Very late to the party here but, having decided to keep my single spark 1200 for another year, I've treated it to some bling and a pair of Brembo M50 calipers. Got the lines and new alu banjo bolts from Spiegler in Germany: the problem is that the double banjo bolt for the LH caliper seems a fraction too long - doing it up hand tight with the three singleton crush washers leaves the washers slightly loose. So is it OK to stack a fourth crush washer at the caliper end of the stack to take up the slack?
Nope , get the right length if it is indeed too long . When you say hand tight do you mean finger tight ? Or torqued to spec?
Finger tight - but a hard enough stop on the thread that it didn’t feel as though it would torque up right.
Mine are alloy - I’m just doing a dry fit now - will try torquing up on the bike and see how they behave. If it doesn’t nip up OK, I’ll get some stainless ones.
Get some new bolts Richard. I got mine from venhill. Are they specific banjo washers, as they are thicker than normal ones.
OK, now I have a small issue: because of the inward-facing angle of the banjos on the M50s, I simply can't get even my smallest torque wrench in to do them up, and torquing them up off the bike doesn't work, because I can't anchor down the calipers when loose. Regardless of that, the workshop manual says 23Nm and Canyonchasers says 18Nm - any thoughts there?
The M4 calipers are the same (banjo bolts face inwards). Just do it by hand with a 10mm spanner. none of mine are torqued up, well, only by my self regulated torque setting One point, you will need to make sure you get the banjos oriented correctly so you can get the calipers on & off ok. I push the pads back on my M4s so I can rock the caliper to get the bolt head to clear.
If youve replaced M4's with M50's youll probably have to replace the master cylinder also, unless your happy with a harder lever action...
Which is what I've done - enough decades of torque-by-feel experience, but trying to judge torque when doing up crush washers is an exercise in trepidation - it always feels like something's about to strip! My father was really annoying there - he'd cheerfully tighten down bolts by hand, with me tutting on the sidelines - Mr Anal with the Torque Wrench - only to find that when I put the TW on, the old boy had been spot on.
Sorry - my apologies. Only had that issue once before. Im sure ive got some stainless banjo bolts at home - give me the length and ill see if ive got something shorter...
I'm about to find that out… …volume ratio for the M50s with stock M/C is about 22:1 vs 25:1 for stock and an 'ideal' of 27:1 (from an old ducati.ms post by Canyonchasers). Thought I'd see how I got on with it before splashing out again.
Many thanks - I actually took John's advice for once ;-) and ordered some S/S ones from Venhill last night.
Well, ive got the rcs17 on my RSV4 and i would say its perfect - a marked improvement (not really in braking power) but in feel, which therefore gives more confidence...
Thanks - that sounds exactly what I'm looking for - I'd rather have a softer feel with better modulation that zero-to-brick-wall with nothing in between - from that PoV, the Panigale V4's brakes are the best I've ever come across. Brembo does recommend the 17 with the M50s, but strangely the 15 with fully floating disks
Cant see what the floating disc angle comes from (mines got PFM discs on it - the ones with the big circlip so you can remove the disc itself). Not sure what the panigale has as its master cylinder but id say im more than happy with my front end setup now. Re your quote "zero-to-brick wall" statement that exactly what the RSV used to be like....now ive got a massive gradient inbetween.... Just to add i chose the 17 on the Brembo recommendation....
