More GSX brakes

During a recent trip to Laughlin, I noticed that my front brakes were pulsing noticeably. When I got back home I went out and bought a cheap dial indicator after tightening everything on the forks with no change. I did find later that I was missing the pinch bolt on the front fork axle, but there was not difference when I installed one. From studying the bulletin boards online, I decided that the problem was probably warped discs. Other Suzuki GSX-650F owners had experienced that problem.

I went out to the tool shop on Sepulveda Blvd. and picked up a cheap dial indicator gauge with a stand for about $70. From studying Amazon, I found this is what I should expect to pay for a no-name dial indicator gauge. The shop usually sells stuff that works, so I decided to go with it. Plus, you can usually figure out pretty quickly if a dial indicator is working or not. I think my father had one at one time, but it may have belonged to the shop and gone with it when he sold it. He also didn’t leave me any micrometers or calipers, so that is a good bet. Usually that shop carries Mitutoyo measuring devices , but they didn’t have have any in stock. I figure that a company that sells measuring devices to countries developing illegal weapons of mass destruction must make good stuff, so later I did order a Mitutoyo gauge from Amazon.

Back on topic, I set up the dial indicator to check the run-out of my front discs. One side was out by about 0.025” and the other by 0.015”. I’ve never done any hard braking with this bike and it only has about 7000 miles on it. I can only figure that Suzuki intended the GSX to be a real price point bike, and they really skimped on some of the components. The engine and drive train seems to be really solid, but items such as the suspension and brakes are really cheap. I hope that it was cheaper for them to use obsolete off the shelf calipers left over from the GSXR line rather than speccing some special really cheap ones.

I checked on line and there is a place that grinds motorcycle disc rotors, but since I’m suspicious of the basic quality of the rotors, I decided to look for after market ones. EBC were the only ones I found online, and they’re the same price as genuine Suzuki replacements, so it was an easy choice. The EBC rotors are also spring loaded where they connect to the rotor carrier, so they avoid alignment problems, I hope. As long as I was at it, I decided I’d better replace the brake pads, although I’d already replaced the stock ones with EBC organics. This time I decided to go with sintered ones, and I found some expensive ones online by XXX.

As long as I was removing the front wheel, I decided to replace the front tire with a Michelin Pilot 3. I was never too crazy about the stock tires and the front was already showing

After investing all this money fixing a problem I shouldn’t have had, at least I found that the brake pulsing problem was gone. Replacing the pinch bolt also made the front end more stable. (Probably forgot to replace it after I had the forks reworked.) Except for the calipers, most of my front brake system is now aftermarket. I’d already replaced the brake lines when I changed the handlebars, and I’d replaced the brake levers with more ergonomic ones for my little hands.

R6S Sidestand

I have a 2007 Yamaha R6S, which is the same as a 2003 R6. For me, this bike is pretty tall at the saddle, so I decided to lower it 1” by using lowering links I found on eBay and raising the forks in the triple crowns. This worked out very well, especially since I also got a spacer kit for raising the handlebars 1”. The only problem was that the bike ended up fairly upright on its side stand. In a panic, I searched eBay and found an R6 adjustable side stand. After re-tapping a hole in the new side stand, I got it to work, but after a year or so, I decided it was too flimsy and it had a nasty habit of not staying put. I decided to try a trick that I had learned about on DL-650 forums and I had tried out successfully on my V-Strom, which I had also lowered. Instead of trying to shorten the side stand, you grind down the kickstand stop so it swings farther forward. This has the added advantage of making the side stand more secure, and works out just about right for a 1” bike drop.

For the R6S, after I bought a new side stand since I couldn’t find my original one, this modification process was really easy since you can grind just the sidestand and don’t have to touch the frame, as I did on my DL (and GSX-650F for that matter). You can do all the work with a bench grinder, instead of using a die grinder. This worked out really well, with a much more secure (like stock in fact!) side stand. Now I have to dump that overpriced aftermarket adjustable side stand on eBay.