OK, 05 Viffer, about 29K on the clock. here are a couple of things I'd like to correct and I wanted input on my ideas, so please let me know your thoughts. 1st: Brakes sticking. I thought I had corrected the sticking by adding the nylon washer to the lever perch. See: http://vfrworld.com/forums/showthread.php/48121-92-cent-fix! This definitely helped, but there is still some issue and now I am wondering if perhaps it is the Master Cylinder that may be causing it. It feels like the lever or perhaps the plunger on the MC is sticking and not causing a smooth pull. Could the MC plunger get gunked up and cause friction when the brake lever pushes on the plunger? 2nd: Brakes, inconsistent feel. Randomly, when I stop, especially normal stopping, never hard braking, I feel like at times the stopping force varies. Say for example that it feels like the brakes just grab and slow the bike. Other times, it feels like there is more slip. I just replaced my old very worn pads with EBC HH pads front and rear and at the time, I did my best to clean all exposed parts of the pistons on each caliper, I also took a scouring pad to the rotors to clean them up a bit, as my trackday left a lot of the previous pads on the rotors. I also have spent some time in the canyons with a lot of braking/trails braking into turns, so I would assume the pads are bedded in, but I guess I could do the whole 60mph to 20 mph that EBC recommends ( http://ebcbrakes.com/articles/bedding-in-new-motorcycle-pads-and-rotors/ ) I feel the problem is most noticeable on light braking, such as coming up to a stop sign at low speed. At no time has it felt unsafe, as I can increase the brake pressure and easily stop, so I am wondering if the lack of braking pressure is due to the brake lever hanging up slightly, thereby increasing the required force to slow at slow speeds/light lever pressure. To me this sounds possible. What's your opinion? 3rd: Bike out of balance feeling. My bike feels too light in the front especially when coming into a turn. I feel that I have to lean lower and more forward, otherwise the front wheel feels too light and that there is a chance of it not weighting properly and slipping, which has happened, though never enough to crash. I am running the stock suspension and the compression is at full front and rear, as my weight is 260 and I know that is more than the suspension is designed to carry, at least optimally. I know that I need to get both ends properly sprung and I intend to do so, but I have other responsibilities that require the $1000 that it will take to get the front/rear from DMr. Has anyone lowered the front end 10mm before as I have seen done somewhere on the forum and do you think this will help with balancing the bike until I can get the suspension bits? I know from my time on the track last month that my rear shock is too soft because I have a fender eliminator and once when I hot the curb and the rear end got loose, the shock over compressed and the rear tire hit the license plate and folded the whole assembly forward. I fixed this by putting a thick washer on the the muffler mount and that shimmed the pipe put just enough to increase the angle of the license plate bracket to keep it farther away from the tire. But, it is an indication that my shock is struggling to hold me up. I am hoping that this will help the bike turn in easier as well. I know that the VFR is a heavy girl at 530 lbs and that it's not a true sport bike, but I feel that it has more potential than it sits right now. Would dropping the front 10mm be a good bandaid until I get the proper fix of Jaimie's suspension installed? Thanks all, Lint
Personally I would do a rebuild of the MC and possibly the calipers and a full flush of the brake lines. When I got the 01, the rear brake was pretty much toast, two of the three pistons were pitted and was causing the seals to be slowly scraped away, the rubber was gumming up the Pistons enough that they would not even move much. The middle piston, which is triggered by the SMC, was the only one working to some degree. I ended up just rebuilding all three calipers and replacing the two damaged Pistons in the rear caliper. The brakes work fine now. As far as your suspension, I would at least look at getting it upgraded, if not aftermarket, at least rebuild the OEM to suit your weight and for the type of riding you do primarily. You can also look at maybe extending the rear shock a bit to raise the rear more and if that doesn't do the trick then consider lowering the front a bit. After having JD rebuild an OEM shock and providing the fork internals, I can away it made a big difference for my 09. Cheers
I would take the brake lever off and remove that rubber booty thing that protects the end of the piston and look inside with a light to see if you have white crystals (not the stuff from "Breaking Bad".) If this is the case, you could probably benefit from an OEM master cylinder overhaul kit. Might not be a bad idea to do it anyway. If you had ABS on this bike, I would not tell you what I would do next, (its personal and everyone is entitle to their opinions-not an abs or linked brake fan.) I would use the system to force out the pistons at which point you could grab them with your fingers and remove the whole shooting match. Your goal is to walk away with a caliper seprated from the brake line. Now you can gently and carefully remove the dust seals and main seals and clean all the smigma and crap that has accumulated behind your seals, this is why your getting a wooden feeling brake lever imho. I use a wooden stick (orange stick or a really good bend angle pick to get them.) You need to clean them good with a scotch brite pad. Make evey thing look shiny and new. I have re-used seals on brakes on countless bikes with excellent success, my ysr50 was nasty though and I had to pop for a new seal as the old one had crators and chit on it, look under magnification if your eyes are shot. Far as front ends go, I have a nice Race-Tech gold valve set up along with a Fox shock on my other bike, believe me you notice the difference. Hell my commuter Ex rides smoother than the 93 does, it has fork springs and a Works shock. 1993 bike has springs, front end dropped around 10mm to mirror the other bike but has the old bagged out shock in the rear. Kind of reminds you of a Cadillac floating down the highway with bagged out chit :loco: There is a Penske shock in my future for this bike, just don't tell my father or gawdforbid my wife ound: btw the 93 has 19,000 on it and I think those shocks where chit out of the gate pretty much. Suspension is very very subjective, there are no two road race bikes set up the same, every rider prefers something different. Cheers
