4-Pot Caliper conversion - Caliper Options

[froudy]

Calipers arrived from Greece this morning!! That was quick!! Bargain at 75 Euro's posted too

Bit of luck too...
I bought a 6 pot rebuild kit from Veemanzero a while back and it just so happens that the stainless caliper joining bolts, stainless bleed nipples, banjo bolts, pad pins and the two little Allen screws that hold the pad spring in place ALL fit the Tokico 4 pots

All cleaned and stainless fitted. Just got to order the pads now and all good to go.
The brake lines are the same orientation as the 6 pots too, so all good there as well.

[Speedy1959]

I am amazed at the brilliant condition of the 4 pots..
What a brilliant buy you got..

I am quietly jealous..

[Notty]

is it me or do i just ride too slow to need to change the existing calipers? 

[KiwiCol]

is it me or do i just ride too slow to need to change the existing calipers? 

Same Notty, I'm fine with my original brake set up. Each to their own.

[froudy]

I just want the 4 pot calipers for less maintenance and cheaper rebuild kits when they need doing

[Teufel]

I agree KiwiCol.
I use oem six pots at the track and I almost never out braked in the B group.
It is my opinion that if you show your oem brakes some love they will be plenty good for anything you are likely to face on the road.
I stripped mine, cleaned them with a toothbrush and a bowl of used brake fluid for a couple of hours, replaced all seals, fitted Hel lines and EBC HH pads, and they are good enough to pull me up from well over 200. I am 100kgs with gear.
I really don't understand the fuss.

[Andre]

Also agree with Col and Notty. I did/do as Teufel says, and I am very happy with the oem. As some of the washers of the floaters of my oem rotors disappeared, I replaced them with EBC Vee rotors. They are now one-finger brakes.

But I do understand the "need" to screw around and upgrade bikes. Everyone has a different taste.

Less maintenance and cheaper rebuilds are a good argument though. However, I think the pistons of the oem fronts last longer as their surface is titanium-nitrite. The rear (chrome-surface) pistons on mine were pitted while the front look pristine after 15 years and 45k.

[gsxbarmy]

I do agree with the above comments. Properly maintained, there is nothing wrong IMO with the standard 6-pots. But they do require regular maintenance to keep the pistons free.

A much better and effective upgrade to the brakes IMO though is to fit radial master cylinders and dog leg levers. This will give better and more controllable braking performance (so long as the calipers are maintained)

[grog]

my 6 pots serve me well. maintenance not that hard. even stock lever.

[froudy]

my 6 pots serve me well. maintenance not that hard. even stock lever.

Try riding with Winter salt that get's shovelled down over here @grog

[Del]

I agree with Steve on this one - I have a spare set of 6's that I rotate - the crude that builds up is horrible

[KiwiCol]

Riding in that sort of crud would make anything hard to maintain in good working order.   

Same bike, different hemispheres & completely different riding conditions. We never get that down under, so never had to deal with maintaining a bike being used in those conditions.    Similar to Roos & drop bears as road hazards, ya don't see too many of those round Nottingham or Essex.

That's one of the good things of being an international forum, we all get to see & learn about different riding environments and conditions.

[Red Biker]

Well said Col,
I bet Roo fur is a pig to get out of the calipers!

I've bought Steve's other Nissin 4 pots off him, partly for cheaper maintenance and partly for looks (having my wheels done soon so I want to show more of them off) the 6 pots I feel are propotionally too big for the front wheel but thats just my mixed up head

I look forward to reviewing the performance of the 4's but suspect I won't notice any difference.

Cheers
Red

[grog]

sorry Froudy, forgot about the bloody salt. read that oz sends 120 th. tons of it to uk for road salting. you can blame us im guessing. roo fur in calipers, id be in hospital thinking about it. not a good scenario.

[Speedy1959]

Related to this topic...
The best front brakes on any bike I have owned were the FOUR POTS off my pevious bike..
My Yamaha MT-01

The later MT-01's had 6 pot calipers in order to keep up with fashions..
I rode one of the last MT-01's with the 6 pot caliper version and can say they were NOT as good as mine ! (With 4 pots).