Braking upgrade.

Russell · Posted: Sun Jan 01, 2012 10:05 pm Post subject: Braking upgrade.

Happy new year to all. Some of you know of my faithful GS750E with chair. For some time I've been considering a brake upgrade conscious as I was of 33 year old brake lines working on the rather basic calipers and disks of the era. I had a set of braided lines made up by HEL's New Zealand agent. Fitting them up and getting it all working has been a very satisfying project . Along the way I learned how to dismantle and rebuild a master cylinder and how to make a home-made 'one man brake bleeder'. All back together now and "Wow" the difference is like night and day. I hoped for greater power from the brakes and got it. I for some reason anticipated less feel at the levers but not true. The levers are both much firmer and travel through less distance to get the effectiveness required yet there is markedly more 'feel' to both front and back brakes.

What I didn't expect was that the tendency both brakes had to squeal is gone totally!

All of a sudden the 33 year old calipers and disks deliver pretty respectable braking performance!I didn't expect quite such convincing results from the braided line fitment. One of my better investments for sure.

zjeppe · Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2012 1:34 am Post subject:

Perhaps squiling is gone due to the fact that you "redid " the master Idea

05c50 · Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2012 4:57 pm Post subject:

When I saw the title of this thread, I thought that you were having trouble with your brakes when you were going up hill Laughing

.......just me I guess. But I have heard that installing braided lines can help eliminate brake squeal. My wife has a V Star that has brake squeal and a few of the guys on the VStar forum swear that the braided lines will get rid of it. I don't understand the science involved, but I'm going to give it a try.

..........Paul

HebrewHammer · Posted: Sat Jan 14, 2012 10:58 am Post subject:

The "squeal" a lot of times comes from the "flex" in old rubber hoses. It ends up delivering uneven, pulsing pressure to the pads, making them grab, release, grab, release, etc. The braided lines eliminate that flex and deliver smooth constant pressure to the discs. Over time, with old, flexing rubber lines, the discs tend to also "wear in" to the pads, and they become warped, having high and low spots. It may only be a few ten thousandths, but it will definitely make some noise.