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As far as the Speed Merchant mount, does 4piston or 6piston make any difference? Would both adequately bolt up and work with the stock Harley dual disc master cylinder?
The only 6-piston RADIAL calipers I'm aware of are Yamaha/Sumitomos and they aren't 108mm so they won't bolt up to the SM brackets
Generally anything 108mm bolt spacing should work with the speed merchant brackets. Depending on the look you want you can get a set really cheap or you can spend some money.
The tokico stuff off the older generation gsxrs can be found on ebay really cheap. The calipers off the Yamaha R6 can be found pretty cheap too. That's what I went with. The newer generation gsxrs have brembo calipers that will mount up too but they are expensive compared to the others. Don't get stuck on the monoblock word. Some of the cheaper calipers brembo are monoblocks and some of the more expensive higher quality stuff are split calipers.
One thing to keep in mind. The caliper is only one part of the braking system. Other parts like brake pads, brake line and master cylinder play and important part in the system.
After having some of the better braking systems out there on my track bikes I went all in on my Harley. As someone has linked to my stuff above I tossed out the entire front system. New calipers, new pads, new line and new master cylinder. I was all pretty easy to swap out and get mechanically functional. The hardest part was dealing with the canbus system. I had to make my own brake light switch because Harley chose to be opposite of almost everyone else.
I would do it again. The performance boost is well worth it.
Brembos are quite pricy. The middle of the road would be the 108mm monobloc Sumitomos off of an R6 or an R1 which would probably be around $250 for a set. I think I paid around $80 for my Tokicos with shipping. Rebuilt them, used HH sintered pads, stock Harley rotors, and Big Al's brake lines. Braking power is outstanding now. The bolts Speed Merchant supplies with their kit will rust pretty quick.
Very similar to my build... Tokico/HH Sintered/HD floating rotors.
Honestly, I thought the stock brake setup didn't suck, and was probably the best OEM brake system I've experienced on a Harley. However, the overall feel is definitely better now and I'm still very happy with this setup. But in all fairness, I'm sure some of the improvement came from the set of Avon Cobras that I mounted at the same time, the pad compound and the move to braided lines... It wasn't just the calipers.
As far as the Speed Merchant mount, does 4piston or 6piston make any difference? Would both adequately bolt up and work with the stock Harley dual disc master cylinder?
I retained the OEM dual-disk master without any issues. Put some thought into the choice between DOT4 and DOT5 and make sure that you've flushed out any possible trace of the one that you don't use. There are pros and cons either way, so do your research.
Since this thread popped back up and you helped me out on setting up mine I figured Id throw a picture up of my finished set up. Still have to pick up new pads but other than that shes all done! Thanks for the advice F86 she came together beautifully.
Since this thread popped back up and you helped me out on setting up mine I figured Id throw a picture up of my finished set up. Still have to pick up new pads but other than that shes all done! Thanks for the advice F86 she came together beautifully.
Just about done gathering parts, holding off to see if Speed Merchant will have a Presidents Day sale next weekend.
As far as brake lines/fittings...does everyone bolt up to the Tokicos or do need new fittings. Hypothetically if I kept stock HD lines, would that work?
Just about done gathering parts, holding off to see if Speed Merchant will have a Presidents Day sale next weekend.
As far as brake lines/fittings...does everyone bolt up to the Tokicos or do need new fittings. Hypothetically if I kept stock HD lines, would that work?
Depends on how much slack you have. They mount a bit lower.
Alright losing my effing mind...got all my parts. Going for a mount up but I can't bolt things up without the rotor scraping the inside of the caliper, by a lot....I'm looking at pics and it looks like other Tokicos have a bit more plastic material stemming down from the caliper itself? I circled in red what I'm talking about. The first pic is mine bolted as far as it will go and it's touching the inside of the caliper with THAT much of the bolt left.
Second pic is a different bike showing the extra caliper length.
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