I've got an old Suzuki gsxr750 slingshot that's a bit of a project keeping my 999S company in the garage at the moment, apart from the expected quirks of a 29 year old bike its coming on quite nicely, however i'm just about out of ideas as to why the front end judders under braking,its not a major event but i'm not sure how much leeway a MOT tester will give it.. i've changed the discs, pads and bled the fluid ,with the front wheel off the ground it runs freely with no grabbing...any suggestions folks?
Thanks i'll have a look...yes the wheel is balanced ,had a new tyre on it recently and saw the guy do it, not stripped the calipers yet...thanks for the feedback chaps.
Normal braking really, although at speed (above 80mph) the brake action seems to be a lot smoother and pulls the bike up quite well...haven't checked fork oil yet .i'll get in there this afternoon and give it the once over with all of the above.
After making sure your calipers work properly=the pistons go back. It might worth to slightly undue the bolts at upper fork clamp, axle, pinch bolts, caliper bolts push down 2-3 times on the front, then pull in the front brake lever(can use a cable tie) and then re tighten all bolts to specs. This should aline the forks and most importanty center the calipers on the rotors. I had front brakes dragging(wheel would spin only half turn off the ground) after swaping calipers to Brembo HPK, above steps sorted out.
You say you've had the front wheel out recently, make certain that any spacers are precisely where they're supposed to be. And that the wheel has been replaced the right way round - daft as it might sound. Everything could spin freely, but you could be getting judder for any number of reasons, such as fork stiction if one leg is being pulled in a few mm more than it should be, for example.
Followed the above advice yesterday afternoon and it has indeed made a difference!,for some reason something must have been out of alignment...no judder,well done that man!...and thanks to all for their advice.
