Wobbly, wobbly… That doesn’t seem right.

by edsters | Do it yourself | July 11, 2013

Do you ever get that feeling, that something is wrong? But you don’t know what’s wrong? Well this is definitely not the case, there was something up with my brakes! I’ve noticed that my brake lever on my Suzuki GSXR 1000 front end went loose while riding, but when at a stop, they were harder than a pubescent teen!

I assumed that my rotors were warped, so I bought some “new to me” rotors. After putting those on, I went for a ride, and guess what!? They were more warped than my original rotors. It felt like I had ABS! Well this was really bad, because I couldn’t’ even stop consistently and at highway speeds I would have really crazy vibrations when I was braking. It was scary.

It was then, that I decided that I needed new rotors, but which ones should I go with? First I went to eBay and found that no name Chinese rotors were cheap at about $150 pair. But did I really want to risk my life on cheap rotors that could explode on me? Probably not, and how much could OEM rotors cost? A HELL OF A LOT, that’s how much. Being discouraged at how the OEM rotors cost about four times as much as the knock offs, I ended up talking to my favorite shop, MotoshopSF.

Wilder, the owner of MotoshopSF, told me that he could get me EBC Prolite XC rotors for $200 each. This was a lot more than the Chinese knock offs, but hey, they are real! This was a great price, so I decided to go with them.

I installed them yesterday, and they are AWESOME. All is right in the world again! Now if you’re planning on doing the same thing here’s what you need:

Allen key set
12 mm, 10 mm socket wrench
GSXR axle removal tool

First you want to remove your brakes, because they will totally be in the way. This requires the 12 mm socket wrench.

After that’s out of the way, go ahead and remove the front fender. This will require a small Allen key or socket. If you’re lucky, there should be six small Allen bolts that hold your fairing in. If you’re like me, there should only be three.

After you’ve removed the Allen bolts, you can simply move the fender out of the way. You do not need to remove it completely, that’s your choice, but be sure to reinstall fender before you reinstall the wheel (it’s a PITA otherwise).

Now go ahead and loosen the two 10 mm bolts that hold the axle in place. You do not need to remove them completely, just enough to remove the axle. If you can hand turn the bolts, you should be fine.

Next, remove the axle using the axle removal tool. This part is simple, it’s basically an extra large Allen key that can be used with a 3/8″ socket wrench.

Now, when you’re removing the axle, have someone hold the wheel. This makes it a little easier to take out and ensures that you don’t strip any threads on the axle.

Now you’re ready to remove the original rotors on your tire. Be sure to tilt the tire while you do this so that you don’t damage the rotor. This is more important for your new rotors than your old ones. The rotors are secured with five Allen bolts.

Now, when you install the new rotor, make sure to put it on the wheel with the seat facing down.

It should look like this, nice and flat on the front face.

Now you can bolt the rotor onto the wheel. You should hand tighten the bolts until they’re pretty close to the rotor. Now to ensure that it is as flat as it can be, tighten the bolts like you would on a tire. That’s a STAR pattern if you’re unfamiliar, just don’t tighten two bolts that are adjacent to each other.