sullivan said:
I had a Ram Air GT250 when dispatch riding in London in the mid 70's with a single stainless disc upfront, it was terrifying;y useless in London traffic when wet (the rear drum was, in contrast, extremely fierce)! In 2000 I used the Commando to commute from Kingston to Lewisham, the Norton disc was much better!
Click to expand...
I used for a couple of years until I wore it out a Yamaha RD 350 LC for dispatch riding, which had the same problem in the wet, an instance cure was to wipe the SS discs with a paper towel to remove all the brake dust that seemed to "cling" to the metal. A general consensus was that dirt clung to the disc through static electrically- whether this was right or not, I don't know, but applies to any Jap bike with SS discs.
 
I had my front disc ground. Reference surface was the mounting surface that pilots on wheel. Total was about .008" divided from side to side - not excessive.
At same time I had lightening holes milled in web and disc surface - purely esthetic as these are functionally incorrect - the more mass on a disc the better the thermal characteristics. Drilled holes on surface do break-up the gasses released from the linings but surface slotting would be better.
For the web area holes I looked at shear stress from braking loads on the reduced web area - no problem.
Brake advice please
 
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