Originally Posted by 996dl

Well done Blair, adapter brackets for the DL series will appeal to a worldwide Vstrom audience, I hope this product gets the response it deserves. I'm going with brake lines and pads first on my DL1000 K4, but the four piston Tokico calipers were always on my mind. Just about criminal that Suzuki didn't include them on the DL1000 from day one! Good to hear your first production run is so substantive, shows you're definitely in for the long run. 996DL

Originally Posted by SV Racing Parts

Hi, I have been watching this thread with some interest, since I have been producing and providing the GSXR Brake Caliper Adapter Brackets to the SV community for the past year, and this topic was broached last spring with me by some of the forum members, who posted up on this forum, wondering if they could bolt the same kit onto the various VStrom models.

These kits have been sold into many countries around the world, as the riding community is very global. I have been quieltly working on releasing the versions for the DL650 and DL1000 in between other projects since then.

Since this thread was posted, I have been emailed by a number of members and been asked again if my SV Racing Parts, Brake Caliper Adapters would work, and I have responded that not as a direct cross over, but we are going to be releasing the DL650 and the DL1000 versions in a couple of weeks.

Like all my parts, and products they will be high quality in manufacture, and in finish.

I am attaching a sample of what they look like on the SV, where I offer them in Anodized Silver or Anodized Black finish.









The SV Racing Parts, Vstrom Brake Caliper Adapter Brackets, will all be done in black, including the mounting hardware, and the steel back plate, for the 10mm bolts to secure the adapter brackets to the forks, will also be plated in black.

No boring or drilling is required, and the GSXR 600 2001 - 2003, the GSXR 750 2000 - 2003, and SV1000 for all model years simply bolt right up.

We are running about 200 of these Brake Caliper Adapter Brackets on the first run so they will be readily available to anyone who wants to upgrade their brakes.

I actually use this set up with the stock front Master Cylinder, on my SV650 Race Bike, and the change in the stopping power is awesome.

This brake upgrade works very well without changing the master, SS Brake Lines, and upgraded master cylinders just make it even better,

Enjoy the ride, and best regards,
Blair

Originally Posted by SittingDuck

well, that's a complex question, and I do not believe it was answered right yet (except that "i can't explain how it works but it works")
so since i seem to be our resident physicist and know a bit about thermodynamics, i'll give the best explanation i can in layman's terms (though both of us would probably prefer to lay a woman)...

it's important to note that "more powerful brakes" doesnt refer to "grippier brakes" (and i know i'm shooting myself in the foot becasue i kind of contradict something i said in another post about single vs dual disks, but i was trying to prove a point, so i used your/the "common sense" explanation)

I dont know how familiar you are with brakes and what they do, so here's some background on what actually must happen in order to slow a bike down (or anything, but i'll use "bike" in my text, just mentally replace it with "something with a mass greater than 0").

brakes do not slow the wheel down, ever. if you slowed the wheel down, the tire would slide down the road and you'd lose control.

a bike in motion has kinetic energy (half the mass times the speed squared)
you remember from math that for an equation to be true you need to do the same tyhings to both sides.
here's our vstrom going 100kmh (100km/h is 28 meters/second):
200/2*28*28=78,400 (that's 78.4KiloJoules)

we want to stop that bike, bringing the speed to 0, to do that, we need to decrease its energy (there is no other way, the equation needs to remain true)

first law of thermodynamics: energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transformed.

because of that, we need to take those 78KJ and transform them. through friction between the brake pad and the brake disk, the brakes do just that, they transform kinetic energy into thermic energy (heat).

how fast the bike stops is directly related to how much heat the brakes can generate.

"brake heat" is a function of swept area (brake pad/disk interaction surface), brake pressure, brake pad/disk material, and brake pad/disk relative speed.

to generate more heat you generally apply more pressure to them. (i'm leaving out the bigger disk/pad and different materials here for simplicity's sake)

applying greater pressure in a small area will generally lead to lockup, which is why our vstroms use 2 disks instead of one (more overall swept area, each generating heat without locking up as easily as if we just had one disk).
for this reason, we also have 2 pistons to more evenly distribute brake pressure on the whole surface of the pad (my previous bikes had 4 and 6 pistons, and the 6 piston thing was much more forgiving).

the theory is that when our brakes apply pressure to one side of the disk, after enough pressure is applied (instantly according to newton's third law), the calliper slides along guide pins and presses the other (inboard) pad against the other side of the disk.

in practise, that doesn't work too well, often the guide pins don't slide well enough (they never slide perfectly) and there is a delay depending on how much brake pressure you exerted on the lever. putting pistons on the inboard brake pad removes that problem, and allows for immediate friction on both sides of the disk even with minimal brake pressure.

so, generally, the more pistons and the bigger the disks, the more consistently and predictably they (the brakes) will perform. that being said, a single disk with a single piston is just as capable of stopping the bike adequately, but will require a much more careful application of the brake lever to avoid lockup (not something your average human can do in case of a hard stop requiring readjusting brake lever pressure every few milliseconds by the tiniest amount to keep the tire at impending lockup)

I hope i helped explain it a bit, sorry if i lost anyone, I'm a bit drunk right now and i don't always write very clearly in that state. (I'm totally lost at what the benefits are of radial callipers, and especially at what a radial master cylinder even is though and fail to see any advantage other than reducing mechanical linkages)

oh, in my opinion, the vstrom brakes are QUITE ADEQUATE, it's not like the vstrom is a 300km/h missile anyways, I'm probably one of the fastest vstrom riders out there because I still haven't grown into the whole "my bike maxes out at 180km/h" thing, I'm still used to my previous bike and am surprised that I can't reach my normal highway cruising speed of 240-260kph. (sometimes i regret not having gotten the 1000, but that was so underpowered anyways in comparison to my old bike that i couldn't justify the cost and lack of abs)

that is not to say that they (the brakes) can't be improved, and what the original poster did is quite a nice modification. not necessary in my opinion, but it can't hurt if done right. if you choose to modify your brakes, just make sure you understand what you're doing. if you didn't think of doing it by yourself and figured out the how and why on your own, i'd probably stay away from "upgrading" brakes.

steel braided lines and fork braces (or springs and shocks) do absolutely nothing to a brake's stopping ability. they might change what the rider feels, but they don't affect the end result (how much kinetic energy is being transformed into heat)

how much and what type of rubber is in contact with the road is probably a much better way to improve the bike's braking performance, because grippier rubber will allow more piston pressure on the brake pad without locking up.
the strom's stock tires are pretty grippy though (for a street tire), i haven't overwhelmed them yet, and i get my rear wheel up.

another thing that affects tire grip is pressure between it and the road. by gradually increasing that (through braking), you increase the tire's grip, allowing for more braking. this technique requires a very gradual, smooth, BUT STRONG application of brake.

more powerful (as in "they generate more heat" not "they are grippier") brakes with better feedback (6 piston with good steel braided (or solid wherever possible) lines, and the braiding needs to be tight, not just decorative as is most often the case) will make this easier to control for the rider. again, i feel that the stock vstrom brakes are a good match for the tires and for the bike, and that improvement is not necessary, but go for it if you want to.

so that was that. sorry it was so long. feel free to pm me if you want clarifications on anything. thanks for reading me.

Originally Posted by Jim Davis

I think Suzuki did a fine job in providing a well balanced brake on the VStrom.

Originally Posted by Kawidad

With all due respect, I have to disagree. All Suzuki did was slap a braking system onto the V-strom that was first produced in 1989. They cut corners trying to hit a price point. It works, but they could have done much better, IMO.