Thanks for all the feedback guys.

Zimm - Your thread was one I looked at before deciding on the Tokicos. Very inspirational.

Tee&Vee -- I am using the stock 11.5" rotors - non floating so we shall see how they stand up to the added heat and whether they bend out of shape. If so, I will probably replace with a set of aftermarket 11.5" floating rotors. I don't see any great advantage to fitting 300mm/11.8" rotors as the difference in size will not make noticeable difference in braking.
Depends on how well the calipers work too. If it turns out I want even more braking, I might look at 320mm rotors.
But I also have a Brembo front mastercylinder whose bore is way smaller than the old HD unit and would increase pad pressure so that could be easier to do than bigger discs.

JohnJZJZ -- looking forward to seeing your pics. Sounds real interesting.

Spanners -- 'Blade calipers should be just the thing too. If you dont want to mess about with hacksaws etc, find an engineering shop with a plasma cutter or hyrdo cutter and take them a template to copy. Then just drill the mounting holes yourself using the calipers and fork lugs for positioning.

 

I forgot to mention that I switched to DOT 4 fluid in the front. All seems to working well but the DOT 4 ate the black paint on my lid. Be careful what you spill that stuff on.

 

ok i am not good with pictures i have downloaded picture sites only to freeze my lap top soooo -


i have been trying to do this for an hour and still cant the shop lap top is smarter than me soo if someone can post them i can e mail them as i know how to do that

i want my rotatory phone back this $ucks

 

Email them to me at fatcontroller39@hotmail.com

 

Here are the pics from the conversion Johnjzjz was talking about:

 

Freakin awesome Johnjzjz.
What model Kawa is that front end off of?
Did you have to beef the springs up at all?

 

OK the verdict is in on the Tokico calipers first test ride, a short one around the block and up the street a bit:
BLOODY FANTASTIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Two fingered braking from 60mph (100kmh) is excellent.
Four finger braking from 60mph is phenomenal. Not as good as on the GXSR, but the RK has twice the weight. Even four-fingered, the lever pressure required is way less than on the stock system.

Braking control is way way way better than the stock calipers. Lever has good feel and you can vary the braking force by tiny amounts and really control it. Whereas the stockers were kind of either on or off, (and not much happening when they are on.)

Two-finger braking in traffic at 35mph (60kmh) is excellent for the cut and thrust of commuting type riding.

Rolling into the stop lights is sooooo much easier with one finger on the brake lever and able to control just that tiny bit of braking to keep rolling without putting feet down at super slow speeds. Could not do that at all with the stockers, they either did not slow the bike at all, or dug in and nosedived the forks, requiring a foot down.

Have yet to give them the acid test two-up down the mountain range road but for general use the Tokicos seem to be light years ahead of the stockers. Well worth the little bit of expense and the time spent making the brackets etc.

And all this was done with the secondhand pads that came with the Tokico calipers, not even bedded in to the Harley disc yet.

There are two downsides:
1 The extra braking force nosedives the forks a lot more. I have Progressive springs and Intiminators in the there. Will be fitting Racetech single-rate springs to suit my weight and see if that helps. I hate to think what it would be like with stock springs as I thought before that the progressives had eliminated most of the braking dive -- but not with the Tokicos!

2. The wonderful front braking really shows up how cr@p the stock rear brake is. Even with the rebuilt caliper, master cyl and braided hose, it now feels like its not working at all in comparison to the front. I will be pulling the bags off and meausuring up to see if a Tociko can be made to fit on the rear as well. Might as well keep them all the same for ease of maintenance and parts buying.

Took a few pics of the set up in the daylight.
Hex-head Grade 8 high-tensile bolts would probably stand out less, but i am going to put the chrome covers back on so not bothered.





And a pic of the wooden template with a couple rulers for anyone who wants to print it out full size and use it as a basis for their own template.


And this is the outline with a 50mm/2 inch scale for reference.

I'd recommend marking and drilling the exact final location of the holes on the job to make sure it fits just right.

 

the fork link i used is this one

http://www.bikebandit.com/houseofmot...9227#sch301326

the kawa is almost the exact weight as what we built - we used radial tires - and EBC green racing brakepads, its the 3rd or 4th bike we built for the guy, the motor makes over a 100 / 100 at the tire, to match the front wheel we used a Buell performance machine type off a 95 S2 thunderbolt, front wheel Not polished yet , and turned it backwards the rear wheel, we cut the center out of the 11 inch rotor to fit it to the wheel and attached the caliper on the out side of the swing arm, because we have a 160 tire with a stock rear frame fork, and chain drive we used a shovel sprocket turned backwards , made a bushing for the kawa fork clamp and removed a neck shaft from an old harley lower clamp so OEM bearings and internal fork stops could be used, than machined the top clamp for a pan head type top tree bearing adjuster so we could lock it all in place and be able to adjust the drop if we ended up with a head shake - the fork is 1/2 of 1 dergree different than the harley and the hight is adjusted up just a bit to get the look we wanted - if you dident stop to look you would not notice it

it handles like nothing i have ever driven, we hit it if you know what i mean, its in for an issue with the ignition and a master conversion to the kawa unit - the brakes are still not what i had expected sooo its getting another go at it -- johnjzjz

 

Thanks for the link.

Yes, the master cylinder end of the equation is the next thing I will look at, but want to get some good riding in with the HD mastercylinder first.

I havent been able to find out yet what size bore the Gixxers used with those calipers. Most Jap sportbikes I have messed with seem to use about 13 or 14mm MCs.

The stock RK MasterCyl is 9/16 diameter, roughly 17.5mm.
I have a 2010 HD Brembo master cyl on the shelf, with a 15mm
bore.
That would give about a 25 per cent reduction in piston area, which is what counts and will put more pressure on the hydraulics.
But the trade off with a smaller piston is increased lever movement. If you go too far, the lever will come into the handlebar. So I will see how the stock MC goes for a while first. (Besides, I am sick of bleeding brake systems right now)

I did a comparo on the caliper pistons too.
The stock caliper piston is a single 48mm diameter. Piston area = 1800 sq mm.
The Tociko caliper has two 34mm pistons and two 30mm pistons. Combined piston area = 2800 sq mm.
So that is already a more than 50 per cent increase in piston area, which of course is where the extra braking power comes from with these calipers.

Let us know how it works out putting the Kawa MC on there instead of the HD one.

 

i have a brake pressure gage ( it screws into the brake bleeder thread ) from when we as a company went buell road racing in the early 90s so i can cheat so to speak - it measures lever effort and brake stopping effect as an end result --

the brake master on the mean street was 15 MM as well with an 03 inside line diameter - in my search so far we did it all the harley masters up to 95 are 5/8" and 3/4" with one set of switch controls than 96 on its 9/16" and 11/16" diameter masters with another set of switch covers and they dont interchange than the Brembo it another not counting aftermarket stuff --

in the end when i did not get what we were looking for i stopped, and i am going after it again now in the winter - the kawa master like all jap stuff have a dial for lever travel and my hope is it fixes the travel for me that is the issue < we have too much travel - i used .03 line and i used .01 racing brake lines in an effort to control feel and lever travel it worked to a point but /// i am still not impressed with the bike stopping -- will keep you updated as i find the time to work on it again, my shop is jammed with work that right now i cant get some done for AMCA judging shows in april -- and i dont have a mini me hahahahaahah -- johnjzjz