When I first had a CBX back in 83 it pained me how bad the brakes were and I upgraded to calipers off a CB900F.
I had never forgotten how bad the brakes were and when I got my current bike last year it all came back to me that the brakes were as bad as I remembered.
Being that we`ve moved on a few years from 1983 it isn`t so easy (impossible) to get the required parts to do the upgrade that I did the first time round, so it is either buy new modern calipers which are not cheap or suck it up and live with whats on the bike.
The way I ride meant that I had to seriously consider new calipers.
On searching the internet I had found a company in the UK who specialize in making bespoke calipers for road or racing application, Pretech.
http://www.pretech.co.uk/shop/index.php ... ory&path=6
The calipers cost £336 each or $423 so a big outlay. But if they save my ass just once I`ll consider them well worth it.
The good thing about them is that they are a direct bolt on replacement for the originals, but I must point out that I`m talking about my own 79 CBX. I don`t know about the Pro-Links.
On receiving the calipers the first thing that I see is the quality. Very well made and anodised in your chosen colour. This causes a slight delay in delivery as they are batch anodised so may have you waiting a week or 3.
Like I said they are a straight bolt on replacement and so I had no issues fitting them.
The brake pipe banjos don`t line up properly as they are twisted 45 degrees out. With the original rubber pipes this is not a problem as there is more then enough flex in the pipes to allow me to twist them into position.
Time to bleed them. And this is where I did find a problem. I couldn`t get one caliper to bleed unless I loosened the banjo bolt to release the air. On contacting Pretech who were extremely helpful he explained what the problem would be and offered to take the caliper back to fix it, and told me how to do it if I wanted to do it myself. I elected to do it myself as it should be a 2 or 3 minute job. I haven`t done it yet lol.
Okay calipers are bled and the feel at the master cylinder has improved. Gone is the horrible spongy feeling that floating calipers cause at the lever and it is now a firm solid feeling.
I was worried about how the standard master cylinder would cope with the new calipers, but so far my fears have been unfounded.
When out on the road the brakes feel exactly like original. It is only when you grab a bit more brake that you feel the front wheel begin to dig in. The harder you pull the more she slows, and no hint of fade or that need to quickly find a big anchor to chuck out the back.
The pads that come with the calipers are EBC organic pads, so they shouldn`t be too hard on the discs. I did notice they have a tendency to squeal a little and have also read elsewhere that others have found this too.
Probably if I were to upgrade to braided lines and/or get a larger master cylinder from say a Fireblade the braking performance would take a larger jump. But at the moment I am happy with how they are.
One other issue I had was the fitting of the speedo cable. The caliper gets in the way, but I found a way around it.
If you loosen the axle clamps you can turn the speedo drive down a little which will allow the cable to loop under the caliper. The downside of this is that you end up with the cable being about 3 inches too short and it wont reach the base of the speedo. I was able to buy a 6 inch speedo cable extension online. To save any hassle in the event that they might unscrew and you lose your cable I recommend a small cable tie under the head of the main cable to hold it to the headlamp bracket behind the fork leg.
The hardest part of the conversion for me was getting those bloody screws out of the master cylinder cover. But I think we`ve all been there at some point.
Mike
