Not necessarily a Savage/S40 question...just something I was wondering in general.

If I can lock up the front brake with the stock caliper and rotor then what would be advantageous about a dual disc setup or larger rotor and caliper? It seems to me that brake efficiency is pretty dependent on tire traction. A larger brake setup with more clamping force would just lock up the wheel faster.

Any thoughts?

Haha, yeah, big brakes with drilled rotors on a dual setup would be cool!  

I guess for the average street bike it wouldn't really help braking performance.

I typically ride solo and the brakes have proven to be more then ample for me and my needs for sure, now if you are on the heavier side or ride two up regularly then I could see the benefit of a beefier front brake on the LS650.  

Pulling out of my drive, onto the Tar Co Road, as soon as I got straight,
their was a car, coming RIGHT AT ME !
(He  didn’t know it was a ‘curve’)
 (My Drive enters on a curve, apparently this driver was, drunk, sleeping, or texting, and did not know the road)

My Stock Brakes,  Locked up both front and back, I ’slid’ to the shoulder, and was ready to give it gas, and go into the ditch,  when he, ’swerved’,.  

  I was grateful I didn’t have to hit the steep ditch,  (Which the XT-225 would have worked better than the S-40)

Anyway,   Stock Brakes,  have NO  Problem.   In my experience.

The dual brake systems are mostly needed on sport bikes that weigh 400 pounds, can go 140+ miles and hour, and are potential "track" bikes.  The need for dual brakes is not only for stopping power - but also to make the system capable of dissipating a whole lot of heat from repeated use while lapping the track.  Dual front brakes are also needed on large street bikes.....it takes a lot of brake to stop a 800 - 1,000 pound touring bike and a couple of folks in the saddle.

The Savage single brake takes a strong grip to operate - but it is fully capable of doing the braking the bike requires.  A few times we have put it to the test when riding down at the Dragon.  Oldfeller reported making some interesting colors on his rotor one year he was chasing BigZuke around......I have worked mine pretty hard and even on the 11 miles of the Tail of the Dragon or 30 miles of Highway 32 I have never overheated the front brake.  (I have noticed that Oldfeller, MMRanch, BigZuke and other really good riders don't seem to use their brakes as often as I do.......they just go around the corner quickly!).

It is not easy to get dual brakes on the Savage, as the front hub only has a mounting surface on one side, and the right fork leg doesn't have a mount for caliper.  Dual front rotors have been put on the Savage by changing the front forks and using the forks, wheel and brake assembly from another bike.

The stock front brake while being adequate.....can be improved by using the kit that ShawnRYCA has made. I bought one of his kits and it looks great - but I have waited to install it until this winter as I didn't have time to install during riding season.  I have modified my forks and used a different triple tree that narrowed the front end.....so I have some extra work to do to make the kit fit my bike!  Shawn's kit is a bolt on for the stock bike.
http://suzukisavage.com/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?num=1391549028

The brake feel on the Savage and my Honda ST1100 are very similar - you gotta squeeze hard if you want to lose speed fast.  I suppose if you squeezed really hard you could get them to lock up on dry pavement.....but I have never squeezed that hard.

The front brake on the little Ninja 250 is entirely different - you can get all the brake you need with just 2 fingers.  You could easily lock the front brake if you applied too much pressure.  The brake is easy to modulate and control - you don't just grab a handful of brake - you squeeze gently and stop squeezing when you have achieved the braking you want.  You just have to accept that you "could" brake hard enough to lock it up or do a "stoppie"......and you have the ability to hurt yourself if you don't ride under control.

It is kind of like driving an old car with hydraulic brakes - vs. - a modern car with a hydraulic brake booster.  Both systems will stop the car and both will lock up the brakes if you need to - but the booster makes the pedal pressure a lot lighter and you need a gentle touch in comparison.

I think that's sort of the point, this bike is aimed sort of toward the beginner rider IMO, and a n00b to riding is more likely to yank the hell out of the brake lever in an 'oh holy crap' situation