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GT550 caliper upgrade

Posted: Fri Dec 08, 2023 1:39 pm
by kawonda750
Is there a more modern 2 or 3 puck caliper that can fit a Gt550? I have put Ex500 twin piston calipers on Kawasasaki 500s and 750s with a simple adaptor.
Stopping well seems kind of important to me.

Re: GT550 caliper upgrade

Posted: Sat Dec 09, 2023 6:31 am
by jabcb
We used a twin-piston caliper on the GT250 & T500 cafe build. Provides much improved performance.

Suzuki GS forum member salty_monk sells the bracket we used on both. Join the forum & search for info there.
Contact him via the forum if you are interested.
http://www.thegsresources.com

The upgrade uses an older-style twin-piston caliper with a small & large piston. Salty_monk may have developed a bracket for newer-style calipers.

The bracket requires a larger brake disk.
For the GT250/GT380 use a GT500/GT550/GT750 disk or equivalent. We used as EBC disk & Kawasaki caliper.
For the GT500/GT550/GT750 use a 320mm disk. We used an EBC MD1124LS disk (for a Honda NT650 Bros) & Suzuki caliper.
Salty_monk's forum posts lists lots of options for disks & calipers.

More info on the GT250:
http://www.suzuki2strokes.com/forum/vie ... 8&start=15

More info on the T500 build:
http://www.suzuki2strokes.com/forum/vie ... 21&t=13126

Image

Re: GT550 caliper upgrade

Posted: Sat Dec 09, 2023 7:32 am
by kawonda750
Thank you. I will check it out.

The pictured caliper looks to be the EX500 Kawasaki caliper.

Re: GT550 caliper upgrade

Posted: Sat Dec 09, 2023 1:06 pm
by jabcb
Not sure which parts supplier made the calipers, but they were used on lots of different models. Salty_monk has the list.

Bought both calipers used via eBay. Refurbished them with new OEM parts.
Check the price of those parts before buying the caliper. When we did the T500, the Suzuki parts were cheaper than the Kawasaki parts.

The left & right calipers are different. So make sure to get the correct one.

These calipers were designed to be behind the fork tubes. No problem with swapping the GT series fork tubes.
The speedo drive stays on the left.

Re: GT550 caliper upgrade

Posted: Tue Dec 12, 2023 7:04 am
by kawonda750
Thanks for the info. It seems that Kaw triple parts are always more expensive. People seem to think that they can retire on the proceeds of their Kaw parts.