worm~hole
Needs a life
Miles to go before I sleep....
Posts: 10623
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posted July 27, 2003 03:00 AM
give me a brake
...I came home from another fine night at the stinkin' orafice...uh...I mean office...anticipatin' another day I get to ride...I open my handy-dandy remote...I see my collection of two sitting in the garage...then it hits me...I ask myself "Could a six-pot caliper from the 12 fit on my KLR with the 320mm rotor upgrade?"...so I take the adapter bracket and place it next to the left front caliper of the 12...and the bolt holes line up with the caliper bolts....hmmmm...the mind reels, but I cannot work on the bike tonight and be at one with the tweekers of this world...I need some sleep...gots to ride when the sun comes up....still, the mind reels...
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“We sleep safe in our beds because rough men
stand ready in the night to visit violence on those
who would do us harm.”
-George Orwell
  
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fish_antlers
Administrator
The Truth is Out There
Posts: 21894
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posted July 27, 2003 09:37 AM
ack! sounds expensive!
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What business is it of yours where I'm from, Friendo?
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worm~hole
Needs a life
Miles to go before I sleep....
Posts: 10623
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posted July 27, 2003 09:57 AM
...go to salvage yard...find healthy 2 or 3 pot Tokico or Nissen front caliper with same caliper bolt spacing...find 320 or 310 or 300mm disc that'll bolt on to the wheel hub...add braided line...add sintered pads...ask Dino to make caliper adapter bracket for you  ...install and enjoy...could it be that simple?...gotta be way cheaper than the big buck$$$$ I paid for my set-up
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“We sleep safe in our beds because rough men
stand ready in the night to visit violence on those
who would do us harm.”
-George Orwell
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Mechanic
Novice Class
Posts: 93
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posted July 28, 2003 07:09 AM
Just an idea, but a larger disc with the existing caliper will give better results than just changing the caliper (it looks better as well). KilLeR forks are fairly spindly by modern standards, and I think you would get noticeable flex if you went the whole hog and fitted a larger disc and beefier caliper. I've just done a big disc conversion on my wife's dualsport with "Wreckers parts". Total cost for wheel disc and paint - $80 and some nights spent in the garage. J
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ABS is like women. It seems very few men understand either!
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fish_antlers
Administrator
The Truth is Out There
Posts: 21894
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posted July 28, 2003 08:01 AM
AH.... mechanic.... the part of this that you missed was that when we were at Laguna Seca worm spotted an oversized (read ZX-12R) rotor at the Galfer booth..... having nothing but money to burn (apparently ) he immediately purchased this along with the bracket to relocated the stock calliper... now it seems as though he is going to continue with this "little" project....
Perhaps a fork brace is what he needs next?
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What business is it of yours where I'm from, Friendo?
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worm~hole
Needs a life
Miles to go before I sleep....
Posts: 10623
|
posted July 28, 2003 10:12 AM
 Edited By: worm~hole on 28 Jul 2003 11:16
...fork brace coming...besides, we think nothing to spend $300~$1000 for a silly exhaust system to sound cooler and to go 'faster', so I thought it was ok to spend $300 for better braking components to STOP faster and have peace of mind given the poor components that come stock with the bike...anybody can go fast and shit their pants trying to stop the thing...now I can ride this thing with assurance that the brake will do what brakes do....so nyahhhhhhh!!!!
...I installed the rotor and black galfer pads (no braided lines, but I have them waiting on the shelf, too) to get a back to back comparison with a stocker...very large man-child JATO the behemoth on his bone-stock 03 KLR and I went for a little pavement night ride up Palomar Mountain (can't wait for you and PK to see and perhaps ride this mountain, fishbreath)....
...the brakes are 'reassuring' and feel progressive with no grabby surprises...should be even better when I install the braided lines...JATO and I swapped bikes and essentially concurred with my assesment...now he wants one, too, but I told him to start with the braided lines and galfer green pads first (so we can get another back-to-back comparison)...
...the bike actually stops when you want it to, not when you've run out of road or space...better front fork springs and fork oil for my weight will sweeten the balance...
...I had one problem with the kit: the instuctions stated to reassemble the brake components per Kawasaki manufacturer's specs...the Kawasaki torque value for the caliper bolts is 18ftlb...I probably had just gotten past 10ftlbs while torquing down the blue loc-tited bolts and it stripped the threads inside the adapter (my harbor freight torque wrench was set at 16ftlbs to torque the disc assembly bolts to the disc)...
...I called the people at "the company" and told them what had happened...the sales rep told me that they had sold many of these kits and have never had a problem like this...I told them I finger-tightened the bolts flush with the forkleg brake caliper bosses, absolutely didn't cross-thread (see prior statement), began torquing per spec, felt the bolt drag then loosen as I was probably approaching past 10~12ftlbs (the wrench never had a chance to click, see where my wrench was set), pulled the bolt out, saw aluminum coiled around the steel bolt threads, told them that I believed the aluminum was too soft for the factory torque values and I told them that I needed another adapter...
...without them saying that I screwed up (WHICH I KNOW I DIDN'T!), they told me that they would sell me another adapter at half their cost...it didn't cost much, so I asked them to sell me two just in case...they declined my request and sent me one at half their cost and the second one at cost (if it, the price, is even true...like I said, it didn't cost much, but principals were involved now, and I wanted to get my bike back on the road NOW!)...
...I recieved the adapter brackets a few days later and called them...they told me to torque the caliper bolts to 10ftlbs...I told local my Kawasaki mechanic about my experience and he recommended that I torque it to 10ftlbs with blue loc-tite...he said that's what he'd do with a steel bolt to aluminum bracket interface...
...long story not so short, I have done this and its been on the bike for ~200 miles now...I suggested to "the company" that the 10lb torque spec be specified in their instruction sheet so that no problem like mine repeats itself to other customers...they told me they would...
...I'm not totally convinced that the supplied aluminum adapter bracket is the way to go with this kit...I don't think the steel caliper bolts to aluminum bracket is the optimum design...I'd feel better if the adapter was made out of steel (as in steel bolts to steel caliper interface), but I can only assume that the engineers who designed this kit have figured it out...I'm keeping the stripped adapter and the second good adapter as reference and perhaps as a guide to have someone (Dino???Gerhard????) make a steel adapter...
...I'm putting my trust in these components in that it will perform without fail, but if I ever have a catastrophic front brake failure ie. steel bolts walking out of aluminum adapter bracket due to elongated adapter bolt holes caused by vibration due to increased braking forces, and get knocked unconscious or worse, somebody remember this post, ok? 
...if you want to know who "the company" is, PM me...
____________
“We sleep safe in our beds because rough men
stand ready in the night to visit violence on those
who would do us harm.”
-George Orwell
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