Let's agree that even when new XT600s weren't exactly known to be the absolute wonder-weapons when it comes to braking and admittedly the addition of a later model (still single piston though) brake caliper, steel braided brakehose and a freshly rebuilt brake master only got it to a level, where I am willing to call it a very early version of ABS. Or in other words: that front brake sucks.
And here it is, the answer to the question: what else can you do? What we have here is a 1980ies vintage XT350, 55V brake pump. Looks pretty similar to the one fitted at the moment, except for this little "11" marking.
Which stands for 11mm brake piston diameter instead of 1/2" (12.5mm) and those 12 percent less diameter result in 12 percent more travel on the lever, but also 12 percent more clamping force on those brake pads.
Unfortunately this isn't a genuinely new idea or in other words, these pumps are pricey. So much so that at the current rates, four pumps would cost the same as the bike. Which in turn means, I went for a rather affordable example. It wasn't affordable without a reason, the lid has got some road rash, the bolts holding on the lid are hopelessly rusted and obviously the original brake lever pivot bolt was replaced with the "box-o-random-nuts'n'bolts" finest.
Not that this ever stopped me from anything really. A bit of heat and a bit of penetrant got both the old mirror mount and the bolts off the lid open. The latter admittedly with the help of a bit of Newtonian persuasion.
The brakefluid in the reservoir had turned into something rather nasty.
Some decent bolts and a new(-ish) brakeline later, brake performance was at bluing the disk levels and that was still with a set of glazed pads.
As is already somewhat custom, the sightglass wasn't just a bit dull, but completely blind. So I drilled an 8mm hole into the plastic, well I tried as the "glass" crumbled away and then levered out the backside metal shield and knocked the remnants of the glass out with a drift. This also meant that the outer metal ring was pretty much unsupported and I could easily pry it out with a flat blade screwdriver.
As there's a very convenient hump on the inside, the new glass was pressed in with a set of parallel-jaw pliers in absolutely no time.
And with the mirror and the handguard reinstalled it looks pretty much as it did before.
Verdict: can't recommend enough to do this mod. In fact 1984 and 85 models would have come with a variant of exactly this brake master cylinder, so strictly speaking on the very first Teneré model (34L) and perhaps the very first XT600 (43F) models, it would actually be the right tool for the job. Unfortunately it was too cold and icy to really test out what the new setup can do, but with a set of half decent (i.e. not glazed) pads I bet it can work wonders.
ADDENDUM: With the temperature being in the double digits above zero in the last few days, I had a go on the Dre-XT-Stück, really just running some otherwise rather bland errands, but boy oh boy does the old girl brake now. She even did her first (little) stoppie at a traffic light today.
No comments:
Post a Comment