Stooooooooooooop!

[OB_DangerMouse]

Ohh eck DM indeed….
Did a trackday on the Busa at last - oh how scary, the brakes lasted about 3 laps before going to mush (freshly bled and with sparkly new braided hoses and Carbon Lorraine SBK3 pads)

On the last session the brakes failed completely, into a 120MPH sweeper sideways with only the back brake for comfort isn't funny! (well it wasn't then!)

I've got some AP racing pads to go in and have ordered some ductile iron PFM discs (supposed to reduce the amount of heat the calliper absorbs) The only conundrum now is brake fluid….

I've seen some dot 4 marked as "synthetic" (Duckhams RS) is this a marketing ploy or does it offer the same benefits over conventional fluid as synthetic motor oil does over it's mineral cousin? Or am I being swizzed and is all brake fluid synthetic?

BTW chaps (UK) the fluid was in Sainburys Homebase and at £2.47 per half litre is over a pound cheaper than Halfords basic fluid!


PS I kept the Busa front up - despite having sod all brakes I still stuffed 90% of the sports bikes including a race R1!

 

[OB_Velociraptor]

Great to hear about your race day but if the brakes are that bad after three laps then something is very wrong somewhere. I did an all day track school with stock brakes and really was hard on them but had no problems. Hope you get it fixed.

 

[OB_Warp13Busa]

Danger, I just participated in a track day this past Sunday with my Busa. I'm also running the Carbon Lorraine pads, on stock rotors,with stock brake lines.

I did 5 sessions, 10 laps each and no fade whatsoever. The front straight had my speedo at 175 and scrubbing down to an indicated 70 for turn one lap after lap and the back of the track (Grattan Raceway) has 9 turns including tight hairpins, elevation changes, off camber stuff, etc...lots of opportunity for me to say "oh hell, too fast, too deep" and use the brakes!

When you installed the pads did you thoroughly clean the rotors? I'm talking scrubbing them with an abrasive pad and brake cleaner multiple times to get all the old pad residue off. I was told they must be super clean, more than you usually would scrub things for replacement pads. Doing otherwise would contaminate them and reduce their effectiveness.

Also, are you super sure there's no air in the brake lines? Have you tried bleeding them again after the track day? A brake failure as you describe points to air in the system, to me at least. Please let us know how things fare.

Jim

 

[OB_DangerMouse]

Warp, maybe I've got duff calipers!? The AP Racing pads are fine with standard discs and seem to have an excellent reputation.

Ianfila, I'd agree with you to a point, but many riders (even pretty fast ones) won't get to the limits of the Busa and if they can't manage that then on an R1 they'll be no quicker - perhaps even slower because the R1 is hard to fire out of corners without getting out of shape.

If you wanna see me in action on my brakeless Busa and Stoptastic R1 try!…..
http://www.oddworldz.com/dangermouse/

 

[OB_Velociraptor]

Well, you must have checked the brake fluid level to make sure there are no leaks. When the brakes went away could you pump them back up again? If so then maybe you have a warped disk that is pushing the calipers out when the brakes are off so that the first handfull of brake will only move the pads closer to the disk. I can see why you were dusting the R1 since the Black Busa is by far the fastest!

 

[OB_DangerMouse]

Could be Velo - I'll have to get the dial guage out, I couldn't feel a warped disc though, I'm usually pretty sensitive to those kind of things.

Does anybody know the answer to my other question about the synthetic brake fluid?

Thanks for all you help so far guys.

Cheers,
Steve.

 

[OB_DangerMouse]

The reason I upgraded the pads/lines is I was getting terrible brake fade on the road with the standard setup (especially two up) which the upgrade cured, but track use overwhelmed them again.

The lines were bled very carefully, the pads went in after the discs had a good clean (with carb cleaner) I'm sure if there had been a problem here I would have felt it on the road, before the trackday the lever was very firm - much better than standard.

I'm no lightweight (220lbs) I wonder if it's all to much for the brake system!?

I ride through the winter too which the pads have been through, maybe there is some contamination from road salt etc etc.

The circuit I was on is a very short circuit (1 Mile) so the brakes don't get much time to cool off.

 

[OB_Warp13Busa]

DM, I'm at 280 pounds so the brakes are tortured a bit more with my carcass in the saddle. Overall track length at Grattan is 2.1 miles including the front straight which is approximately 1 mile. My brakes, if anything, seemed to work stronger as more heat was put into them. Yes, that sounds ridiculous but they had more bite as the laps added up and I had less pucker factor at my brake markers.

Are the AP brake pads compatible with stainless rotors as well? Those ductile iron rotors sound great, I'm jealous!

Jim

 

[OB_ianfila]

I've been to Sebring, FL. with my Busa on a 100 degree day with 98% humidity and my stock brakes worked great, no fade whatsoever. No offense but if you beat a guy on a race R1 then he cant ride worth a **** .
The busa is great up to a point then the weight & ground clearance sucks! (alternator and fairing drag)With equal riders on a track with some corners the R1 will always kill a busa.