bracket-1.jpg
original - 272 kB
bracket-2.jpg
original - 166 kB
bracket-3.jpg
original - 209 kB
bracket-4.jpg
original - 222 kB
bracket-1.jpg original - 272 kB bracket-2.jpg original - 166 kB
| bracket-3.jpg original - 209 kB bracket-4.jpg original - 222 kB |
When I bought my second hawk from “iron” Mike Conlon one of the things I got with it was a Tokico 6 pot caliper from a Suzuki TL1000R. I thought it was kinda cool, but didn’t really know what to do with it. Sometime later I picked up an EBC rotor on the cheap, but didn’t really want to use it without good reason.
Then Steve Lenac built this bolt-on caliper adapter. Now all the pieces fit together with no effort on my part!
The bracket came with the bolts necessary to attach the Tokico caliper, the stock bolts were used to attach the bracket to the fork leg.
The fit is very nice, I didn’t have to fight with it at all, it just bolted right on. I don’t know why this should be noteworthy, but it seems like too many things that are supposed to be “easy” require some cursing, gnashing of teeth, rending of clothes, and wailing of the women. The only thing is that it seems like it’s a little harder to get the wheel on and off than with the less-bulky stock caliper. -- Or maybe I just need to learn to do it. It did seem to get easier with practice.
The one fit issue I had was the brake line being just a little too short. I used the stainless braided brake hose I already had that came with the bike. The bracket holds the caliper slightly lower down than the OEM caliper so if your brake hose is almost too short, it’ll be too short with this caliper. If your brake hose is the stock length (33" I think) you shouldn’t have any problems. I discovered this when I tried to use the same brake hose that I’d used on F2 and stock bars without problem, but with the 6-pot the hose is too short for the stock bars. It works fine with the F2 bars though. I found out from the PO of that hose that it was bought with the F2 bars in mind, and it measures out shorter than stock, so that all makes sense.
I used the stock master cylinder, which seems to be perfect. The feel of the brakes is really nice. The free-play before the pads contact is long enough that you can feel it doing something, but not so long that it takes any time to move the lever.
This thing is strong! Holy cow! This thing stops the bike fast! The other bikes I regularly ride are a Hawk with essentially stock brakes (SS brake line and EBC HH pads), a ’98 Honda F3 with completely stock brakes, and a Triumph Daytona, which comes with stainless lines.
The stock Hawk, even though it stops quite well, is the bottom of this pile.
The F3 comes next. It stops quite well, two finger braking is all that’s necessary ever, but it takes more force than the Daytona.
The Daytona has fantastic brakes. They’re strong, smooth, and can drag it from silly speeds to “hello officer” very easily. I like them. If brakes were never any better than that I’d die happy.
The combination of the 6 pot Tokico caliper, EBC HH pads, EBC “race” rotor (I don’t know if this is really that different from the “street” version) and stainless brake hose is amazing. Seriously. One finger braking is easily doable except for ergonomic issues. I can’t get only one finger on the lever without it feeling awkward. It just doesn’t feel right. But it’s plenty strong enough. Serious stopping power. I really can’t see any reason to go with dual disks.
If you want to improve your brakes, this is the thing to do. It’s light, wicked strong, and has serious bling-bling factor.
Calipers from a fairly large number of bikes will work with Steve’s adaptor, send him mail to find out which ones, or just get the kit from him, it’s probably easier.
Here’s some more pics: www.hawkworks.net/listerpix/steve_lenac/
and contact info for Steve
Sadly, Steve Lenac passed away on October 10th, 2010.
