Brake upgrade

[Oyabun]

I've searched the forums for brake upgrade or big brake quickly and seen no mentionable posts.
When I was comparing the PCX to others I've found the brakes a bit less effective than some of the newer developments from e.g. Yamaha. As I'm looking into performance mods I beleive stopping power has to be improved also.

I've seen brake upgrade discs at varius sites offering larger rotors and brake caliper relocation tabs.
Does anyone have any experience with these from the forums?
THX in advance.

[Reaper]

Hi! If you change the OE brake line to armoured (braided) one, you will get more direct and informative brake feel, how much force to apply to the brake lever at the moment, this will improve your braking feel a lot.
Also you could change the brake pad to a pad with more friction coefficient, this will add some of the braking force.
Larger diameter disks are made just for better looking, imho, you don't race on the track, so here is no overheating issue with the disk. But, some of disks are made of better materials than OE, for example they say Galfer brake disks are very good.

You could push front brake as hard as you can and will see that your OE brakes are ok Just add more control by changing the brake lines as a first step.

Installing sportbike calipers is overkill for this bike, but, if you have some fo free, you could make an adapter and sort with it. But, remember you will loose the "combi-brake" system, wich works well on this bike.

[chainsaw]

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The braided lines and good pads make the biggest difference, I'm using Kitaco lines and SBS sintered pads plus good quality DOT4 fluid. Larger rotors and caliper brackets dont make too much difference to performance but look great. If you wanted you could replace the stock rotor with a floating one the same size. My rotor is 260mm and fills out the rim nicely, stock is 220mm

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Advance pro do a 10mm longer rear brake arm that helps firm up the rear drum as well.

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[Mel46]

When I use the brakes the stopping distance is not great. Since the rear is drum it just seems like emergency braking is almost non-existant. It seems to me that even upgrading the front brake would not help. I wish there were a way to improve the drum system. That technology is 100 years old. I can't think of any new cars on the market that use drum brakes.

[ScooteringAbout]

I would love more information on that disc upgrade!, one of the main things I would love to upgrade on my PCX is the brakes, I feel at times as if they belong on a bloody 50cc.

[ScooteringAbout]

When I use the brakes the stopping distance is not great. Since the rear is drum it just seems like emergency braking is almost non-existant. It seems to me that even upgrading the front brake would not help. I wish there were a way to improve the drum system. That technology is 100 years old. I can't think of any new cars on the market that use drum brakes.

Over here in the UK it's common on the little eco-boxes like the Vauxhall Corsa ( not sure on the new 2015 model ) and little Hyundai's.

[Mel46]

Hyundais?? Really?? I haven't checked any lower than the Accent, but all Hyundai cars that I have seen here have 4 wheel disc brakes. Heck, that is one reason we bought 2 Hyundai vehicles. When we were shopping for our Sonota I test drove almost every car on the car lot, including the Accent before settling on the Sonota. The Elantra was very nice, but with all these back surgeries the seat just could not adjust as much as I needed it to, or we would a bought one of those instead of the Sonota.

[Alibally]

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The braided lines and good pads make the biggest difference, I'm using Kitaco lines and SBS sintered pads plus good quality DOT4 fluid. Larger rotors and caliper brackets dont make too much difference to performance but look great. If you wanted you could replace the stock rotor with a floating one the same size. My rotor is 260mm and fills out the rim nicely, stock is 220mm

DSC_0025.JPG

DSC_0024.JPG

Advance pro do a 10mm longer rear brake arm that helps firm up the rear drum as well.

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Where did you get the brake arm from?

[ScooteringAbout]

Hyundais?? Really?? I haven't checked any lower than the Accent, but all Hyundai cars that I have seen here have 4 wheel disc brakes. Heck, that is one reason we bought 2 Hyundai vehicles. When we were shopping for our Sonota I test drove almost every car on the car lot, including the Accent before settling on the Sonota. The Elantra was very nice, but with all these back surgeries the seat just could not adjust as much as I needed it to, or we would a bought one of those instead of the Sonota.

I think the brand new 2015 range come with discs all round, but just the 2014 models saw the budget models being given tiny drum brakes on the rear.

Dacia have entered the UK budget market and their basic model the Sandero, has drums also on the rear, but then it is only 5.9k.

[Reaper]

rear brakes do just 10% of the braking job, because when you are braking, the rear wheel goes up and loose traction. 90% of the braking is done by the front. So actually I don't care about the performance of the rear drums.
And, by the way, to brake really hard you have to push both front and rear levers, because one of the rear brake lines goes to the front caliper's middle piston! And front will brake harder! This is how combi-brake system is realized on the pcx. Another words, when you push just the rear lever, it brakes both front and rear, and the front braking is done by the separate brake piston. That's why so many braking lines are coming to the front brake caliper.

[chainsaw]

all parts are from webike

[Alibally]

all parts are from webike

I had a look but couldn't see one for a pcx. I presume it does other bikes as well .

[MikeP]

Perhaps an option....

[adrianwo]

I sometimes have overheating problems with my front brake, to the point that you can even smell it. Where I live there are incredibly steep hills that make the brakes misbehave after few minutes going down. I have had to stop to let them cool down before it becomed dangerous more than once, specially when carrying a passenger.
Stopping distance on the other hand is perfectly fine for me, as long as you brake progressively. If you don't you can lock the front wheel quite easily, but anywhay pretty impressive stopping distance (in dry roads that is).
I don't like the drum feel though, not sensitive enough.

[chainsaw]

changing the fluid to dot4 will help with overheating

[Reaper]

changing the brake pads to racing ones will help a lot, but they may squeak and eat the disk, so best way is to buy one step hotter pads, like street/racing, not track racing.

[Valiant]

rear brakes do just 10% of the braking job, because when you are braking, the rear wheel goes up and loose traction. 90% of the braking is done by the front. So actually I don't care about the performance of the rear drums.
And, by the way, to brake really hard you have to push both front and rear levers, because one of the rear brake lines goes to the front caliper's middle piston! And front will brake harder! This is how combi-brake system is realized on the pcx. Another words, when you push just the rear lever, it brakes both front and rear, and the front braking is done by the separate brake piston. That's why so many braking lines are coming to the front brake caliper.

That, and I would think having a weaker rear brake would go a long way in preventing lockup of the rear wheel. Seems like a good feature if you're not familiar with riding 2-wheelers.

[Alibally]

I use the rear/ combo brake most of the time. It's perfectly adequate unless you want to stop in a hurry.

[Valiant]

I use the rear/ combo brake most of the time. It's perfectly adequate unless you want to stop in a hurry.

Would that really improve without the rider losing more weight?

I've practiced quick stops before with my new brake hose and sintered brake pads, but I always held back from squeezing it in all the way because I had this sneaking suspicion that squeezing any harder would lock up the front tire and drop the PCX on its side. I just reasoned that hitting something at a slower speed would be preferable to locking up and still hitting something, but at a faster speed.

My brother with his Ducati unfortunately still buys the myth that laying it down on its side is a good idea because you can brace for impact(against the car) with your legs .

[Oyabun]

Chanisaw, thanks for the details and the pictures. Very informative.

Did anyone tried to upgrade the brake master cylinder to get a more aggressive "1 finger braking" on the front?

I've got used to a lot more brake feel with a lot less pulling effort of my previous rides.