Comparing Brakes

[Jcol]

Well riding season is starting up here in Ontario and I had my first long ride of the season on Sunday. All went well. A friend of mine who is just getting into riding joined me. He rides a 750, 1998 Honda Shadow. It is a very nice bike and after our ride he offered to let me take his for a test drive which I did. I was very impressed by the bike and would gladly take one as a second ride if someone offered. Of course it's very different from the Gold Wing but I could tell it would be a lot of fun,, perhaps too much. Anyway the brakes on this bike were much better then the brakes on my Wing. A very light pull in the front brake handle with only my middle finger would easily nearly lock the front wheel. The back brake also had a much more instantious yet controlled feel about it. It makes me wonder if I should go back and work some more on my brakes or if it's just a newer and lighter bike so it isn't a fair comparison. I have been through the brakes on my Wing a few times and I have good pads, rotors and both master cylinders have been rebuilt. I did see a very good post here about the need to get air out of the caliper as well as the brake lines so I think I will give that method a try but short of that is it reasonable to compare the Wings brakes with the Shadow's? Don't want to be trying to improve something that just won't get any better. Thanks.

 

[slabghost]

Size and weight do matter in stopping power. His brakes have pretty much the same pad to rotor contact as yours. With about 1/3 of the weight to stop. New steel braided brake lines will assure maximum pressure gets to the calipers and pads. If your brakes feel mushy when applied they probably have air in there and need bled.

 

[dan filipi]

Though I've never ridden the shadow so I can't compare to it but I do know the 'Wings breaks are undersized for the bike.
I would say by about 1/2 really.

I took a ride on a GL1800. Wow those front's work almost too good!

But true you could still have air in them.
Also changing over to stainless steel brake lines help a lot to harden up the feel.

 

[slabghost]

An exaggerated comparison would be comparing the stopping power of a truck to a small car.

 

[Jcol]

Thanks, I'm sure the lighter weight has a lot to do with in. My brakes don't feel mushy and they engage early with very little handle/paddle travel but it takes a good strong squeeze to get anywhere near front wheel lock up at speed, which again is perhaps a good thing. I know my KZ1000 had much better feel to the brakes then the Wing but as I recall it has much bigger brake pads, drilled rotors and braided lines. I also think it was meant to be more of a sport bike as it doesn't have a fairing so it is also probably somewhat lighter then the Wing. Maybe for this year's project I will get braided lines and concentrate on getting air out of the calipers as well as the lines.

 

[slabghost]

Not positive but I think the wing calipers are single piston and the newer bikes went to multi piston calipers. If your brakes don't feel mushy there probably isn't any air to bleed out.