Brakes - what's best.
 

Hello all,

Looking for some advice on how to improve the brakes on my SV 650S K2 model. Its all original kit, standard in every way. I went to a race school for a day and rode a Yamaha R6, wich was suprisingly good, once you wound it up. Went for a spin today on my SV and well the brakes just are not in the same league. The initial bite and feedback are simply inferior and took some corners to adjust with the posibility of joining the scenary on the cards. So what to do?

New pads, callipers, disks and braded hoses? Which, if any are a good start. Has anyone improved the standard brakes and if so how, what's best?

The R6 was good, but I am not sure what that kind of bike would be on the road, so going to stay with the SV for now.

Looking for any tips and advice.

Thanks all.

You can't really expect the brakes on the SV to be as good as the R6.
Saying that, I find nothing wrong with the brakes on the SV provided they are in good condition.

A search should provide most of the information desired.

Cheers
Ben

there is a gsxr-calipers kit which provides you to instal gsxr-calipers :wink: this should improve the braking. I bought some CBR600 K3 brakes but didn't have time yet to make the addaptorplates myself...

last time I went for a trackday, I realy felt that my stock brakes weren't that good because I felt that, after a few sessions, my front brake began to be sponzy (if you know what I mean) and the first 1cm I used the brake didn't do anything. I have stealthed brakeshoses + EBC brake pads...

the next time (in septembre) I go for the same trackday, I will have my CBR calipers installed and I hope they will satisfy me... I will report :wink:

Don't forget the minitwin guys are using the standard calipers and AFAIK master cylinder etc.

Tip: Want a bit less travel whilst retain adequate lever travel for feel(my opinion) get a CBR600RR(2001 on) master cylinder. It's a Nissin which the manufacturers describe as Semi-radial. Makes more sense when you see one.

Design is similar to the Honda fireblade 2000-2003/4 master cylinder but smaller bore. I wouldn't recommend that as in my opinion too little travel.

Cheers
Ben

master brake cylinder
 

What about larger disks and bigger calipers or different pads. I agree with your track day experience. Nothing initially then bite, in comparison the R6 was far more imediate. This really only showed itself as a result of the race schooll experience.

I like the idea of a CBR 600RR master cylinder but that sounds expensive - would the cheapest option of installing different pads be worth it. I have used EBC pads on anthother bike, but they were a little frightening in the wet, perhaps too race orientated for the road.

Any other ideas?

Yep, changing pads gives good results. I liked EBC HH but a lot of people swear by Carbon Lorraines. Just got a set of A3+s for mine, since I just ate a set of Armstrong Racing HHs in about 3000 miles.

Personally I reckon that there's not a huge amount you can do with the braking while retaining the standard fork setup- increasing initial bite will give you even more dive, which will limit how you can use the power. Gut feeling this, but I reckon that fitting the GSXR calipers on a stock front end will do less to cut stopping distances than fitting appropriate springs and oil with standard calipers and pads.

to be honest, if your gonna be upgrading your front brakes, you might as well upgrade your front suspension to use the brakes to their full potential.


GSXR front end mabe ?

then you might as well upgrade the engine to an IL4, upgrade the chassy, then upgrade the logbook to something that reads "GSXR-600, or R6" or something.

Watch it ;) You can do a front end conversion for free, if you buy and sell carefully, so that doesn't apply. Very common misconception, that it's expensive.

if i had an SV, the gsxr front end jobbie would be on top of my wish list.

Heated grips and a gel seat for me :)