Best Brakes

I'm a new rider and have had my SV650s K2 for a couple of months now. I'm chuffed with it overall, but I reckon the area that could be improved most is the braking.

What do people reckon is the best enhancement I can do

Martin

[TSM]

Braided lines, OEM pads are usaly good enough, but if you want better get HH pads.

[BillyC]

Forget the lines unless yours are getting tired.

The best thing you can do, is clean your pads (wirebrush), clean your calipers of all the crap that accumulates in them, re-grease the contact edges of the pads (where they contact the caliper), and clean your discs including the ventilation holes.

Gixer front end, but that@s a bit radical....

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Its the front forks that make the brakes feel bad as alot of the energy used for braking is taken up by the squidgy forks.

Originally Posted by Jelster

Gixer front end, but that@s a bit radical....

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It will be mine, oh yes, it will be mine.

I've got a gsxr front end swap planned, as well. Mostly for the bling, admittedly.

I have to admit that I replaced my lines with braided jobbies, but I rekon the HH pads are the first thing to do.

ok... but how do you know if the lines are past it or not? Change the fluid and see if the levers are still spongy?

Standard practice is to change hoses every 2 years, I think.

Edit: or is it 5 years? Meh, I'm useful tonight.

[northwind]

Best upgrade? Pads, definately, but then, I'd leave the brakes alone entirely and upgrade the forks- oil and springs. IMO the SV brakes don't lack power once they've got some decent pads, just the ability to put the power on the road, so getting rid of the initial dive makes a huge difference.

I've just upgraded to a K2 GSXR750 front end- I'll be mentioning this in evey post I ever write from now on, count on it - and the brakes themselves aren't massively better than the SV's with braided lines and EBC HH pads. I'm running standard pads on the GSXR's 4-pots with EBC Prolite discs and while there is more power, there's less feel. Since I don't think the SV lacked power in the first place, that's not a huge difference for me.

What makes the massive difference is the forks. Initial braking is so much stronger, since you don't need to worry about the diving and weight transfer so much, and once you're on the brakes the front end is more stable and holds the road better. So I'd say dont fixate on the brakes, look more at how to make them work with the rest of the bike

That aside... I fitted braided lines at 4 years and for me they were a great upgrade- I had a sort of flat spot in the braking between "gentle" and "harder" where the increase in power wasn't proportional to the amount of lever travel. I think my lines were tired... The official timescale is 4 or 5 years but it'll be mileage and use dependant too.

My next step's a new master cylinder, and a budget upgrade- Fireblade, or produciton jap radial- could be great for the SV too.