I have had the pleasure of riding one of the new touring bikes with the ABS Brembo brakes and dual disc set up which have great stopping power... However I now am riding a Softail Deluxe, which in comparison has what I would call good "slowing" power... So a front brake upgrade is definitely needed.
Thanks for any advice.
a MUCH cheaper option 4 you may be floating disc & LYNDALL 7195Z-PLUS pads.. they work well for me...
Ride Softail to favourite dealer....trade in on a nice Road King...ride home with greatly improved braking
cheers Surly
Berms
Changed out my stock calipers for 6 pot differentail bore PM's on front & 4 pot diffential bore PM,s on the fatty last year. Made a big difference in pulling it up.
Didn't need to change Master Cylinders though as PM website advised this set up still works fine which I can vouch for.
Cheers
Mal
Thanks for the replies guys.... great info and all good options.
Any advice on BREMBO VS PERFMACHINE??
Berms,
Got a QTM black Brembo 4 pot calliper, Brembo 12.6" floating rotor and Harley SS braided hose on the front of me old WG and a Harley floater rotor on the rear and Lindal Gold pads all round and the braking performance and feel through the lever and pedal has improved 10 fold, 2 finger panic stops are possible now.
Tried the Brembo 4 pot on the 11' stock Harley rotor, because I was sent the wrong calliper bracket, and after 4 bedding in stops the lever went straight to the handle bar with total brake fade, so what ever upgrade that ya go for go the floating rotors.
Got these if ya interested http://www.hdforums.com.au/Default.aspx?tabid=71&forumid=9&postid=161715&view=topic and I will be updating my photos of my old girl soon.
Don't know much about Performance Machine, they look really flash mate, but when I was researching my upgrade they were priced about the same and what swayed me to-wards the Brembo is their name and who uses Brembo in their cars and motorbikes.
Sounds like a good plan. I went with HD floating discs F/R and a PM 4 spotter front on my bones, have kept rear cal HD thus far and don't seem to need the 4 spotter PM out back. HD lines are braided (narrow bore) in newer model softy's I thought, not as flashy as the aftermarket ones but better than the old rubber line days.
But it's certainly gently gently pulling up any softy on a single front disc (we'll probably never see a twin / ABS set up come to the softail range). Certainly twin 4 spotters up front are great (I have them on my Rocket and 35000ks without a pad change) and the HD tourers are a pleasure to stop.
Ebay USA, new brembo's with adapter bracket to fit a harley are under US$200 each side and new 12.5 rotors are about US$220 each side to fit a harley. Expensive high performance cars nearly all use Brembo's, European, English, Japanese, even competition Subaru WRX's. Not sure if they have chrome ones, but chrome might still be looking good when the tow truck drags whats left of your bike away if it didn't stop in time.
I found some on Ebay USA from a seller " taraqtmi" . Tell him what you have and he might have a Brembo caliper and the right adapter to suit which diameter disc you use, bolt on and a Brembo 12.6 disc for about $400 all up plus postage. He only had one ad on Ebay because Ebay takes fees out of the postage as well, so postage to Australia eats away their profit (Ebay double dipping) if using Ebay. I didn't end up buying from him so cannot say how well it works, reason being my motor is reasonably warm and I am going twin disc, couldn't see a single disc being enough for 300 kg of bike at high speed.
If you already have a full floating disc a better caliper might be enough, try Jay brake or Jaybrake (sometimes the spelling matters when searching) as they have 6 piston calipers (left or right) that bolt straight on, often for about $200 (US Ebay) well as all the other common names for aftermarket Harley brakes. Cant say for sure as I havn't done it, but the brembo calipers from the touring/Road Kings looks like it will bolt straight on with the new bigger diameter (looks like about 12 inch) full floating disc fitted. I put a 2008 softail lower fork leg next to a new touring model fitted with the standard full floating discs and the bolt holes looked identical in placement, the brembos looked like they fit the larger diameter discs with the same bolt placement on the fork leg as the older (after 2000) gear. Using one of them would mean having to use the newer larger diameter disc (about 12 inch) with the Harley Brembo caliper. It looks like the standard harley caliper fits the 11.5 disc and the brembo fits the 12 inch using the same mounting points. I can't say it fits for sure but it was very close, enough to be worth investigating in case it fits, which I think it might. If you want all standard Harley stuff, as spare parts are easily available then. The floating disc's I have swap from left to right, but the non floating ones don't, they have left or right marked on them. The rear right looks identical to a right for the front (11.5 inch) to match the left one. I'm not at home and didn't have a tape measure to get the right diameter of the discs.
If your caliper is on the right, its easy as there are always lots of right hand Brembo's on Ebay USA from people taking one disc off. They were going for $50 to$100 US. They might have the disc for sale as well but it is heavy so postage could be high from the US. Getting only a left is harder and I didn't bother pricing a new one after the dealer gave me a price of $120 for a standard single front brake line, figured a new Harley Brembo caliper might be not worth asking the price for.
Still have trouble understanding why someone would half their brake capability on a overweight bike like a Harley by taking a good quality caliper and disc off ??
Bigger diameter disc is more leverage for the brake to work and more disc to cool the heat generated, full floating helps as well.
I was originaly going to use a single 13.5 inch Buell disc and make my own adapter to hold a 6 piston caliper, but Buell's only weigh 200 kg and mine is the standard 300 kg. I know you don't have a softail but a lot of Harley parts interchange, just trying to help.
A lot of good info in there, but I too am thinking of this. I have the dislike of the single caliper on the front as well, I have fitted the 6 spot caliper on my 2013 FLSTC, and it did help, but I still think it can be improved, I had considered the idea of fitting a set of Road King lowers to get the twin disk mount for my heritage, then fit the 6 spot on the other side as well, not sure if that will work just yet.
If your forks are 41mm, just buy some Road king or touring lowers, they used to be easy to get from people putting chrome ones on. Then if doing it as simple as possible, get a dual disc front brake line, the other caliper to match and another disc of the same size. From memory they are 11.5 inch dia. I used the same single disc master cylinder and it worked very well, just bleed it properly. The master cylinder hose bolt was a different size, I just bored the hole a touch bigger to suit. Or buy some touring discs (think they are 11.8 inch dia), dual brake line and brembo calipers and they bolt straight up as well. The touring discs work well, floating ones look better if that's your thing. Touring discs are cheap and easy to get second hand from people who like bling things on their bikes. Would use the twin disc master cylinder with this setup. You may have to use a 4 or 6mm spacer (plenty of places to get one, or Ebay) under one of the discs or on one caliper, depends on the front end setup or wheel on your bike and the parts you get off another bike. When our dollar was good, I got a complete braking system (think it was off a police bike), front and rear brembos, lines, discs, hoses and master cylinders, everything for $200, plus postage from the US to replace the Harley type twin disc setup I had put on. So it doesn't have to cost a fortune if you want to do it, and it works well. Better than the silly single front one trying to pull up 300 kg of bike plus you and anything else on it. Using better pads helps too, do a search on this site, its been covered before. For me it was like using lego, just swapped some parts around. Put some Intiminators in the forks while they are apart, easily the best value for money I've had while changing or swapping bits on my bike. Very easy to do as well.
