79 850g caliper upgrade question

[Jwhit89]

Good evening all,

I’ve been scouring the forums/searching for info on the best budget caliper upgrade for my shaftie, I’ve already got stainless lines for it, but I’m looking for a caliper upgrade as the round puck leaves a lot to be desired. Not sure I want to go full salty monk upgrade yet, and wondering what could be a direct swap.


thanks!

[Grimly]

My 79 wears 80-onwards calipers. A simple bolt-on upgrade, complemented by a more modern adjustable master cylinder from a Honda Deauville (5/8", same as original) and a set of decent modern pads - Carbon Lorraine in my case.
While the results aren't in Superbike territory, they're at least twice as good as the hockey-puck pieces of junk.
I don't know how I survived thousands of miles of horrible weather using those old junky calipers.
You want to know the best bit?
When I took the old calipers off and thoroughly examined them, I discovered that internally they were so rotten that a good heave on the brakes would probably have resulted in no brakes at all. A really shyte design.

[Nessism]

My 79 wears 80-onwards calipers. A simple bolt-on upgrade, complemented by a more modern adjustable master cylinder from a Honda Deauville (5/8", same as original) and a set of decent modern pads - Carbon Lorraine in my case.
While the results aren't in Superbike territory, they're at least twice as good as the hockey-puck pieces of junk.
I don't know how I survived thousands of miles of horrible weather using those old junky calipers.
You want to know the best bit?
When I took the old calipers off and thoroughly examined them, I discovered that internally they were so rotten that a good heave on the brakes would probably have resulted in no brakes at all. A really shyte design.

Tell it LIKE IT IS!!

[salty_monk]

Unless you're looking to stay Suzuki for originality I don't see any reason to go the halfway to decent brakes that the later GS Caliper brings.

You'd need to change to the 80+ rotors to work with the newer Calipers anyway and the CBR & EX650 stuff is much more available & cheaper than GS stuff now. The cost will be about the same either way....

[Jwhit89]

Salty I sent you a pm!

[salty_monk]

PM back at ya. Thread link on my signature below in case you need it.