I have recently been teetering on the idea of swapping out my front disks to the Arlen Ness 14" big brake rotors for a better feel and power on the front brakes with less effort. Currently I can pull in the brakes hard enough to activate the anti-lock so it's not a issue with them working, I am just wondering if it improves the overall experience of the ride with having to use less effort in normal braking. Anyone have these and can provide some experience?

My bike is the 2019 Street Glide Special but interested in hearing about any bike.

 

I have never noticed much improvement with just larger rotors. Better calipers, braided lines, better pads always seem to make the most difference to me, but feel is subjective. Just my opinion, YMMV.

Be interesting to see others perspectives though.

 

Looking at it from a physics perspective, braking force is the same but you have greater braking torque by increasing the radius of the disk. Also, since the disk is larger in diameter, the heat is dissipated over a greater surface so the disk theoretically would run slightly cooler under normal braking forces.

They claim a 30% more braking power which make sense with a disk that is 20% bigger in diameter.

All that being said, do the forces created with the larger disk feel that much different from the forces of the smaller stock disk? It could be equivalated to running 45lbs or 39pbs of pressure in your rear tire, will you notice it in every day riding?

I am curious to hear some other opinions.

 

I wasn't real happy with my stock brakes, even though I had switched to EBC pads. They helped, but I still wanted more. Installed the Big Brake kit with new pads and the difference was huge. I had been thinking about going to dual disks, but considering the costs and more unsprung weight, I was thrilled with the results.

 

You might try better performance brake pads before dropping big money on new rotors.

 

Great feedback, thanks.

 

Why not do both? I am not specifically looking for a solution, just wondering what the performance gain was. Theoretically pads would last longer with larger disks since they are outputting less friction to gain the same stopping power. That is a bonus by itself especially if you are using high dollar pads.

 

Big improvement going to the 14" rotor - only one front rotor on my Softail Std.
Using Lyndall Gold on stock and then Arlen's rotor.
Much better feel along with improved stopping power, both cold and hot.