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So some of you have asked me about the front brake upgrade on my Kat. Well heres all the info. I meant to post all this a while ago when I originally posted the first pics of the upgrade here: http://katriders.com/vb/showthread.php?t=89036, but school/work/family/girlfriends/ etc. keep me pretty busy so I never got around to it. Also sry to Rok_Stars_Bars, he asked me personally for some info and I just never got to sending it.
The calipers are Tokico 6 pots from a 2002 GSX-R 1000. Most of the Tokico 6 pots have a wide bolt hole spacing (90mm if my memory serves me well) such as the ones on the pre 2008 Hayabusa and TL 1000 R, but on the 2000-2002 GSX-R 1000 the 6 pots have the same hole spacing as the very popular Tokico 4 pots which is I think is 62mm (Its been a while since I did all the research). These 4 pots came stock on the 2001 - 2003 GSX-R 600, the 2000 - 2003 GSX-R 750, or any model year of the SV 1000. Anyway, I used GSX-R caliper brackets made for an SV650 from SV Racing Parts available here: http://forum.svrider.com/showthread.php?t=88262 and used the 2002 GSX-R 1000 6 pots instead of the 4 pots. Since the forks of the SV650 and the Kat are nearly identical, this was almost a perfect bolt on. All that I had to do was buy different hardware and offset the calipers from the brackets about 7mm towards the wheel to get the calipers centered on the rotors. I simply bought some good quality automotive washers and grade 8 bolts from Home Depot that were the correct thread and length and bolted everything up ( with reasonable torque specs and thread lock of course). The master cylinder is also from a 2002 GSX-R 1000. I decided to switch just to keep everything consistent, not sure if the master cylinder is really necessary but I thought I might as well. The master cylinder is also almost a direct bolt on, all you really have to do is make a bracket to hold the new fluid reservoir, and bolt it to the clip-on. I’m still using stock Katana brake lines but I flushed, changed, and bled the brake fluid when I did the swap. I want braided SS lines one day, but the money always seems to be running out
. These brackets are made to be used with stock rotors and they work very well and provide a very good positioning of the caliper. It looks like the calipers are sitting away from the rotors in a radial direction a bit in the pics, but they are not, it’s just because the Kat uses smaller rotors (only 290mm) which means even though the calipers are very close to the rotors (in a radial direction) near the middle of the pads, out near the edges there is a little gap, but it doesn’t seem to be any problem at all.
As for the performance… they are AMAZING. I have some new rotors and some EBC HH sintered pads as can be seen in the pics below. They provide more braking than you could ever need, but the main reason I’m impressed is the great control and modulation that you get with these calipers. They provide so much better feel and more precise modulation compared to the stock Kat brakes which I always thought was one of the cons of the Katana. I love them; definitely one of my favorite mods. They look pretty nice too IMO. Some people say that they like the way that the 4 pots work better than the 6 pots, but those huge golden calipers look so nice I couldn’t pass them up.
The only slight challenge with installing them was the main bolts that go through the brackets and into the fork mounts. You have to use decent size bolts (I forget what size) with a nut on the back. This means that those bolts come pretty close to the rotors on the inside of the fork. Therefore I found some pretty low profile nuts, and trimmed the bolts so they just came flush with the nut surface; not a big deal, but just something to keep in mind if you’re going to do this upgrade. Overall this is a great upgrade and I would definitely recommend it, but as always be careful and make sure everything is engineered well when changing something as crucial as your brakes.
Heres some pics, and don’t hesitate to ask me any question and I’ll try to answer them, but I am really busy most of the time so no promises on quick responses.
The calipers are Tokico 6 pots from a 2002 GSX-R 1000. Most of the Tokico 6 pots have a wide bolt hole spacing (90mm if my memory serves me well) such as the ones on the pre 2008 Hayabusa and TL 1000 R, but on the 2000-2002 GSX-R 1000 the 6 pots have the same hole spacing as the very popular Tokico 4 pots which is I think is 62mm (Its been a while since I did all the research). These 4 pots came stock on the 2001 - 2003 GSX-R 600, the 2000 - 2003 GSX-R 750, or any model year of the SV 1000. Anyway, I used GSX-R caliper brackets made for an SV650 from SV Racing Parts available here: http://forum.svrider.com/showthread.php?t=88262 and used the 2002 GSX-R 1000 6 pots instead of the 4 pots. Since the forks of the SV650 and the Kat are nearly identical, this was almost a perfect bolt on. All that I had to do was buy different hardware and offset the calipers from the brackets about 7mm towards the wheel to get the calipers centered on the rotors. I simply bought some good quality automotive washers and grade 8 bolts from Home Depot that were the correct thread and length and bolted everything up ( with reasonable torque specs and thread lock of course). The master cylinder is also from a 2002 GSX-R 1000. I decided to switch just to keep everything consistent, not sure if the master cylinder is really necessary but I thought I might as well. The master cylinder is also almost a direct bolt on, all you really have to do is make a bracket to hold the new fluid reservoir, and bolt it to the clip-on. I’m still using stock Katana brake lines but I flushed, changed, and bled the brake fluid when I did the swap. I want braided SS lines one day, but the money always seems to be running out
. These brackets are made to be used with stock rotors and they work very well and provide a very good positioning of the caliper. It looks like the calipers are sitting away from the rotors in a radial direction a bit in the pics, but they are not, it’s just because the Kat uses smaller rotors (only 290mm) which means even though the calipers are very close to the rotors (in a radial direction) near the middle of the pads, out near the edges there is a little gap, but it doesn’t seem to be any problem at all. As for the performance… they are AMAZING. I have some new rotors and some EBC HH sintered pads as can be seen in the pics below. They provide more braking than you could ever need, but the main reason I’m impressed is the great control and modulation that you get with these calipers. They provide so much better feel and more precise modulation compared to the stock Kat brakes which I always thought was one of the cons of the Katana. I love them; definitely one of my favorite mods. They look pretty nice too IMO. Some people say that they like the way that the 4 pots work better than the 6 pots, but those huge golden calipers look so nice I couldn’t pass them up.
The only slight challenge with installing them was the main bolts that go through the brackets and into the fork mounts. You have to use decent size bolts (I forget what size) with a nut on the back. This means that those bolts come pretty close to the rotors on the inside of the fork. Therefore I found some pretty low profile nuts, and trimmed the bolts so they just came flush with the nut surface; not a big deal, but just something to keep in mind if you’re going to do this upgrade. Overall this is a great upgrade and I would definitely recommend it, but as always be careful and make sure everything is engineered well when changing something as crucial as your brakes.
Heres some pics, and don’t hesitate to ask me any question and I’ll try to answer them, but I am really busy most of the time so no promises on quick responses.
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