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Well the black Showa forks were looking very tatty, the brake lines and mudguard had rubbed away some of the outer sleeve and the paint on the fork feet was chipped, so I bagged myself a set of the gold Marzocchi's on ebay for £100 and whilst I was there I also got a set of the larger more powerful 4 pad RSV callipers for a very reasonable £60! You sure can pick up some bargains this time of year!

So I had a quite day last weekend and set about fitting it all.

BEFORE







AFTER





I'm very pleased with the result, added bling appeal me thinks! It all went on very easily, just waiting for a pair of Hell braided lines to be delivered later this week and I should be able to test it all out. Happy days.

Just the swingarm mod left on the list of winter mods……and it's not even December!

Cheers
Oli

Hi all,

Yeap Olig, you have some serious bling bling going on there fella I might keep an eye out for some forks as well...

looking nice

clint

massive improvement mate, looks good.

GregD-UK wrote:Hi all,

Yeap Olig, you have some serious bling bling going on there fella I might keep an eye out for some forks as well...

Funny you say that Greg, I've got a lovely pair of black Showa's up for grabs!!!!

Nice .... and those Marzocchi fork bottoms have been refurbished (they are usually darker) - they look good the way they've been done.

Thought I'd done well on a set of those callipers but what you paid for yours and Mango paid for his beats me hands-down.

Looks good, well done.

Be aware that the new calipers have a different fitting at the banjo bolt IIRC the 4pads have a straight banjo not the 90 degree the o/e fitment fot the Falco, make sure you get the right ones!

Falcopops wrote:Be aware that the new calipers have a different fitting at the banjo bolt IIRC the 4pads have a straight banjo not the 90 degree the o/e fitment fot the Falco, make sure you get the right ones!

Yes, I noticed that, as well. Not a straight swap, by any means. I'm going to give mine a full strip down and overhaul before fitting. It will be a good opportunity to see if the piston seals are the same as the Falco OE, or different again (my bet is they're different...)

mangocrazy wrote:

Falcopops wrote:Be aware that the new calipers have a different fitting at the banjo bolt IIRC the 4pads have a straight banjo not the 90 degree the o/e fitment fot the Falco, make sure you get the right ones!

Yes, I noticed that, as well. Not a straight swap, by any means. I'm going to give mine a full strip down and overhaul before fitting. It will be a good opportunity to see if the piston seals are the same as the Falco OE, or different again (my bet is they're different...)

This is entirely from memory of what I've read - so may be wrong but I seem to recall that whereas the twin-pad callipers have different sized pistons an each end of the pads, the 4-pad callipers have just one size of piston.

Really must get round to stripping mine down .....

From everything I've read and observed, the 4-pad calipers are something of a 'halfway house' to the radial calipers. The bracing of the caliper body is different to the OE Falco Brembos, being braced at 3 points instead of two and (as Andy said) having same sized pistons front and back. These design points were carried through to the radial calipers (at least, the ones I've seen) and probably accounts for the sharper feel and response the 4 pad calipers are supposed to have.

I'm definitely looking forward to trying them out...

mangocrazy wrote:These design points were carried through to the radial calipers (at least, the ones I've seen) and probably accounts for the sharper feel and response the 4 pad calipers are supposed to have.

I'm definitely looking forward to trying them out...

I'm sure the additional calliper stiffness helps. The other thing I've heard is that the extra leading-edges of the 4-pad set-up contribute to the greater initial-bite that they offer.

As you say, it will be good to try them out.

Looks good Oli - well done. Can't seem to dare to attack the more significant mods myself.

Having said that I need to do something with my Maz forks - the paint is flaking off on the top edge of the foot (both sides). Gavin at Reaction Suspension said he could hard anodise them for about £60 but I have no idea how they are attached to the fork leg.

Hi Oli, only just seen the before and after photos (when browsing at work they block all Photobucket type images). The conversion looks excellent and you seem to have found a set of forks in perfect condition. Plus the 4 pad calipers also look in excellent condition.

Let the bling wars commence!...