Hello Friends,
yesterday I went to town, was doing 80 kilometers p.h. suddenly ( lol ) the traffic light jumped to red so I had to decide split second open the throttle or hit full brakes,  there was lots of movement there, cars waiting and lots  of pedestrians almost falling on the crossover , so time to test the brake capabilities of the GS in full,.presed the front brakes with quit som force hit the rear after that, as I started calculating I would come to a stop in the middle of the crossover, so put some more pression on the brakes, from that moment on the rear started sliding,...right left right left.
as the ballance of the bike is pretty good,  I released the rear brake a bit and pressed the front some more, unfortunate as my first calculation I came to a stop in the middle of the crossover, but still straight up and in one piece ! people walking emediately in front and back of me...

lots of people shouting at me, but since I dont speak any Portugues,...Anyway Ime thinking seriously to find myself one more front disk,...
is this a lot of work or is it possible to improve the one brake in any way.

Greetings from Brasil, take care you all.

Peter

I'm a newbe so there might be other options. But, you could upgrade your pads and install a braided stainless steel brake line, or do the 750 fork upgrade to get dual front disks.

JoNathan

Sounds like a good panic stop. I'll save the preaching about releasing too much rear.

Before you go spending money on braking upgrades, why not just practice more E-stops ?

OK, maybe you already are a E-stop guru. Go on and get a dual disc setup up front, wider rims/tires, stainless lines, high abrassive pads. Do some before and after guestimates of your progress from 60-0MPH stops. See what is the biggest help, post it here

I have found that stiffer front springs has allowed me to brake harder and not feel like I am going over the handlebars right away

sometimes all the breaks in the world are not enough

Quote from: toyopete on September 20, 2007, 05:36:46 PM


lots of people shouting at me, but since I dont speak any Portugues,...

Quote from: toyopete on September 20, 2007, 05:36:46 PM
lots of people shouting at me, but since I dont speak any Portugues,...

No doubt they were complimenting you on the fine job you did stopping! 

if you lock the rear.. don't release it.. you're luck you didn't highside...

I don't think the stock brakes lack anything.  I did a stoppie trying not to hit a flock of turkeys or some other large birds.  I had recently rebuilt the calipers and bled everything with fresh DOT4/5, so maybe that helps, but it was a fully stock setup.

More recently, I changed to a SS brake line, and it has a much more solid/smooth feel, but the raw braking power you have is quite large in any case.  The only time I thought about dual rotors was to reduce the theoretical fork twist, but I can't say I experienced that either, even at the track.

They don't have yellow lights in Brasil??

damn turkeys

Yeah... NY is littered with turkeys and deer.  Not to mention porcupines, raccoons and skunks .  Throw in the occasional dog, cat, rabbit loose gravel or pothole and northern New York roads are a gauntlet of crap to drive around!

The brakes should be fine. Like some say sometimes no matter how much you brake its not good enuf. Plus brakes on a motorcycle are usually far more powerful than the tyres can take. On stock tyres i don't think you could utilize all the stopping power of the brakes without low siding on the front. Tyres only grip so much. I also disagree with NGFL if you lose the rear you shud let off the brake then reapply when the wheel grips again. The only time you shouldn't if is your leant over or the bike has slide so much that the rear has really stepped out on you, then if you let off there is a chance it could grip too quick and whip the bike away from the rider. However in the case of streight line braking and no swerving or steering the wheel just sways side to side like it does if you lock the wheel on your push bike up and if you let go of the brake it will come back into grip without unsettling the bike too much and you can reapply.

Quote from: RobTheTyrant on September 21, 2007, 11:38:33 AM
Yeah... NY is littered with turkeys and deer.  Not to mention porcupines, raccoons and skunks .  Throw in the occasional dog, cat, rabbit loose gravel or pothole and northern New York roads are a gauntlet of crap to drive around!

Turkey season is coming around, i can see them starting to gather up in the roads. I'll let you know how good my brakes are  .

Quote from: Kasumi on September 21, 2007, 02:55:26 PM
The brakes should be fine. Like some say sometimes no matter how much you brake its not good enuf. Plus brakes on a motorcycle are usually far more powerful than the tyres can take. On stock tyres i don't think you could utilize all the stopping power of the brakes without low siding on the front. Tyres only grip so much. I also disagree with NGFL if you lose the rear you shud let off the brake then reapply when the wheel grips again. The only time you shouldn't if is your leant over or the bike has slide so much that the rear has really stepped out on you, then if you let off there is a chance it could grip too quick and whip the bike away from the rider. However in the case of streight line braking and no swerving or steering the wheel just sways side to side like it does if you lock the wheel on your push bike up and if you let go of the brake it will come back into grip without unsettling the bike too much and you can reapply.

Sure.. but in the heat of the moment, are you really cool and calculating enough to know what is "too much" side to side play? Or is there a decent chance that someday you'll think you're ok.... until you wake up on the ground with a broken collarbone, courtesy of your friendly neighborhood highside? If I lock my rear (which is rare, because I practice e-stops to avoid such a thing), I keep it locked, unless I'm going dead straight.. any side to side play at all, I won't let off of it. I've had my highside @ 60mph, and I know how much they suck.. I don't want to do it again.

Quote from: ohgood on September 20, 2007, 05:59:40 PM
Sounds like a good panic stop. I'll save the preaching about releasing too much rear.

Before you go spending money on braking upgrades, why not just practice more E-stops ?

OK, maybe you already are a E-stop guru. Go on and get a dual disc setup up front, wider rims/tires, stainless lines, high abrassive pads. Do some before and after guestimates of your progress from 60-0MPH stops. See what is the biggest help, post it here

At the motorcycle club in Europe, I was the only memeber that wore out the front tire before the rear.

Quote from: Chuck on September 21, 2007, 07:46:11 AM
I don't think the stock brakes lack anything.  I did a stoppie trying not to hit a flock of turkeys or some other large birds.  I had recently rebuilt the calipers and bled everything with fresh DOT4/5, so maybe that helps, but it was a fully stock setup.

More recently, I changed to a SS brake line, and it has a much more solid/smooth feel, but the raw braking power you have is quite large in any case.  The only time I thought about dual rotors was to reduce the theoretical fork twist, but I can't say I experienced that either, even at the track.

They don't have yellow lights in Brasil??

way before the front fork was leaking oil over the disk, is it possible that the pads absorbed the oil? cleaned everything thouroughly.
and indeed they have no yellow light in Brasil.... think they are orange..

Quote from: frankieG on September 21, 2007, 09:35:30 AM
damn turkeys

No Turkey's they where Brasilian.

Quote from: coll0412 on September 20, 2007, 06:20:20 PM
I have found that stiffer front springs has allowed me to brake harder and not feel like I am going over the handlebars right away

I agree, upgrade you can do for cheap and are worth the upgrade (besides dual disc and such)

1) progressive Spring in front
2) upograde pads from regular ones to -HH ones... regular pads are organics... and wear downfairly quikly the -HH models are metal pads, better grip without requiring as much pressure on handle, better control.

Cheers

it was bs luck that kept me from dumping mine last night.  same type of deal as last may....dirt on the road and front braking

Why are you in Brazil? And what part? I've been there, and the motorcyclists are generally all crazy!

But seriously like someone said, if you feel the rear sliding like that, stay on it. You don't want it to regain traction while out of alignment with the front. That can throw you off the bike.