where to start for better brake - 80 special

[nezzer]

My stock rear brake rotor has worn too thin and my front brakes are starting to feel very unimpressive. I know how to get the bike back up to stock braking capabilities but so much searching in the forums has peaked my interest in beefing up the brakes all around.

It seems most people suggest stainless steel brake lines first thing, which I do plan on fitting. I am curious though what are my options for improving overall brake responsiveness. I have seen posts of people fitting larger rotors or multi piston calipers. The problem I have is that I always see this done on standard forks without the swivel caliper setup found on the special.

Can some one please give me an idea of what my options are for upgraded brakes on a special? Just enough so I can focus my forum searches and start buying parts Thanks.

[fredintoon]

How much money you got?

Hi Nezzer,
degrease the disks and be sure the front fork seals are OK & not letting fork oil get on them. Clean all the innards, fit new seals and new pads, replace the original fabric hoses with s/st braided ones and that's about all you can do for the stock brakes. Especially for the Special's swivelly fronts. The Standard has sensible front calipers and you can swap in a complete Standard fork, trees and all.
If expense is no object you can swap in a fat modern inverted fork with six-piston calipers and stop with the big boys.

[strippedFJ]

Sintered race pads will also grip better, but, they will wear through your discs faster, and you will hear them drag at very low speed.

Plain steel discs (as on 70's Ducati's) as averrsed to stainless steel also grip better, but they also rust up / discolor more readily.

[planedick]

SS brake lines

This alone will make such an improvement you probably will be more than happy with the results.......

[madmax-im]

I just upgraded my brakes to SS lines front and back.Reused stock calipers and rotors...cleaned up everything else.I am quite pleased at the improvement in brake feel and stopping with less effort at the lever too.Also my old brakes on the '81 XS1100SH were locking up and were holding the bike back in any effort to move it....now all that is gone no more jekyl and hyde brakes...its all good...well worth the effort and $$$ BTW I bought my brake lines thru cyclebrakes.com.They have a front caliper kit for the '81 Special a 3 line kit that comes with all the correct hardware.For the rear line it had to be custom ordered.Give the techs an email and they'll help you out .Great ppl to deal with too.

[nezzer]

So SS lines appear to be a must. Before I go ordering them for my current front braking setup, I am curious, is there any reason not to switch to the standard's fork (other than price)? Does the reduced rake make the bike handle differently? Is there any problem reusing the gauges, wheel, etc?

Cost is an issue but I am in to the this bike for the long haul so I dont mind sinking some money into it since I will be getting long term enjoyment out of it.

The same question applies to modern forks from other bikes, is the wheel retained? Any other things I should consider in general?

Thanks for the help guys.

[fredintoon]

"is there any reason not to switch to the standard's fork ?"

Hi Nezzer,
the fork changes between Standards and Specials are strictly cosmetic. The Special's forward-mounted front axle is balanced by it's shorter triple trees so that the Special's steering trail is identical to the Standard's. So long as you swap the forks 'trees and all there won't be any change in the bike's handling. Although the Special's weird swivelly calipers offend my engineering sensibilities (There has to be something essentially WRONG with calipers that need tapered brake pads) the brakes seem to work just fine. I'd suggest that swapping in Standard forks and their "normal" calipers would not of itself give you a brake improvement that was worth the expense and effort. BTW, the front wheel & brake disks are identical between Specials and Standards.
Your best brake improvement for the least cost & effort has to be s/st lines.
Going for modern forks, calipers, wheel etc. Can (if you do it right) give you better handling and braking but it ain't cheap.

[lostsoul74]

ooops... sorry... mistake

[nezzer]

The reason I was asking about the standard forks was b/c xschop was talking about a brake project he was working on for new rotors fit for modern calipers based on a standard fork:
http://www.xs11.com/forum/showthread...r&pagenumber=1

Do you have any suggestions for which modern bikes would make a good front end donor? And good to me means potential for better braking, handling, while not being outrageous price.

Thanks.

[mro]

Getting forked



Fork diameter is different on the newer machines so few will fit into the XS tripple tree. Same with the neck, bearings etc.
Just about any you find will need some modifications.


mro
BTW,
a new set of progresive fork springs, fork brace AND good quality tires make a noticable improvement.