Early 1200 Bandit Brakes Upgrade?

Has anyone swapped the original 4 pot Nissins for 6 pot Tokicos?
If so did it noticeably improve the braking?
Was it also necessary to change the master cylinder?

Ken.

 

Ken says...

Anyone with an ounce of sense and who knows about these things leaves
the 4 pot Nissins on there. The 6 pot Tokicos are notorious for having
the pistons seize and becoming spongy. They don't work as well as the 4
pot Tokico calipers as fitted to the TL1000 or the Nissin 4 pots as
fitted to Bandit 1200s and the Triumph range.

I recently stripped a pair of 4 pot Nissins[1] from a 1993 Triumph
Trident Sprint for a check over. This bike has been sat for years and
has been seriously neglected. The calipers were like new once all the
brake dust and road dirt had been cleaned off, not a spot of corrosion
anywhere. Nissin even anodise the inner faces of the caliper including
the seal grooves, so they just don't corrode. Tokicos are plain
untreated alloy and fur up at the first sign of moisture.

Many club racers who had GSX-R1000 K1 and K2s threw their Tokico 6 pots
away and fitted the 4 pots off the GSX-R750 K1/2/3 instead. The 6 pots
were feeble.

If you fit the Tokico 6 pots you'll be sorely disappointed.

[1] Exactly the same caliper as the Bandit 1200 has, right down to the
90mm bolt spacing. All that's different is the Triumph badging.

 

My next bike is the 2007 Bandit, 79lb ft at 3700rpm, 0% against rising
inflation for a naked 5 grand. R1 and GSXR make a 86lb ft at 10,000 rp
for 8 grand+

 

Thanks Lozzo. That's what I needed to know.
Ken.

 

Amen to that.

I should've photographed AndrewR's old ones, before I started spraying
brake cleaner on them: more fur than a teddy bears' picnic.

 

To be honest, I think you'd have to try hard to improve the brakes on
an early Bandit.

You aren't comparing like for like, not even slightly. This only
reinforces my opinion of you as a fuckwit.

 

Okay, here's a silly question. As you know, I have a K3 Bandit 1200,
with the aforementioned Tokico 6-pot calipers. I have recently become
aware, in a first (right) - hand capacity, of the potential
shortcomings of said calipers. Is there a simple retrofit (and more
importantly, inexpensive) replacement which improves things?

 

DR says...

The 4 pot Tokicos from the TL1000 or early GSXR600 SRAD, of which I have
a fully rebuilt set sitting here belonging to a certain Mr Statto, they
look like brand spanking new now I have finished them. I believe he
would like to see the money he's spent on them back, which is 100 quid.
That's about the same as a set of genuine Kawasaki seals for a pair of 6
pots, Suzuki seals for the same calipers are cheaper though.

 

Get fucking real.

Try adding floating discs.
Try adding decent pads.
Try adding braided hoses.
Try adding a radial master cylinder.

I wouldn't call doing any of those things trying hard but they'd all
improve the stock brakes on any bandit at no great cost per component
part.

 

Pro-Lite discs, HH pads and braided hoses. Any one of the three will
improve the stock brakes.

 

Andy Bonwick says...

In much the same way as huge power is only good if you've got handling
to match, good brakes are only as good as the chassis they are trying to
stop.

 

Not taking the piss or maybe me being thick but I can understand radial
slaves being an advantage but not a radial master cylinder. Are the same
dynamics involved with the master cylinder?

 

Just like the ones on my new push-bike,. Heh, my push bike's more
advanced than my motorbike.

--
_______
..'_/_|_\_'. Ace (brucedotrogers a.t rochedotcom)
\`\ | /`/ GSX-R1000K3 (slightly broken, currently missing)
`\\ | //' BOTAFOT#3, SbS#2, UKRMMA#13, DFV#8, SKA#2, IBB#10
`\|/`
`

 

<opens popcorn, dims lights>

 

Probably goes faster these days, too.

 

Amen to that. A child crying in the next street creates enough salt
water to sieze my Tokico 6 pots.

 

Gotcha! Thanks.

 

You should learn to look after them then. Adies 9R is six years old
and the 6 pots still work perfectly well. Those calipers have 30k
miles on them and have never been stripped and the most I've ever done
to them is use a manky old toothbrush to remove crud when the pads
have been changed.

Before anyone shouts about fair weather riders she uses it to commute
in the winter as well as summer so it's seen salt plenty of times and
even though we've got a set of four pots sitting in the garage waiting
to go on it's only because they've got braided hoses and new pads in
them and we got them for a sensible price.

 

You can alter the ratio when you change the cylinder and there lies
the advantage.

 

A fine idea, but unfortunately I find myself in somewhat pikey
circumstances right now. I'll have to pass, but thanks for the
thought.