Brakes locking up when riding? New LEVERS? Read here PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT!!

This is cut and paste from another forum which I help run, but it needs to be here too. As you can see it is FAR too common



So, I am tired of seeing these threads. It is scary

Do not buy cheap ebay brake levers people!!!!

Especially the ones that look like Pazzos and CRGs and the like.

They may make your brakes lock up while riding, and cause a crash. They do so any of three ways.

Most common, the guide hole where the master cylinder plunger sits is too shallow. This holds the brakes on ever so slightly constantly. This causes the brake fluid temps to rise, and the pads to over heat, to the point everything swells and locks up.

Another way they do it is some of them either dont have a pivot bushing at all, or the pivot bushing hole is the wrong size. The hole where the pivot bolt goes galls up over time, and the lever begins to stick, causing the same issue as above

And thirdly, they use crappy billet alluminum. No, Not all billet is the same quality. Often their has voids and flaws in it, or it is not even billet at all but rather a cheap casting. These cheap materials often break or crack at the pivot, and can cause the lever to fall off completely during normal use, or jam and lock up the brakes. Sometimes they break at the adjuster, sometimes in the middle

Here are just the few threads I can find quickly about it if you dont believe me. I am sure there are more.

I often wonder how many people have DIED!!!! because their brakes locked up on the freeway or something, but they were not around to tell anyone what caused it.

Please. Stop. Dont buy them.

If you cant afford quality aftermarket levers, get quality OEM replacements. Lockhart Phillips sells some. Motion Pro sells some. I am sure there are others. DO NOT get the cheap ebay levers. Please.

1: Post 14 http://www.gixxer.com/forums/showthr...brakes+locking

2: http://www.gixxer.com/forums/showthr...brakes+locking

3:Post ten is an installation issue, but similar http://www.gixxer.com/forums/showthr...brakes+locking

4: http://www.gixxer.com/forums/showthr...brakes+locking

5: post 30 http://www.gixxer.com/forums/showthr...brakes+locking

6: post 5 http://www.gixxer.com/forums/showthr...brakes+locking

7: Same issue, caused by simply wrong lever installed http://www.gixxer.com/forums/showthr...brakes+locking leading to this thread on another forum http://www.zxforums.com/forums/zx-6r...ng-brakes.html

8:http://www.gixxer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=292738

9: http://www.gixxer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=271894

10: some accounts in here http://www.gixxer.com/forums/showthr...brakes+locking

11: post 3 http://www.gixxer.com/forums/showthr...brakes+locking

12: post 5 http://www.gixxer.com/forums/showthr...brakes+locking


Ok.......... enough. I am tired of searching. That is only halfway through page 3, of a search result that has 5 pages. And that is mostly only on THIS ONE FORUM, let alone other forums out there that people are not members of this one. And that is only with the proper spelling of "Brake" and not searching "break" which I am sure I could find many more as well.

Do not buy cheap chinese levers!!!!!!

 

All I can say is? CRG all the way, they also have awesome customer service.

 

No doubt. CRGs are good, Pazzos are good, ASVS are good, FPRacing are good, Lightech are good. I am sure there are others.

But those ebay chinese levers are hit or miss. Sure lots of people have them and have no issues. But WAY too many DO have scary major issues. One that is not in that list is a buddy of mine who had it happen on track at NJMP, and nearly crashed due to it on the straightaway.

 

Nothing wrong with them if you know WTF youre doing and pay attention. Most of the time its just a little bit of filing down the part that goes into the m/c piston, but yea, on a forum like gixxer dot com, i can see it happening.........ALOT.

Having installed a shitload of levers on not only my bikes but many many street guys' bikes, even some of the name brand ones have their issues and need to be "modified". Ive had to do it to a few CRG's and Lightechs. None of them are immune.

 

Or, just spin your wheel when you change it (or just occasionally) and if it stops immediately... locate the problem.

 

The lack of pivot bushing in most of the cheap ones, AND the cheap billet is still enough to say stay away IMO.

And has nothing to do with the forum , other than the sheer quantity of members. I knew that shit would come though.

The ones on name brand levers that I have seen has been installation issues (plunger bushing backwards), never actual manufacturing issues. But Im sure it has happened.

 

That would make sense LOL, But I know I have seen MANY people who think brake drag is "normal". Yes racers. Mostly with CBR600s it has seemed. Not sure why, but apparently common with them and accepted

 

oh trust me, it has.

im just busting your balls on the gixxer forum. A forum that big is going to have massive amounts of squids and stupid on it. I used to read it ALOT way back in the day, and the only reason i did was to laugh at the stupidity that was so prevalent.

 

R6's too. The new ones not so much these days, but the 99's thru 04's you were lucky to get 3 revolutions out of the front, right off the showroom floor.

 

What is crazy, is the forum actually gets blasted on all other forums because it is populated by "a bunch of snobby track elitist pricks, who do nothing but flame stunters, stretched bikes, anyone who does not do trackdays, and chrome"

Yet HERE, it is "bunch of street squids"

We actually ahve turned it to predominately track/performance oriented over the years. Not sure why this site still holds on to how it was in like 2000 :crackhead:

 

probably because thats how most of us remember it, and the rest of the huge forums that all went commercial. Did you guys get bought out by the same people that bought the R6, R1, ect. forums?

 

Motojoe if you're going to vehemently defend your turf I can bring out the Kickstand Plunger wtf is this?!! thread. Lmao it's classic.

 

Yup. But luckily for us they let us run shit the same way we always have. Not one single rule change or staff change/addition or anything.

Being the largest of all of their sites, I think they knew it was best to leave it alone

Just made the place look like times square :down:. We still fight about that

 

I am not saying there is not a LOT of stupid. But that goes on any forum lol.

The NOS energy drink thread was better really. . And when you have 170,000 members, and more activity than 5-10 other forums combined, yeah, you will get a lot of stupid

But there are threads like that all over. Guy on Kawi forum who drilled through his ECU to mount an undertail, guy who cut frame and all that stuff (kawi again). Guy who tried to do all sorts of crazy stuff to his ninja 250...wait Im seeing a trend here... lol

There have been some dumbass yamaha and honda threads too . Even a few pretty stupid dumbass racer threads I am sure :crackhead:

 

... and that is why I dont visit any verticle scope (or whatever they're called) forums. Literally dozens of ads per page wtf.

 

Firefox+Adblock plus

They dont even bitch when I tell forum members to do it LOL> They know I HATE all the damn ads. I know, it pays the bills. But they make a bajillon dollars a year off over doing the damn ads. They can at least make then less offensive to the senses :down:

 

Yamaha forum is dead. It's to bad, there was a lot of good guys with good info over there.

 

I think both of those VS did a bunch of staff and rule changes or something. I could never read much there because they have like ZERO signature rules . Cant tell where the actual content is :crackhead:

 

Do not put cheap sh#t on your bike -- PROLL'EM SOLVED.

 

"Active" levers are another brand - used by many in the AMA paddock - and available at gptech