Best place to purchase brake parts

I'm looking to get the brake system on my bike upgraded before I get it on the road. Right now the front capliper is off and missing brake pads, and I haven't gotten the back wheel off to determine how the rear shoes look, but it's likely I'll replace them anyways. The sight glass on my MC looks really bad, and the dust seal on the caliper seems a bit brittle. There's no telling how long the rubber lines have been on the bike.

I'm thinking it would be prudent to go through the system with a fine-toothed comb. Stainless steel lines, rebuild kits for the MC and front caliper, new pads for the front, shoes for the rear, and definitely new sight glass for the MC.

My question is this: I've found www.oldbikebarn.com and I've found chacal's page here XJ4ever. Do y'all have any other recommended places to look? And for pads... what do you prefer? OEM? EBC? Some other aftermarket company? I've tried searching for brake upgrades but I'm not quite ready to tackle double rotors yet, Thanks!

 

I got everything I needed to rebuild and upgrade my front (and rear) brakes from XJ4Ever, including custom length stainless upper lines.

 

Ooooh shiny parts! About how much did that set you back? Are you pleased with the parts and performance? What upgrades did you do to the rear?

 

FWIW, Not knocking any other source but I found brake pads for both front calipers for $32. (total for both calipers) from nichesupply and the master cylinder rebuild kit(complete) for $18 from peakmoto-powersports....both on fleabay. You can request that the pads be EBC-HH which are their highest rated pads, but they take a little break-in.

jeff

 

-I don't remember the total cost, it was a couple years ago. Everything came from XJ4Ever just check with Len for your particular bike.

-VERY pleased. The EBC floating rotor (I used EBC pads because it's their rotor) works much better than even a drilled stock Yamaha rotor with Yamaha pads. (On my other bike.) Stainless steel lines are the best part of the upgrade, and the single biggest improvement. Rebuilt stock caliper and M/C.

-the rear wasn't so much upgraded as it was rebuilt with brand new EBC shoes and springs, and the drum resurfaced with Scotchbrite.

Although I did get the backing plate powder-coated, you can partly see it in the pic above as well:

 

i dont' think motorcycles have anything to worry about as far as warped drums and rotors.

the back brakes don't pull as much as the front brakes. and the bike itself only weights about 800 - 900 lbs with a driver on it. possibly higher with the bigger bikes. it don't take much pressure to stop a bike unless it's a panic stop.

you also have the luxury of controlling how much pressure goes to each brake.

 

Sure they do. Other than being horribly worn out, it's often one of the primary reasons people end up having to replace a front brake rotor. Often, a change to stainless lines will reveal a slightly warped rotor that was masked by the spongy original brakes.

The bummer is, we don't have the luxury of getting rotors turned. Once they'r even slightly warped or worn to near minimum thickness, it's replacement time.

NEW, STOCK Yamaha rotors, if you can even find them, are horribly expensive. The EBC is not only a much more reasonably priced alternative, it's a big upgrade from the stock rotor. Win-win.

Rear drums can usually be cleaned up, unless horribly scored, or cracked. (It happens.) The bummer there is that replacement means a new wheel.

 

This is good information. Thanks! I will need to check out the EBC rotor, I'm not positive what kind of shape my current rotor is in.

 

To check your current rotor you will need a digital caliper or micrometer to check its thickness against minimum spec, and then check runout.

Checking runout can easily be accomplished by taping a "pointer" of some sort (a popsickle stick will work, or a Sharpie, or a combination thereof) that just touches the rotor, and then spin the wheel. Any runout will be immediately apparent.

Warped or under/at minimum thickness means a new rotor.