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Message started by nhbiker1 on 07/21/14 at 19:52:40

Title: s40 boulevard brakes
Post by nhbiker1 on 07/21/14 at 19:52:40

why, in this day & age, did suzuki deem it necesary to put drum brakes on the rear wheel of the s40 boulevard? discs are so much easier to service.
and is there a conversion kit to add disc brakes to the rear wheel???
just sayin

Title: Re: s40 boulevard brakes
Post by jman on 07/21/14 at 20:02:43

I'll second that question.

Title: Re: s40 boulevard brakes
Post by bobert_FSO on 07/21/14 at 20:23:14

The LS-650 was first introduced in 1986, so it was designed at least a year before that. Most bikes of that era had a drum brake on the back. My Kaw Vulcan 800 was introduced in 1995, also with a drum brake.

Being a lightweight cruiser, a drum brake is appropriate and works well enough. It is capable of locking up the rear wheel. What more do you need? Granted, disk brakes are simpler and easier to work on.

Really, what is there to service? The general consensus around here is that the rear brakes don't get enough wear to ever require shoe replacement.

Title: Re: s40 boulevard brakes
Post by WD on 07/21/14 at 20:37:03

With the craptastic job the factory did sourcing the front paperweights, er, brake system... I converted my 98 to a drum front as well. Suzuki Titan 500 twin hub-hoop-spokes, Honda CB/CL 450 twin pivot brake plate and real N.O.S. asbestos brake shoes. That drum locks down hard enough that the bike did a "stoppy", the factory disc and caliper were beyond less than useless.

Disc brakes are fine IF they work properly. The single piston unit shipped on Savages was a farce when it debuted in the early 1970s. And has not improved with aging.

Title: Re: s40 boulevard brakes
Post by Dave on 07/22/14 at 04:25:32

Converting to a rear disc is possible.....but it is a lot of work and may not work any better than the drum brake. Not only would you have to change the rear hub which would require you to re-spoke the rear wheel for the new hub, you would have to fabricate a caliper mount, a master cylinder mount, a pedal mount, a fluid reservoir, and run the hydraulic lines. It would cost a lot of money to make this conversion - and it would basically just be for looks. The stock drum works just fine and will most likely have the same brake shoes for the life of the bike.

There have been some custom versions of the bike that have changed over to a rear disc - but most of them are just for show and get little or no miles on the highway.

Dave

Title: Re: s40 boulevard brakes
Post by jman on 07/22/14 at 09:20:26

5A616C7B6A667D7B6068657A090 wrote:

Ok, how about a dual front brake conversion?

Title: Re: s40 boulevard brakes
Post by BalingWire on 07/22/14 at 10:16:19

48737E6978746F69727A77681B0 wrote:

The stock drum works just fine and will most likely have the same brake shoes for the life of the bike.

That's one less thing to worry about for now. Thanks.

Title: Re: s40 boulevard brakes
Post by verslagen1 on 07/22/14 at 10:16:50

3F38343B550 wrote:

Ok, how about a dual front brake conversion?

This requires a front end conversion from a donor bike.
The forks are too whippy to be doing stoppies with.
You'll find most GS series bikes with common bearing sizes and at least in the 80's common head length.

Title: Re: s40 boulevard brakes
Post by Dave on 07/22/14 at 11:04:05

585F535C320 wrote:

Ok, how about a dual front brake conversion?

The easiest way to do a dual brake conversion is to change over the entire front end....forks, calipers, wheel, master cylinder, etc. Because we have a 350 pound bike that can't quite get to 100 mph on even a good day, dual rotors aren't really a necessity.

Right now the easiest brake upgrade is this one.....which should be available in a few weeks.

http://suzukisavage.com/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?num=1391549028

Here is a photo of the previous brake upgrade Shawn did....it will be similar to this but with different caliper and rotor mounts.

Dave

Title: Re: s40 boulevard brakes
Post by NickGann on 07/24/14 at 09:22:42

What about a more robust caliper?

Title: Re: s40 boulevard brakes
Post by Dave on 07/24/14 at 09:52:26

A long time ago there was a discussion about using a Suzuki SV650 caliper. It would require some modification to the mount, and I have no idea if the piston size is proper. On the SV650 it was used on the left side of a dual rotor bike, and it had larger rotors....I don't know how that affects the compression forces.

I made a mount.....then I didn't have time to install it and test it yet.

http://suzukisavage.com/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?num=1291049239

Dave

Title: Re: s40 boulevard brakes
Post by Dane Allen on 07/25/14 at 15:07:20

535E53544345310 wrote:

...Really, what is there to service? The general consensus around here is that the rear brakes don't get enough wear to ever require shoe replacement.

Over 19k miles and I've replaced the stock tire already but the original brake shoes are still good. We'll see what condition they are in when it comes time to replace the current rear tire. ;)

Title: Re: s40 boulevard brakes
Post by Steve H on 07/26/14 at 16:26:25

Mine's over 24k and the stock shoes are still fine. Don't worry about them unless you like to stop using almost only rear brakes.