Three hundred miles on my new GS500F and could no longer bear the horrible squeeking every time I touched the rear brakes. So I asked my husband to fix it. He spent about an hour reading posts here and then went to work on the bike. By the way, the dealership told me I would have to wear the brakes in.
He adjusted the rear alignment and now it does not make even one squeek. I am so happy. That sound was embarrasing. Brand new bike and that horrible sound. He also put on a lowering kit he bought and I can ride in comfort and quiet. Thanks for all your posts and help. Jen
be careful with the lowering kit. my bike was lowered, and when i put it on the kickstand, the bike was almost vertical (previous owner was REALLY short i guess). well, i parked one day, and the parking lot was very uneven, and windy, and the bike literally blew over. it broke a mirror. very embarrasing. so it may be worth it to lower the front, and chop the kickstand (if all you did was change the rear suspension links)
i returned mine to stock height the next day....
The kit came with a new kick stand that is shorter. works great.
Use your front brakes - not your rears.
90% of your stopping power comes from the fronts.
Quote from: gsmetal on April 23, 2006, 03:08:19 PM
Use your front brakes - not your rears.
90% of your stopping power comes from the fronts.
Umm... she should use both. And it's 70% from the front. I use both brakes regularly.
Who needs brakes? Thats why we wear boots!
I remember my bicycle didnt have brakes so when I needed to stop I put my foot over the rear tire..that works pretty good.but you need to buy shoes more often.
9f
Quote from: Wrecent_Wryder on April 23, 2006, 04:19:36 PM
I don't understand the common contention over the arbitrary percentage of braking coming from the front.
The harder you brake, the more of the braking force comes from the front. Obviously, if you brake hard enough to lift the rear tire, it's no longer contributing to braking at all, so the ratio at that point is 100/0, front to rear. It's a gradient to that point... so naming a percentage is obviously pretty arbitrary.
When you're braking that hard it has also become VERY easy to lock up the rear wheel, since it's in the process of being lifted and there's very little traction left to turn it. Once the rear wheel is locked it no longer provides any directional stablity, which, IMHO, is generally a good thing to have. Sudden fishtailing or turning sideways during a "panic" stop is a complication I can live without.
You get to make your own choices, but it seems to me that counting on the rear for 30 percent of the braking force in circumstances where it can only deliver 10 is apt to be a bad thing, and it's obvious that those circumstances exist.
From wiki
QuoteThere are generally two independent brakes on a motorcycle, one set on the front wheel, controlled by the right hand lever, and one on the rear controlled by the right foot. In older motorcycles the rear may be on the left foot. However, several models have "linked brakes" which apply both at the same time, although one more than the other. The front brake is generally much more powerful than the rear as roughly 2/3rds of stopping power can come from the front brake when properly applied and in some cases 100% depending on the model of motorcycle and operator; rear wheels can generally lock and skid much more easily than the front due to dynamic weight transfer. Brakes can either be drum or disc based, with disc brakes being more common on large, modern or expensive motorcycles for their far superior stopping power, particularly in wet conditions. There are many brake performance enhancing aftermarket parts available for most motorcycles including brake pads of varying compounds and steel braided brake lines. Some manufacturers have created Antilock braking systems (ABS).
In virtually all cases, 70% to 90% of total braking force should be applied by the front brake when operated on a hard surface such as tarmac, with the remainder being simultaneously applied to the rear brake. Riders fear that aggressive use of the front brake will stop rotation of the tire and cause loss of control, or a skid, and therefore often fail to use the front brake to its full potential, but this is unlikely on dry pavement. Another common misconception is that application of the rear brake will cause motorcycle instability. The phenomenon known as a "stoppie" may only be achieved if the front brake is used aggressively with no application of the rear brake; if sufficient force is applied to the front brake, the rear of the motorcycle chassis will lift off the roadway, while the bike continues to move forward on the still-rotating front wheel. This is a highly skilled (and generally illegal) maneuver which requires practice to perfect. Trailbraking is a term used to describe carrying the braking action of a vehicle past the turn entry, allowing the rider to adjust speed all the way through a turn to the apex. Another variation of brake use can be seen at top level motorcycle roadracing and motorcross events. The technique of steering the motorcycle in a high speed turn (or lower speeds on a dirt course) using the rear brake is called "backing it in" (or "turning" on dirt). Racers while hard on the front brake will feather the rear brake just enough to start a controlled rear slide, thus rendering a sharper turn angle. Note: This technique is not recommended for public road use.
Quote from: Jens500 on April 23, 2006, 02:54:00 PM
The kit came with a new kick stand that is shorter. works great.
What lowering kit is this that comes with the shorter kick stand? How much does it lower the rear of the bike?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=4632036052&sspagename=ADME%3AL%3ARTQ%3AUS%3A1
I bought the kit on E-bay when someone on this site found it and sent me the link. It lowered it about 2 inches. Jen.
That's a pretty slick kit actually....
Did you try cutting the seat foam before mucking with the ride height?
back to the brakes, the other thing to keep in mind is in lower-traction situations there is less weight transfer to the front, so a higher portion of braking power can come from the rear. that said, i agree with wrecent; in the dry, concentrate on getting the maximum stopping power from the front only, and give up the small amount of braking you'd get from the rear in exchange for assured gyroscopic stability.
Or better yet, practice threshold braking with both brakes so that you can stop in the shortest distance and possibly save your life.
Quote from: Jens500 on April 23, 2006, 05:56:33 PM
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=4632036052&sspagename=ADME%3AL%3ARTQ%3AUS%3A1
I bought the kit on E-bay when someone on this site found it and sent me the link. It lowered it about 2 inches. Jen.
ME!!!!!! YAAAAAAAA!!!! glad it worked for ya. :thumb:
Quote from: Jens500 on April 23, 2006, 02:24:45 PM
Three hundred miles on my new GS500F and could no longer bear the horrible squeeking every time I touched the rear brakes. So I asked my husband to fix it. He spent about an hour reading posts here and then went to work on the bike. By the way, the dealership told me I would have to wear the brakes in.
He adjusted the rear alignment and now it does not make even one squeek. I am so happy. That sound was embarrasing. Brand new bike and that horrible sound. He also put on a lowering kit he bought and I can ride in comfort and quiet. Thanks for all your posts and help. Jen
Any chance your husband can get on and explain what he did? My rear squeaks and I hate it. I had the rotor replaced and it stopped for a little while. Now it's back. I must fix it :mad:
Hey guys, husband here. Well after reading all the posts I could find I agreed with the idea that it was probably the rear alignment. Her owners manual page 7-19 item #3 says the reference marks on the swing arm must align with each other. When I examined her bike the marks were off. Then I measured the distance from the ridge of the tire at where the sidewall is close to the swing arm they were not even. When I lined
the rear alignment marks up I re-measured and the distance from the tire to swing arm on both sides was even. Had her take the bike out and it has never made another noise. My guess would be someone at the factory just did not do a very accurate job to start with. Hope you can get yours to stop squeeking as I can understand how irritating it can be from riding next to Jen while her bike was doing it. Good Luck. Brian.
good call on the alignment/squealing deal. :thumb:
Theres been alot of back and forth debate on those damn alignment marks.
they are innacurate to a degree, I guess. my theory is Practice,practice, practice.
if you only do it everytime you swap tires, you'll be relearning your technique everytime and swear those things are cheap and innacurate.
o'course others disagree, and recommend other means of measureing, banging,...ect..
Otherwise I think the horse is dead. a good search will round up hours of reading .
Quote from: 3imo on April 25, 2006, 06:03:50 AM
good call on the alignment/squealing deal. :thumb:
Theres been alot of back and forth debate on those damn alignment marks.
they are innacurate to a degree, I guess. my theory is Practice,practice, practice.
if you only do it everytime you swap tires, you'll be relearning your technique everytime and swear those things are cheap and innacurate.
o'course others disagree, and recommend other means of measureing, banging,...ect..
Otherwise I think the horse is dead. a good search will round up hours of reading .
The marks are accurate enough, it's those damn markers that move around. :)
Quote from: Egaeus on April 25, 2006, 10:41:54 AM
The marks are accurate enough, it's those damn markers that move around. :)
They don't move around if you do it right.
http://gstwins.com/gsboard/index.php?topic=25815.msg268785#msg268785
Quote from: tussey on April 23, 2006, 05:11:33 PM
From wiki
I love it, using a quote from wiki to back up a point..... when the quoter could have changed wiki right before quoting it :dunno_white:
Quote from: gazingwa on April 25, 2006, 04:58:10 PM
Quote from: tussey on April 23, 2006, 05:11:33 PM
From wiki
I love it, using a quote from wiki to back up a point..... when the quoter could have changed wiki right before quoting it :dunno_white:
lol yea right. Like I wrote those two huge paragraphs, submitted them to wiki (isn't there an approval process?) THEN quoted myself on GStwin just to prove a point. :dunno_white:
ok back to the subject: Today I was messing with my chain tension and guess what? IT WORKED!!! No squeaking. Hopefully it will stay like that.
Hmmm. I have a rear squeak and I just checked my alignment. It's off by a good amount. I'm going to adjust today. Will post results soon.
FIXED!! THANK YOU GSTWINS!!!! :cheers: :cheers: