Curious About Calipers
 

I got to lookin' at the front calipers on the CheeperHawk today, thinkin' that they were an upgrade from the stock units. Based on a post by "lazn" from a while back, where he listed a bunch of Honda caliper specs, I pulled them off to measure the piston sizes figurin' that would be helpful if I needed rebuild kits or new pads.
Surprise! The calipers on the bike had 30mm/27mm pistons....same as the OEM SuperHawk units!

I dug out a pair of '02 CBR F4i calipers (bought to eliminate the linked brakes on a VFR I used to have) and checked them out...34mm/32mm, just like "lazn" posted.

CBR caliper install comin' up!!

The 1st pic is the "upgrade" caliper that was on the CH, the 2nd is the CBR unit that will be mounted up most ricky-tick.


Rex


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Good catch! F4i calipers are SO much better than stock.

Someone must have painted your OEM ones at some point.

edit: I have my OEM ones still and I think they look different than what you have. hmm.. I will dig them out and double check this weekend, unless someone else has easier access before then.

Nah, they were black from '01-up.

Such a great upgrade... do you have a m/c to go with that too?

They must be later versions, no evidence of being painted.

Master cylinder? Yeah, we got that!
I have a pretty serious aversion to the "urine sample cup" reservoirs, even more serious when they're mounted on standard handlebars.


Rex

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Um... NOooooO... Bad modder... Put the hammer back in the toolchest... It's not used for wrenching on bikes...;)

Like the looks of that...

A hammer and a looooong screwdriver are all anyone needs to work on anything.

You can fix anything with a hammer... Once

Is this the equation? You mount the triple that much deeper on the tubes so you can install superbike bars to raise the ride position up? Am I missing something? You're just adding parts to change no geometry. Or am I missing something?

That looks about right for the stock location to me.. Stock clipons mount above the stock triple..

Actually, the plastic hammer and the strip of metal were for creasing a cardboard box to allow nice folds when I packed up all the fairing stuff I sold.

The hammer I use on the bike is much heavier and made of steel!! :p




The fork tubes are protruding through the upper clamp as needed to mount the clip-ons. I haven't changed the original geometry at all.

The superbike bars just make the riding position a lot more tolerable for an Ol' Geezer like myself!


Rex

It appears you used the OE top triple clamp but whose bar risers did you use and do they also available for "fat bars"?

Yes, stock upper clamp. The risers are '02 Yamaha FZ1, 50+-mm rise.
I threaded the mount studs about 25mm down and cut off about 25mm of the overall length. On the bottom of the upper clamp I spot faced the casting to allow use of a 6mm spacer, about 30mm in diameter, as a bit of reinforcement.

Here's a pic of the risers from the Ebay listing.


Rex


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Hoenstly guys, I didn't notice a single change when going to the 'better' calipers. Maybe it was just me, but the braking power was pretty much the same. FYI - I changed out the master cylinder too. Just thought I'd throw that in for discussion.

I am surprised.. It was night and day difference for me. Plus the advantage of being able to find a wider range of brake pads for the F4i calipers is an added bonus.

I second that... BIG improvement in feel and function when I switched to the F4i setup.

+1 - I know repeated high speed track use may be a different story, but for the street, changing to the EBC HH pads was night and day for me. I went from aceptable so so braking to the two finger stuff everyone always mentions. Only change was the pads as I had changed the fluid with DOT 4 a few months earlier.

Me too. I persisted with the standard calipers and master cylinder for ages and ages. Mine were rebuilt, nicely painted, and had new pads and bolts etc, so I was reluctant to take them off. I spent heaps of time bleeding them, confident I could get them good enough.

But I just couldn't!!!! F4i calipers and master cylinder swap, and immediately I had two finger braking that gave me great confidence. I have done a lot of mods to my bike, and for me, this is the best mod I have done.