Honda F4i brake install
 

I am doing a modification, which has been shown on this forum by others, and here are the pics of my project.

Here's the misalignment of the hole. And what I had to do to Dremel it. Notice the middle mark is where the fork leg hits the caliper. The other marks are adjustments that are made to make it fit.

Honda F4i brake install (continued)
 

I used the depth gauge on the Dremel so that I could keep it at the same position while cutting. And what I found that was a pain was that the lettering of the "NISSIN" would sometimes hold the depth gauge on the Dremel and kept it from moving smoothly. So I put masking tape over the lettering.

Honda F4i brake install (continued)
 

The Dremel has a rough finish so I used sandpaper on a drill to smooth it out.

Honda F4i brake install (continued)
 

And for the finishing touches, Home Depot has a paint (Flat Soft Iron) that I used to touch up the aluminum to make it look finished. I sprayed the paint into a plastic disposable lid and then used a fine paintbrush for the detail work.

Hey Bald Eagle,

I am considering doing a full F4i brake swap (MC and calipers and use my braided SS lines). Have you installed and test ridden your set-up yet? I want your opinion on the difference in stopping power before I jump in and do the same mod. I want to upgrade my brakes since, even after cleaning the rotors and bleeding the system, my lever needs to travel almost to the bar to generate any serious stopping power. Not something I want in an emergency or a track day.

Can't Stop Me Now....
 

Hey Skifreak
I have not yet tried out the new setup...the weather here in Mass is not good yet...neither was the football game....but a great game to watch..So I do not have an opinion on the upgrade. I can only go by what the forum has suggested, which has been very good. You can go to Ebay and purchase the whole setup for a Honda F4i, including the master cylinder, for cheap money. I have taken the calipers apart and cleaned them and have replaced the seals for the pistons. A little tricky to get those pistons out, cause you cannot use pliers on the aluminium pistons, it will mark them up, and be an area where it could leak brake fluid oil. I too put stainless brake lines on the original calipers, to get better braking efficiency, but I am going to be on the track as well, and want to have the full braking power when needed. The differences between the VTR 1000 and the F4i brake calipers is huge. My concern with the stainless brake lines and the upgrade, the calipers might be too grabby, so I am going to leave the original hoses that came with the purchase and see how that goes.
I do not have the problem that you have described, you could have a master cylinder problem, you might want to get a rebuild kit.
I hope this has helped.

i had the same set up on my yellow bike before i swapped the front end over.. i have to say i liked it, had plenty of feel and was a good upgrade on the standard storms units

Good to hear your feedback Fabiostar. I just pulled the trigger on eBay and bought a complete F4i system with calipers, lines, MC and lever for $60. I will bust out the Dremel, mount them with with new EBC HH pads and my SS lines and see how it feels.

It's gotta be better than the current weak and mushy lever I have now, even with SS lines and a thorough bleeding with the MightyVac.

I have the CBR954 brakes with standard lines and EBC HH pads. Great feel, plenty of power, and well worth the time/money. I did not like the stock brakes at all.

Got my F4i calipers mounted, along with Vesrah RJLs and a F4i master cylinder. I can already tell the lever is firmer. I used to be able to pull the lever to the twistgrip, now it will only go about half as far. Much firmer. I can't wait to test it out, as soon as it stops snowing here.

I painted the calipers silver and accented the lettering in red.https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.sup...76c081caf5.jpg

The f4i is a great improvement over stock. Even more so with the RJL pads.
I ran that for a while til I put the 600RR front end on. Now the it feels like a whole new bike and the brakes are even better still being radial.

Yeah, I already have braided SS lines.

But, winter is still having its way here. I guess I will ski until I can ride the VTR!

How close to the throttle grip should you be able to pull in the brake lever using the F4/F4i MC and calipers? Could you post a picture with the lever fully pressed in?

I have SS lines ("race"/direct layout, so no splitting joints- bleeding should be the easiest ever) , fully rebuild the MC, cleaned the calipers pistons, put new fluid and bleed it till the fluid from 2-3 reservoirs came out PERFECTLY clear, even left it with the lever clamped overnight... and still I can get the lever to ~60% closed while stopped. Is this normal for this MC/ caliper combo? I've never had this much lever/pedal static compression with any hydraulic brakes on any vehicles, let alone with SS lines and freshly rebuilt MC!
My other bike has the now old and flexy OEM rubber lines, old/unrebuilt MC, 3Y old fluid and still... it's not possible to compress it more then 1/3!

What you describe is not normal; the calipers won't flex much nor will the lines, so the excess travel must be due to some residual air, frustrating I know. From my own experience, it can take some time for the bubbles to get out out of a fresh brake system, as in you may need to bleed again 2 or 3 times before you get the feel that you expect. That said, the F4i brake setup does have the smaller master to biggest brake piston ratio, so you would expect more travel on that than for example the CBR600RR/954 caliper setup, the trade-off being you get more hydraulic advantage at the caliper for a given squeeze of the lever.

Are you using stock levers or aftermarket? That would have some bearing on the travel. I found my Chinese knock off colored imitation pazzo levers traveled way too much no matter the bleeding.

Keep bleeding and try the mitivac method or the syringe method to push fluid up from caliper (air rises).

I also added a bleeder at the lever and that cut the job in half.

In my experience, if you rapidly pump the brake lever, and the distance then comes to its normal position (as it should be), this is a sure sign of air in the system. I've had issues lke this before and this is how I determined whether there was air in the system and more bleeding was needed.
That's my two cents.....I'm cheap.

Thanks for the replies!
Levers are OEM- Chinese foldable ones are known to often have different sizes, resulting in different push ratios and/or pushing the MC piston at crooked angles.
I will try doing what's IMO the "last resort" - pushing in the pistons to get a reverse bleed effect. I see it as "last resort" because it can get quite splashy and messy...

Reverse bleeding is done by pushing fluid IN the bleeder screw.
Remove screw, wrap with teflon tape, screw in. Bleed normally a few round to get most air out from having screw out. Then attach a syringe with brake fluid and a tube that has been purged of air to the bleeder screw, crack it open and gently push fluid in the screw to the master reservoir. A second syringe is handy to remove fluid from the reservoir. I buy 60cc syringes at a animal feed store for just a few dollars and toss them after a few uses as the plunger does start to stick. https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/pr...2?cm_vc=-10005

I've been away for a while so didn't get to do anything with this, but I finally "gave up" and bought a hand vacuum pump. Will try to use it tomorrow, hopefully with good results.

When I changed the lines on mine, I got so frustrated because I just couldn't get decent pressure. Finally decided to bleed from the top banjo bolt. Got the last bubbles of air out, and now everything is good. Air got stuck right before the banjo, so no amount of bleeding from the bottom would get all of it.

My version of reverse bleeding is to push the caliper pistons back into the calipers; that pushes fluid back up the lines to the master and can help to get a better brake feel.

Thanks. Really good idea.

Yes that works, but as I said in post #19, it can get messy...

Want to hear something strange (never happened before)? After simply sitting untouched for the past 2 weeks the air did somehow rise and exit the lines because the lever now gets hard at 1/3 travel instead of 2/3 travel. Maybe it's still not 100% air free but very likely it's good enough not to fade at a "medium-fast" street riding pace.

That sorta makes sense since the micro bubbles will rise up but really not out. You need to bleed at the top banjo or it can be an issue. For my racebikes I used to tie off the lever and transport them to the track. The driving bumps & vibrations would bump the air out.

Also you can add a bleed nipple at the master banjo. That changed the whole process for me. It drastically cuts the job down since air does still rise in liquid.