Brake M/c Upgrade.

I know the RCS works well with M4's on the 18 ratio

 

Had a 19x20 Brembo on the 853 which was very much on or off with little feel. Fitted the 19x18 which had it's first outing at Almeria and the operation was a lot better. I looked at the Brembo RCS but didn't see the point or justify the extra cost. Lot of negetive feed back for your Italian retailer. Andy

 

Omnia or Carpimoto have been ok to buy from

 

I have an RCS (18/20 x 19) with Brembo M4 Monoblocks on the Monster, works great but you need to be gentle as the initial bite is very fierce even on the 18mm setup (more so on the 20mm).

I have a 19x20 Brembo radial M/C with HPK radial calipers on the 916 which is as strong but much more progressive than the setup on the Monster despite being the faster ratio, although I think the better feel is down to the HPK calipers rather than the M/C.

Of the two I'd say the 916 has the better brakes by virtue of being more progressive, both have as much power as you like.

I do like a short travel brake lever as it means I don't trap my other 2 fingers behind it whilst using just 2 fingers to brake, unlike on the Guzzi (modern 16mm RCS M/C) on which I have to use 4 fingers or get 2 trapped as it does need most of the travel to get it to stop, but then it does have 35 year old 2-pot calipers and weighs 2 tons...

Personally I'd get the RCS as you can play with the ratio to find your preference, with the fixed MC you're stuck with what they've got plus (particularly if for road use) the RCS has a brake light switch where the fixed ratio Brembo doesn't (at least mine doesn't) and so requires a pressure sensor/banjo which doesn't operate at small brake applications - several motorists have pulled alongside me in traffic to say "your brake lights don't work mate" (along with "one of your headlights is out" and "should it really sound like that?").

 

It's a pricey trial and error thing ime.

RCS is OK, I've got FE's 17 and have a bunch of hours on it now, this is what I 'feel' : ratio 18 uses a lot of initial travel with a very flat braking curve, ie you get a bit of braking to begin with and then you pull a bit more but not much more happens, if anything extra at all. This carries on until you reach a point where you suddenly get quite a lot more braking for an extra fraction of a mm of lever travel. From then on you've got maybe less than 2mm of lever travel until the wheel is locked at a reasonable speed say 60+. It doesn't feel linear or progressive, more like a '2 stage' braking system.

ratio 20 gives no initial soft braking, ie it's straight into the meat of the braking force, but again, it's only a couple of mm of usable 'feel' before the wheel is locked.

Both ratios feel quite wooden and lacking in progression and feel to me. The 18 is too slow reacting in that it requires a relatively large amount of lever travel to get into the meat, but it feels 'safer' in the wet or trail braking because of it. The 20 gets me good braking force with little initial lever travel and would probably be better for late, heavy brakers, or those who use the engine braking a lot and want a strong stab of the brakes in the shortest amount of time/lever-travel.

Aside from the above issues with the RCS I also find the operation through the stroke feels different depending on how far I have the lever set out from the clip on. This was disappointing at first (as I expected the whole idea of the RCS was to have an m/c that behaved like a fixed-ratio m/c but with the benefit of adjustability)... jeez I didn't wanna write this much crap... but now I'm wondering if I can use that as part of the 'tuning for the feel I want' process, I dunno yet as I've only just noticed this.

I think a good compromise on the above would be a 19mm ratio - as this would probably give decent initial power a bit like a 20, whilst allowing some initial softer braking but not as soft as an 18.

So it's probably an Accossato 17/18/19 and see how that goes.

So yeah, 19 is probably a good ratio for me in the dry.

Would be interested to see what 17 can provide in the wet and/or trail braking too.

it's a process I guess. The variable m/c's are probably all crap ultimately. A fixed ratio m/c is probably the way to go and going through the process of trying different ratios and maybe piston size is probably as important as trying different types of tyres to see what suits you. Boring answer for sure.

Also I'd say if anyone is trapping their fingers, and the they don't have massive brake fade, then they should swap things or use any adjustment to get the lever further out, or get a larger piston m/c.

 

Not 100% certain Accosato sell spares in the same abundance / price bracket Brembo do

 

Thought so

Noticed a brand called Frando sold by Venhill in UK. Also on Internet much cheaper for same item