dodgy buffalo brakes

[two-stroke-brit]

i was telling my buddy in the uk about my gt750 and he was of the veiw that the diac brakes on that model were weak in the dry and near useless in the wet .is this the case and if so is there a remedy or am i doomed to having a man walk in front of me with a red flag warnig people of my approach .
thanks mark

[pjmcburney]

Hi Mark,


Define 'dodgy'...
One man's dodgy is another's bloody-marvelous!

I restored my bike a couple of years back and in the process completely refurbished the whole braking system.

I meticulously cleaned and bead-blasted all components, re-painted everything with good quality paint, used all-new genuine refurbishment kits (pistons, seals, springs etc), fitted brand-new aftermarket pads and shoes, and installed braided lines to the front brakes.
I also replace my fluid every twelve months with fresh, high-quality DOT4 (DOT5 has a spongy feel).
I have a very good, solid lever, if lacking a little feel.

I'd say the brakes are now at least as good as brand-new (probably better with the braided lines) and would best be described as 'adequate'.
There is still some noticeable movement in the calipers (design issue) which means there's a slight loss of braking power because of that, but in all reality they work quite well for the general dynamics of the bike.

It takes a good squeeze (GT's are manly bikes anyway ) to really get the bike to stop hard, but certainly no worse than bikes of the era.
I can squeal/lock my front tyre on tarmac if I have to, which is the adequate safety margin needed for road use, but I'd suggest an upgrade if you were thinking of racing a GT.

In the wet some diligence is required to allow for the loss of initial 'bite' with water on the discs, but again, a good strong handful will pull you up.
BTW, in my experience, drilling the discs makes NO difference to their wet braking performance and, you can try turning the forks around and mount the calipers on the back if you like - again, in my experience it does feck-all.

I'd say your friend is recalling either a bike from back in the 'day' that was still on period pads and tyres, or a bike with a poorly maintained or worn system.
There were certainly better back then (and almost every modern bike is better now), but properly maintained and set up, GT brakes work well.


Cheers
Paul

[Suzsmokeyallan]

Like Paul did, i fully restored my 76 Buffalos front brake system from the ground up, i was meticulous to detail on all areas to ensure they would work as good as possible. Genuine Suzuki parts were used on the calipers which were refurbished with new pistons, seals etc, i also fitted new brake hoses, refurbished the master cylinder with a new kit and fitted new Suzuki disc pads, so in essence all the parts are new except for the main body castings.
In the dry they work well and i'm able to make the front forks dive sharply for panic stops if you squeeze the brake lever for it, this performance i can live with and consider it the best i can get for the items design as OEM.
HOWEVER in the wet, once the discs and pads are soaked, the system is 100% USELESS.
The only way you can maintain a half decent ft brake in the wet is to lightly drag the pads against the discs all the time, something not recommended for it is annoying to do and it also makes the brake lamp illuminate to the people behind you.
I'm of the opinion its mostly the discs that are to blame since the stainless steel they used is just to smooth and hard.
The disc material has to have a certain amount of 'give' for the pads to grip onto it in the wet and dry.
I have a plan to test out another disc of a different material that should bolt right up to the GT and be the correct dimensions, so thats in the works soon.
For now youve got to watch the rain and make the best use of the back drum when the fronts are wet.

[Craig380]

I second (third? fourth?) the above, rebuilt my caliper with new seals & O-rings, and used proper red rubber grease on all the bearing pins etc. Also fitted Brembo sintered pads.

This improved the front brake hugely, I have a lot more confidence in it.

It's now strong enough to (lightly) squeal the front tyre, so it will not stop much quicker ....

[rngdng]

I never had trouble with my stock (Pinky) front brakes. BlueBoy is better with different calipers and master-cylinder, but the stockers were fine after rebuild.

Kevin, can I get a witness???


Lane

[two-stroke-brit]

thanks everyone ,i have ordered the new braided lines and will go the rebuild with suzuki parts route ,i drilled the discs the other day as i figured it would not hurt even if it didnt help.
so thanks again.
mark