bigoltool
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As most Hayabusa owners already know, the bike (particularly the first Generation but also to some extent the Gen II models as well) came with brakes ill-suited to the job of shedding the shear kinetic energy these bikes easily generate. I also suspect most of us have taken steps (some more extreme than others) to remedy the situation by one means or another. This is nothing new; I cannot remember a stock motorcycle (until recently!) that was not left wanting in the braking department. Modern bikes are coming with near SBK spec Radial calipers, full floating rotors, radial Master cylinders and amazing electronic aids to allow you to utilize them to the fullest without hurting yourself.
Most of us started off with the easy stuff. Braided Brake lines, better pads, better fluid and were still left wanting. I even took the step to add speed bleeders and also a bleeder to my MC Banjo to get every last molecule of air out of my lines! Looked cool but at the end of the day I think I was right where I started.
Then you get into the slightly more expensive options such as Aftermarket rotors, Upgraded Master Cylinders etc. Most seem to be satisfied at this level, but there is more to be had! This is where you start getting into expensive aftermarket upgrades or full on transplants.
The Gen II guys have it a bit easier here as they are (generally) a Caliper upgrade and a new master Cylinder, and maybe rotors away from near nirvana. Why Suzuki went with anything but a 320mm rotor here is beyond me! But us Gen I guys have a bit tougher row to hoe, so to speak. The Stock 90mm axial Tokico 6 piston calipers are awful and don’t have much in the way of direct bolt on upgrades save for Nissin 6 pots or older GSXR or TL 4 pots. I have not found many Hayabusa guys who bought into this particular mod. Those that did don’t seem to be totally enthralled with the result for the most part. There are a variety of adapters available (if you’re willing to scour the web) to adapt the stock fork legs to either 100mm (euro) or 108mm (most popular) Radial calipers, as well as select adapters to allow you to mount either 40mm or 65mm Axial calipers to the stock 90mm fork legs. There are some tasty options here if you can come up with the proper adapters! More on this later.
The other options involve transplants. I haven’t really seen one that is a true bolt on swap though. A complete front end from a late model Busa seems to be the simplest method. But again Suzuki did us no favor there as the Rotors are different diameter and spaced differently than the Gen I. So you either get a Gen II wheel and rotors or resort to spacers to try and rectify the situation. Neither seems optimal frankly. There are of course aftermarket solutions from say Ohlins for instance but those are for the High End boys that typically will spare no expense. You know who you are!
The stock Master Cylinder is also a major point of contention for all of us I suspect. They are extremely bulky, aesthetically bland and ill matched to the calipers they serve in most cases. I would wager that most of us would love to get rid of both MC’s and swap them out for the latest Radial masterpieces, finances allowing of course. I will skip over the easy stuff like Lines, pads and fluids for the purpose of this exercise. I have hyperlinked a lot of the stuff in the following for those interested.
Master Cylinders-
• The dual ratio Brembo RCS19 seems to be the queen of the fleet in this realm as of late. It has two different ratios (19x18 and 19x 20) built in. It is not too much more expensive than their other fixed ratio offerings and already has provision for brake lights etc. Lots of them have found their way onto Busa’s with generally raving results. Bring your own reservoir here, either the Brembo or a multitude of aftermarket options are available.
• The first alternate seems to be the Accosato PRS which trumps the Brembo’s dual ratio design with a triple ratio (19x17, 19x18 and 19x19) design, but it has no on board brake light provision so you’ll need to plan accordingly with a banjo bolt sender etc. As with the Brembo, also needs a reservoir.
• There seem to be multiple OEM Cylinders being used on Busa’s. The R1 or R6 Brembo seems popular as well as the GSXR Radial offering. Most can be found easily on ebay or motorcycle wrecking yards. Lots of options here if you know what to look for!
• There are some other tasty offerings in the aftermarket such as Beringer, PVM, Magura etc, but none seem to be very prevalent in this realm.
Calipers-
• Radial- Gen II bolt on, or Gen I with adapters or alternate forks.
• AXIAL- Really only Gen I specific
o Brembo makes some truly outstanding offerings here if you can get the adapters. In particular the P4.34 4 piston , 4 pad calipers are the ones of most interest. They were Original equipment on the Early 2000’s Ducati and Aprilia’s. And by all accounts, are an outstanding piece. Alternatively the “Goldline†P4 30/34 4 piston 2 pad are a good substitute and both can be had on the cheap. With the right adapter these bolt right on and do not require shims or smaller diameter rotors or any of that. I have read great things about this setup and it is financially attractive as well!
o Brembo also makes some 40mm Monoblock Axial GP Calipers but man are they spendy.
o As I mentioned above the Nissin 6 piston or Older 4 piston calipers are the only true bolt on’s of any merit. None are going to set the world on fire.
Rotors-
• Material: Again these range from a few hundred dollars to several thousand dollars for some of the more exotic materials such as Ceramic or CMC Composite. Most Street Rotors are made of Stainless steel for corrosion resistance; however Iron rotors are available and offer more ultimate performance to their SS brethren. Just have to choose whether you can deal with a little rust vs better braking performance!
• Shape: A litany of different shapes of rotors are now available, and I cannot find a single piece of evidence anywhere that they offer any performance enhancement over round rotors whatsoever? But hey they look cool.
• Carriers: For decades stock motorcycles have come with floating rotors, with a central basket typically secured to the outer disc with buttons that allow the outer rotor to “float†side to side on the carrier. Some of the more recent and novel innovations on this front are the Brembo T-drive Rotors and the Braketech Axis rotors. Both are sexy as hell and offer pretty serious performance enhancement for not a lot of outlay over their boutique contemporary competition.
Adapters- This has been the bane of my existence in recent days and also the one thing that made me decide to write this. Yoyodyne used to have this all covered, but they lost the North American Brembo Distributorship and sold all of their stock of Brembo to TAW who Is the new NA Brembo Distributor. The guys at TAW are seemingly just now getting their arms around all of the inventory they purchased from Yoyodyne.
• Radial Adapters- There seem to be more of these available in the world but some of them look a bit dodgy frankly. Most are sourced from the Orient, though there are a few domestic offerings as well. As of this writing I would have to say the AGRAS adapters appear to be the most robust. The Team Adachi ones are really sexy but spendy. The Works Quality ones are the cheapest listed on that site. I would welcome contributions here. If you have a good source for these let me know and I could add it.
• Axial Adapters- Same story as above. But fewer available. Again most of the ones I found are from the Orient. These Active ones are cheap and available at a few different places, but they state 310mm rotors on the Japanese site so…I spoke to Yoyodyne, who directed me to TAW and in speaking with TAW they have the Brembo made adapters previously sold by Yoyodyne but they want almost twice what Yoyodyne was asking for them…There are a few members on here that have done this swap and/or made their own and hopefully they can contribute a source? If someone had a CAD model or 2D drawing (of either the Radial or Axial adapters) they were willing to share would be even better. I have started a rough CAD model for one but I do not have the new calipers yet to verify if any of it works.
Most of us started off with the easy stuff. Braided Brake lines, better pads, better fluid and were still left wanting. I even took the step to add speed bleeders and also a bleeder to my MC Banjo to get every last molecule of air out of my lines! Looked cool but at the end of the day I think I was right where I started.
Then you get into the slightly more expensive options such as Aftermarket rotors, Upgraded Master Cylinders etc. Most seem to be satisfied at this level, but there is more to be had! This is where you start getting into expensive aftermarket upgrades or full on transplants.
The Gen II guys have it a bit easier here as they are (generally) a Caliper upgrade and a new master Cylinder, and maybe rotors away from near nirvana. Why Suzuki went with anything but a 320mm rotor here is beyond me! But us Gen I guys have a bit tougher row to hoe, so to speak. The Stock 90mm axial Tokico 6 piston calipers are awful and don’t have much in the way of direct bolt on upgrades save for Nissin 6 pots or older GSXR or TL 4 pots. I have not found many Hayabusa guys who bought into this particular mod. Those that did don’t seem to be totally enthralled with the result for the most part. There are a variety of adapters available (if you’re willing to scour the web) to adapt the stock fork legs to either 100mm (euro) or 108mm (most popular) Radial calipers, as well as select adapters to allow you to mount either 40mm or 65mm Axial calipers to the stock 90mm fork legs. There are some tasty options here if you can come up with the proper adapters! More on this later.
The other options involve transplants. I haven’t really seen one that is a true bolt on swap though. A complete front end from a late model Busa seems to be the simplest method. But again Suzuki did us no favor there as the Rotors are different diameter and spaced differently than the Gen I. So you either get a Gen II wheel and rotors or resort to spacers to try and rectify the situation. Neither seems optimal frankly. There are of course aftermarket solutions from say Ohlins for instance but those are for the High End boys that typically will spare no expense. You know who you are!
The stock Master Cylinder is also a major point of contention for all of us I suspect. They are extremely bulky, aesthetically bland and ill matched to the calipers they serve in most cases. I would wager that most of us would love to get rid of both MC’s and swap them out for the latest Radial masterpieces, finances allowing of course. I will skip over the easy stuff like Lines, pads and fluids for the purpose of this exercise. I have hyperlinked a lot of the stuff in the following for those interested.
Master Cylinders-
• The dual ratio Brembo RCS19 seems to be the queen of the fleet in this realm as of late. It has two different ratios (19x18 and 19x 20) built in. It is not too much more expensive than their other fixed ratio offerings and already has provision for brake lights etc. Lots of them have found their way onto Busa’s with generally raving results. Bring your own reservoir here, either the Brembo or a multitude of aftermarket options are available.
• The first alternate seems to be the Accosato PRS which trumps the Brembo’s dual ratio design with a triple ratio (19x17, 19x18 and 19x19) design, but it has no on board brake light provision so you’ll need to plan accordingly with a banjo bolt sender etc. As with the Brembo, also needs a reservoir.
• There seem to be multiple OEM Cylinders being used on Busa’s. The R1 or R6 Brembo seems popular as well as the GSXR Radial offering. Most can be found easily on ebay or motorcycle wrecking yards. Lots of options here if you know what to look for!
• There are some other tasty offerings in the aftermarket such as Beringer, PVM, Magura etc, but none seem to be very prevalent in this realm.
Calipers-
• Radial- Gen II bolt on, or Gen I with adapters or alternate forks.
o Brembo reigns supreme in this realm. Their calipers are “De rigueur†on modern motorcycles! Even the current GSXR and Hayabusa’s come with them stock. But not all are created equal as you might imagine. These can range from a few hundred to several thousand per caliper. The M4 seems to be the best of the street oriented “Monoblock†radial calipers and is available in 100mm or 108mm variety.
o Tokico or Nissin OEM calipers are all readily available and (Tokico) I think were stock on the early Gen II’s.
o There are others available from AP, Berringer etc. But none are as prevalent on the street or the track as the Brembo’s. • AXIAL- Really only Gen I specific
o Brembo makes some truly outstanding offerings here if you can get the adapters. In particular the P4.34 4 piston , 4 pad calipers are the ones of most interest. They were Original equipment on the Early 2000’s Ducati and Aprilia’s. And by all accounts, are an outstanding piece. Alternatively the “Goldline†P4 30/34 4 piston 2 pad are a good substitute and both can be had on the cheap. With the right adapter these bolt right on and do not require shims or smaller diameter rotors or any of that. I have read great things about this setup and it is financially attractive as well!
o Brembo also makes some 40mm Monoblock Axial GP Calipers but man are they spendy.
o As I mentioned above the Nissin 6 piston or Older 4 piston calipers are the only true bolt on’s of any merit. None are going to set the world on fire.
Rotors-
• Material: Again these range from a few hundred dollars to several thousand dollars for some of the more exotic materials such as Ceramic or CMC Composite. Most Street Rotors are made of Stainless steel for corrosion resistance; however Iron rotors are available and offer more ultimate performance to their SS brethren. Just have to choose whether you can deal with a little rust vs better braking performance!
• Shape: A litany of different shapes of rotors are now available, and I cannot find a single piece of evidence anywhere that they offer any performance enhancement over round rotors whatsoever? But hey they look cool.
• Carriers: For decades stock motorcycles have come with floating rotors, with a central basket typically secured to the outer disc with buttons that allow the outer rotor to “float†side to side on the carrier. Some of the more recent and novel innovations on this front are the Brembo T-drive Rotors and the Braketech Axis rotors. Both are sexy as hell and offer pretty serious performance enhancement for not a lot of outlay over their boutique contemporary competition.
Adapters- This has been the bane of my existence in recent days and also the one thing that made me decide to write this. Yoyodyne used to have this all covered, but they lost the North American Brembo Distributorship and sold all of their stock of Brembo to TAW who Is the new NA Brembo Distributor. The guys at TAW are seemingly just now getting their arms around all of the inventory they purchased from Yoyodyne.
• Radial Adapters- There seem to be more of these available in the world but some of them look a bit dodgy frankly. Most are sourced from the Orient, though there are a few domestic offerings as well. As of this writing I would have to say the AGRAS adapters appear to be the most robust. The Team Adachi ones are really sexy but spendy. The Works Quality ones are the cheapest listed on that site. I would welcome contributions here. If you have a good source for these let me know and I could add it.
• Axial Adapters- Same story as above. But fewer available. Again most of the ones I found are from the Orient. These Active ones are cheap and available at a few different places, but they state 310mm rotors on the Japanese site so…I spoke to Yoyodyne, who directed me to TAW and in speaking with TAW they have the Brembo made adapters previously sold by Yoyodyne but they want almost twice what Yoyodyne was asking for them…There are a few members on here that have done this swap and/or made their own and hopefully they can contribute a source? If someone had a CAD model or 2D drawing (of either the Radial or Axial adapters) they were willing to share would be even better. I have started a rough CAD model for one but I do not have the new calipers yet to verify if any of it works.
