brakes
 

hey guys mates doin his front end up and wants to know which are better radials or convertional brakes (will be either radails off a k4 1000 gsxr or six pots of a k2 1000

Radial brakes will only fit radial brake mounts and vice versa. The choice of forks will make his mind up.

ye i know that he will pix forks when he decides works at a brakes yard so can look through what they have got which brakes are better?

*eyes glaze over trying to read the question*

strictly speaking, radials are better as they get round the issue of the mounts being flexed by the leverage at the leading edge of the pad and so maintain better contact.
It's pretty unlikely that any of us could tell the difference, though, so it's becomes about aesthetics, practicality or cost.

What he said.

Nah, you'd feel the difference there- the old 6-pots are gash. Make it the old Tokico 4-pots off a 750 vs the new radials and you'd find it harder to split.

The forks on the thou aren't so great either- at least, the K2 ones. They're KYB, the Showas on the 750 are better. Not sure about the new thou but I suspect the same is true.

Oi! I love the Tokico 6 pots on my Kwak (Sods need a fair bit of looking after though I'll admit)

I would be a bit cautious of this whole project. As I understand it your mate wants to go and pick up any brakes and forks can find in a breaker's yard and then put them on his bike?

1) Many forks you find in breaker's yards will be bent, be prepared to have them straightened or walk away if they look bad
2) You may well run into issues with wheels, discs, brakes calipers and other items not matching up and the yokes will almost certainly need to be replaced.

I would take a step back, declare exactly what bike your mate has (including year) and see if anyone knows of a front end (wheel, brakes, forks etc) that would either fit the existing yokes, or require minimum work.

edit:
That said, if it all fits I would imagine the K4 Brakes and forks from a GSXR1000 will be better than the K2, as some cricism was laveled at the brake setup on the first GSXRs (Granted this was by journalists, using a 160BHP misile)

hes got a k5 sv he just wants somethin different he works at the breakers so he can look at **** loads of forks and decide if they are the ones he wants

The main downside of the older GSXR brakes seems to be the master cylinder though- on the SRAD and, I think, Y-K2 750s it's the same as the one on the SV. Just not really up to scratch. When I first bolted the GSXR front end on, I was pretty underwhelmed- better than stock, and of course the forks mean you can use the braking better, but they weren't as good as I'd hoped. Binned the m/c (well, sold it to Haggis ;) ) and fitted a smallbore Brembo radial, and suddenly they're fantastic. Don't even need great pads, I've got OEM in them gripping an EBC disc.

Jambo, see if you can find some of the compatible 4-pots and give them a crack, they've got every bit as much usable power (ie, far more than you need) but they're more progressive and sensitive with it. plus, only 2/3 as many seals to replace ;) I always found those 6-pots to just be too much of a good thing. Weird thing is, they seem to work better with the standard, rubbish master cylinder than with an upgraded one- I think the weak m/c takes the excess bite out of them.

Anyhoo. sv650S_guy, tell your mate to find a set of the Showas with radials, best GSXR setup yet, and easy-ish to fit to an injected SV.