6 piston vs 4 piston
 

lets talk brakes. im thinking of doing another brake upgrade over the winter on my bike, to something that clamps harder. or perhaps to a brembo master. havent decided yet. see how much money is available and what not.

right now ive got a k6 radial master with gsxr 750 4 piston calipers. alot of guys i talk to prefer the 4 piston vs the 6 piston for its progressiveness and they say the 4 piston will actually not show brake fade as fast as the 6 piston. 4 large pistons lots of fluid and lots of clamping force. i know first hand how hard these bastards stop as ive had the rear tire lift at 110 mph while braking for a corner that i came into too hot. but i had to get on the brakes pretty good to make it stop. id like to have a bit more of an aggressive brake system. thats why im thinking of going to a 6 pot setup. but if the 6's really do fade faster than the 4s then whats the point especially if i start tracking the bike more next year, so id be better off with a better master in that case. so im wondering whos tried both the gixxer 4 and 6 piston setup at a track and how have they compaired? better yet do any of the guys running a radial master and a 6 piston setup at the track have any issues with fade at all?

at my first track day i clearly wasnt pushing the bike anywhere near where it could have been pushed. thats just for my own benefit but the brakes held out fine. i did at one point turn out where the lever sat so that i could get more of the front brake and not have the lever hit my hand. but the brakes felt great, no fade on them at all from what i could tell. im running the ebc hh pads and dd lines aswell. but being a greedy fat bastard i always want more of everything and in this case i want the bike to stop even better :D

FWIW, what I have read in researching this very matter is that the Nissin four-piston calipers used on pre-radial Hondas are superior to the Tokico 6-pots used on early 2000s Suzukis. In fact, I read many Gixxer owners exchainging their Tokicos for the Nissins (for track duty, for example). This applies to two specific applications of each design and is by no means is a reflection of the overall superiority of either design....

4 piston calipers and Vesrah RJL pads. That's all you need.

Well I have not tryed the 4 pistion but I do have the 6 pistion on my bike I went with the ss lines the six pistion calipers and wave rotors at the sametime. I have done a lot of track days at roadamerica and cant think of any track that will heat your brakes up anymore than there. at the very end of the session I do notice you have more travel I then added the new master also from a giser and that has gone away. So thats just an fyi I hear the 4 pistion has a weight advantage and if they stop just as good or better its worth looking into but if you see a good deal on the 6 piston I wood grab them. rember the pad has a lot to do with it. I like the brakings pad lots of bite up front but thats the way I like it. the HH was not to my liking. Its what you like as long as you dont get the fad. got to go at work.

all good points. ill look into some 6 pistons and maybe swap them out and see hwo i like them and compare them to my 4 pistons next year. youre not the first top say you dont like the hh pads. maybe its because i havent tried another brand of pad but i like them. once they got hot they get even grabbier than when theyre cold. my buddy ran them on his daytona and said he didnt notice a difference over stock. ultimately im after a pad that will work for day to day street riding and will also perform well on the track.

ill look into the pads you guys mentioned, maybe even check into them now as i have a few minutes. thanks.

now im just hoping my clutch lasts the rest of the season, it was slipping bad last night. always something i tell you. lol.

:iagree:

Of course getting bigger rotors when you swap front ends also really helps out the equation. ;)

There really isn't anything wrong with 6 pot calipers. With that I will also add that I have no desire to run them. They do add a bit more weight (and it is unsprung weight, which IMHO is the worst kind). The other justification that I use is that when Brembo starts making 6 pot calipers, then I will consider using them.

Until them I am more than happy with my 4 pot SP2 calipers w\RJL pads and 320mm rotors. If you use any more than 2 fingers with this set up, it will pitch you right over the bars. ;)

One thing that seems to get ignored a lot in brake upgrades for the superhawk is rotors. In my experience, rotors are really half of the equation, with calipers and pads being the other half, and yet rotors are often overlooked. Yes there are lots of aftermarket offerings, with Galfer and EBC amongst others...and almost all of them are better than the stockers, but for my bike nothing beats ductile iron rotors. Even with stock calipers, if you put a set of those on, with decent braided lines and a good pad, you WILL notice a difference. Iron rotors have a much higher co-efficient of friction compared to stainless. The only drawbacks is that they wear quicker than stainless (which should also indicate that you are getting more stopping power) and that they do get a rust film riding in the rain (though simply applying the brakes takes care of that). That said, I have 46k on my hawk now, and the rotors are still plenty thick. I would think with the calipers you have and the master cylinder you have, a set of braketech axis rotors would literally pop your eyeballs out of their sockets when you get on the brakes. :shock:
-R

Do I need a spacer of some kind for the caliper when running a 320 mm rotor? Maybe ill do that instead for next year and then decide how I like the brakes :-)

Not sure if you can still get all the bits or even the rotors to do a rotor upgrade on the stock SH wheel anymore.

They were made at one time and consisted of a set of brackets to relocate the calipers and of course the rotors.

My upgrade was a side benefit of swapping the front end. ;)

Check braketech's site Uchi. According to their application guide you can get 298mm iron axis full floaters for the SH. Though, I agree, you wouldn't be getting the upgraded front end. ;) I guess my main point is, rotor material really does factor in quite heavily in braking capability. If I ever have the cash (gonna be a few years) to do the front end swap, a CBR1000 front end with IRON rotors..whoo-boy! Makes me drool just thinking about it. :drool::drool: You may be able to buy spacer from Braketech for running larger rotors (stock or otherwise) on stock SH forks...might be worth contacting them.
-R

Cool buddy thanks ill send them an email. maybe we can convince Jamie to machine a batch for us :-)

well i think im gonna jump to a brembo master over the winter. see how money goes and if works keeps up i may be able to sneak it past the fiance :D

my buddy just put one on his daytona 675. put it this way, his brakes before were very grabby and required a steady hand, he said its night and day difference now and he has the master turned all the way down. lol