My favourite regular maintenance task..

I will get the zombie MOTd if it's the last thing I do!

Let's see if I can get away with just cleaning and lubing the caliper I didn't do last time I tried to get the brakes sorted, apparently if the slider is seized you can't bleed the brakes  



Mmm, crusty:


It would seem that I have two different size brake calipers on the front of the zombie!?
Fuck knows how but I do, one is 32mm and the other is 25mm.
I don't remember this being the case but it might explain why I have a complete set of  25mm seals already in stock?
Who knows? I'm not complaining, nice to have the parts you need already.

Anyway, it's all cleaned up ready for reassembly now.

Uncle Nate tells me that the GPz500 calipers he uses rarely need rebuilding but Auntie Leighs CB500 ones needed doing every year which is pretty much my experience with Honda calipers, I'd be interested to hear about your brake maintenance experiences.
Are brakes Hondas only Achilles heel?

Did nearly 60k kilometers on my honda vfr without any brake issues.
So it must be you! ;-)

Honda don't make their own by and large. The ones on the later CB500s are Brembos. The ones on your CBR are Nissin (I think).

I've seen and owned plenty of crusty as hell GPZ500 callipers, the "open" slider pin seizes for fun and has to be hammered off. Nates probably don't because he's so tight he never uses them in case he wastes fuel so they never move enough to let water and shite in. The rear ones off the same bike are laughably bad and perfectly capable of spitting their own pads out when they get some wear on.

Fit car ones. I believe early Austin metros have fucking epic brake callipers. (although thinking about it the discs were WAY thicker than bike ones so that probably wont fly unless you were to go hub-centre?).

Yamaha make the best motorbike brakes. Get a set of blue-spots.

Those massive single-pot sliding brembos they fitted to late 80's BMWs are also pretty much indestructable. Ideal sidecar tackle I'd have thought.

Interesting thoughts, thank you both.

I've only experienced early to late '80s Honda brakes, some of the issues could be negated by replacing the original parts with Stainless (ie sliders) I reckon but you're still gonna have to strip and rebuild them every couple of years in my experience.
One of the main problems I find is that the alloy caliper body oxidises and 'furs up' which means pad retention pins seize.

While we're thinking about this sort of thing, why do car calipers (piston seals in particular) last longer between servicing than bike ones?

I had the joys of messing with my front brake hoses yesterday, one of the previous owners run a hose from the lever to each caliper, one a little too short so there was no play in it at all. I moved the lever end of the shorter hose down to the other caliper and switched the banjo bolts. I'd say that the calipers don't look bad for their age, but my CBR had only done dry miles for ten years with it's previous owner, and apparently more dry miles with the guy they got it from.

Yeah I guess year round riding doesn't help, maybe I should hose the brakes down after riding in winter?

Monglord wrote:

While we're thinking about this sort of thing, why do car calipers (piston seals in particular) last longer between servicing than bike ones?

They don't, they just don't bother either servicing them or inspecting them until they physically wont work, then replace them. They just wind the pistons back in, fit new pads and carry on until you land up with totally fucked brakes. They have a lot of reserve capacity and you tend not to use them anywhere near as often or as hard as on a bike so you get away with it. I think they generate a lot more hydraulic power too so you don't notice the increased braking effort.

When the brakes on my last work van were getting to the point I was noticing a distinct lack of effectiveness, I took it into the garage. I then got a not small amount of snidey commenting "These are totally fucked mate" somehow implying the serial lack of routine maintainance was down to me and not them- the people who'd done every annual service and MOT on this vehicle and every tyre and brake pad change it had ever had. I did almost ask how often they thought I should have been getting it up on my 4-post lift to inspect them.

The callipers had to be cut off with an angle grinder "Totally seized mate, can't budge them.". Then a puzzled blank look when I asked if greasing the pins wasn't part of one or other of the many services it had had.

There would have been a less tolerant reaction if it had been me and not my employer paying £450 a pop for new callipers.

stinkwheel wrote:Honda don't make their own by and large. The ones on the later CB500s are Brembos. The ones on your CBR are Nissin (I think).

....

Those massive single-pot sliding brembos they fitted to late 80's BMWs are also pretty much indestructable. Ideal sidecar tackle I'd have thought.

true that (but aren't they dual opposed piston), but beware of the Grimeca calipers that look the same - nowhere near as durable

the budget level Brembos on CB500 (and loads of other medium size bikes) are pretty much indestructible too

or.....and i think big chris will agree with me on this....move to australia, no such thing as corroded brakes, wheels, salt on the roads, moped riding chavs

the down side of course is that you're in australia, hundreds of km's of horrible open windy roads, unpleasantly warm weather most of the year

Yeah thanks but I'm happy with living in Blighty, I'll just suck it up and rebuild calipers every couple of years.

spotarama wrote:or.....and i think big chris will agree with me on this....move to australia, no such thing as corroded brakes, wheels, salt on the roads, moped riding chavs

the down side of course is that you're in australia, hundreds of km's of horrible open windy roads, unpleasantly warm weather most of the year

Add to that, When I lived in Aus I used to crawl under my 1985 Toyota Hi-ace (self built camper van) and marvel that in 2015 the factory paint was still covering most of the underside of the van.

Yep, the maintenance required to support riding through winter is the main thing which has put me off it, the salt water damage is just to much work to fix. I buy £500 wreck cars and usually get 2 or 3 years use out of them, and I do 2/3 of my annual car miles in the 4 or 5 months of a Scottish winter.
I had a fortnight in Goa a few weeks back, riding an Enfield in India is a joy, they suit the place so well.

Monglord wrote:Yeah thanks but I'm happy with living in Blighty, I'll just suck it up and rebuild calipers every couple of years.

When I still did full year riding I did a caliper overhaul twice a year: just before and after winter. It was just a single caliper on the NX250, so it was fixed in under an hour. I think because i did it twice a year I could re-use the seals almost every time.

did i forget to mention this years fashion for the girls is Daisy Duke short shorts, summer has been hell this year

but to balance the equation the bushfires hereabouts did prevent comfortable breathing for a month or so

Rear underslung calipers on old gixxers and bandits always start binding halfway through winter. Usually cooking the pads right quick.

Front toxico calipers used to warp a set of brake discs every 2 years even with regular clean and grease.
The blandit has nissin 4 pots now and seem to take winter better.

Reassuring to know it's not just Honda then.