zxr brake lever travel

[GKPJ Kawasaki]

Hi all, i've got a zxr 750 J1, never been happy with the travel of the brake lever, braided lines and new fluid has made no difference, (seems to stop ok though ! ) a recent trackday(cadwell) made it worse when the guy next to me moved it while i was getting a brew and he thought he'd broken it !!! Any suggestions !

[biker jay]

My mate has got one of those bikes, and his mate, both have the same problem. Quite common it seems and i think he said the thing to do is fit 6 pot tokico's.

[GKPJ Kawasaki]

My mate has got one of those bikes, and his mate, both have the same problem. Quite common it seems and i think he said the thing to do is fit 6 pot tokico's.

Do i buy new or is it something i can try second hand

[biker jay]

second hand shouldnt be a problem, Just give them a clean and they should be ok, so long as you dont need to re seal them.

Heres a few;

tokico's

[GKPJ Kawasaki]

second hand shouldnt be a problem, Just give them a clean and they should be ok, so long as you dont need to re seal them.

Heres a few;

tokico's

Belting, thank you .

[Number 6]

Doesn't sound like the calipers to me. I'd start at the top and work down, are you sure there is no air in the system?

[zimm]

the pistons can get "settled" in a happy spot after a while and rest with the pads miles from the disc giving a long-spongy feel at the lever.. its quite common on the zxr400's aswell.. i know a couple of guy's who've fitted the 6 pot tokico's to the 400's to "improve" braking" and found them to be even worse, and a complete arse to bleed properly

I managed to effect a short-lived cure by popping the pistons out, and thoroughly cleaning them before re-assembly with oodles of brake grease.

could also be worn discs, same effect, just the disc's thinner than it should be rather than the pads being further apart than intended.

[GKPJ Kawasaki]

Doesn't sound like the calipers to me. I'd start at the top and work down, are you sure there is no air in the system?

I'll try again, but i'm happy there's no air.

[roadracer]

Is this not the perfect candidate for a Brembo 19 RCS("Ratio Click System" IIRC) master cylinder?

The new master cylinders have variable leverage ratio, so you'll not only get more fluid moving with a larger bore( so much less lever travel) but you can adjust how much stiffness you'd like, chances are you'll want the 19x20 from the sounds of it but it's nice to have that adjustability of feel if you need to buy a new one anyway. No?

[Number 6]

the pistons can get "settled" in a happy spot after a while and rest with the pads miles from the disc giving a long-spongy feel at the lever.. its quite common on the zxr400's aswell.. i know a couple of guy's who've fitted the 6 pot tokico's to the 400's to "improve" braking" and found them to be even worse, and a complete arse to bleed properly

I managed to effect a short-lived cure by popping the pistons out, and thoroughly cleaning them before re-assembly with oodles of brake grease.

could also be worn discs, same effect, just the disc's thinner than it should be rather than the pads being further apart than intended.

You should still get a hard lever regardless of how thin the discs are, if you take the caliper off and pump it till the pads meet thats where they'll stay (or should stay) and you will have a hard lever, the pistons do not return to their starting position, and once pumped up there should be minimal lever travel.

Before spunking up for another set of calipers get a well founded second opinion.

[dodgy_tom]

I trick I found worked on my GPZ500 was to slip a flat washer between the lever and the m/c piston plunger. Whilst this doesn't do anything about any air in the system, and that'd be the first place I'd look, it does give a better feel at the lever.

[mac d]

I trick I found worked on my GPZ500 was to slip a flat washer between the lever and the m/c piston plunger. Whilst this doesn't do anything about any air in the system, and that'd be the first place I'd look, it does give a better feel at the lever.

I've done the same but used a 5c coin, perfect. It helps but didn't completely solve the issue for me, next thing I'm going to do is a thorough strip down of the callipers.

If that doesn't work I think i'll have to swap in a ZX7r front end.

[deviant]

My mate has got one of those bikes, and his mate, both have the same problem. Quite common it seems and i think he said the thing to do is fit 6 pot tokico's.

I think he probably said the *cause* was the 6 pot tokicos!

Have known of a few people with these, and they've had nightmare's trying to get a firm lever out of them.

[biker jay]

I think he probably said the *cause* was the 6 pot tokicos!

Have known of a few people with these, and they've had nightmare's trying to get a firm lever out of them.

Its deffinatly got the standard ones on, both bikes, they only said they have been told thats a way of getting rid of it. It seems not.

The lever is very bad on them, braking hard you can pull the lever to the grip and still want to slow down more. After looking at his it does seem that the pistons retract too much, dust seal problem??

[biker jay]

try this

Hope this link helps

[GKPJ Kawasaki]

Its deffinatly got the standard ones on, both bikes, they only said they have been told thats a way of getting rid of it. It seems not.

The lever is very bad on them, braking hard you can pull the lever to the grip and still want to slow down more. After looking at his it does seem that the pistons retract too much, dust seal problem??

this is the proplem, especially after a few track day laps the lever is nearly on the grip .