Lost my brakes in the rain

[mrbill5491]

I've been in some hellaish down pours here, never had any problems with the brakes. One thing I do when they start getting wet, I apply some slight pressure on the brakes to more or less wipe them. Seems to work just fine. I've been using the EBC pads for years now.

[jbthomp]

Leaking brake fluid at any point at all should be an immediate cause of concern. That's no bueno

[jabcb]

Don't know if your bike has plain or slotted/drilled brake rotors.
A lot of the two stroke guys switch to slotted GS rotors & modern aftermarket pads.
The slots/holes create a place for the water to go & the modern pads have modern brake materials.

If you have to deal with traffic & are willing to spring for the best setup, then new EBC rotors & pads are likely the best way to go.

[BluePlateSpecial]

Don't know if your bike has plain or slotted/drilled brake rotors.
A lot of the two stroke guys switch to slotted GS rotors & modern aftermarket pads.
The slots/holes create a place for the water to go & the modern pads have modern brake materials.

If you have to deal with traffic & are willing to spring for the best setup, then new EBC rotors & pads are likely the best way to go.

Yea, they are the stock drilled/slotted rotors.

I took it for a spin yesterday and the brakes are solid now that everything is dry. Guess I need to tear it apart and figure out where the leak is coming from and go from there.

[tkent02]

If you want good brakes talk to Salty monk. His brake upgrade works very well indeed. Far better than anything that can be done with the stock calipers and discs, and inexpensive.

[Brendan W]

How and what with do you wash the front end of the bike ?

[argonsagas]

I have never experienced anything like that on the G or GK, and both have seen heavy rain, as well as ice and snow.


I would side with others on the contamination of your pads, and if so that does mean replacement of pads would be in order. It would be far better to replace them than to risk continuation of the problem.

[BluePlateSpecial]

How and what with do you wash the front end of the bike ?

The only thing I have ever used is Meguiars car wash.

[DanTheMan]

These bikes have famously bad wet weather brakes stock.

After several thousand miles of riding a GS in the rain I never noticed any special problem. Forum members with many times my experience and with extensive experience riding other makes and models haven't complained about any general problem.

BS, no they do not.

+1, pure BS.

+3, pure BS. I just rode my '80 GS850L (slightly G'ed) through massive downpours last weekend, and many other times as well. No brake problems there, same with my '83 GS1100G. Wet brakes have been no problem with either one.

[Grimly]

Got caught in a little rain on my way back from a bike show yesterday. It had only been raining for a couple of minutes and I hadn't ridden through any puddles, but as I turned into my subdivision I realized that my front brakes were gone. Tried to use my back brake to stop but with the wet pavement it locked up and I started to slide. Somehow I managed to recover and avoid hitting the median or laying it down and I managed to make my way home SLOWLY.

Welcome to the 1980s and the sheer crap we had to put up with during wet weather.
Modern pad materials made a huge improvement, even on old caliper and disc designs, but it's only really brought car-type take-it-for-granted braking to bikes in the past 20-odd years. Earlier than that, you have to be a bit cautious in the wet, decent pad material or not.
Part of riding defensively in the '80s was keeping the water wiped off the disc by regularly giving the lever a light touch and hoping you didn't really need to brake hard at any time.

[tkent02]

Welcome to the 1980s and the sheer crap we had to put up with during wet weather.
Modern pad materials made a huge improvement, even on old caliper and disc designs, but it's only really brought car-type take-it-for-granted braking to bikes in the past 20-odd years. Earlier than that, you have to be a bit cautious in the wet, decent pad material or not.
Part of riding defensively in the '80s was keeping the water wiped off the disc by regularly giving the lever a light touch and hoping you didn't really need to brake hard at any time.

Maybe on Kawasakis and Yamahas.

Never had this problem on GSes. The brakes worked, wet or dry. My only transportaion year round in Seattle was a GS for many years, have ridden in rain once or twice.

[Grimly]

Maybe on Kawasakis and Yamahas.

Never had this problem on GSes. The brakes worked, wet or dry. My only transportaion year round in Seattle was a GS for many years, have ridden in rain once or twice.

Then, I invite you to ride a plain disc '79, with its stupidly small pads on stupidly small calipers on a rain-soaked British motorway around the Home Counties.
All you people who say it's BS - you just don't know, do you? There's a certain type of oil-laden dirty rain that happens on motorways after days of hot dry weather and all the crap/oil/muck comes up in the spray and coats the discs and pads.
Now tell me it's BS - I've been in it, for hundreds of horrible miles, hoping I would get out of it.
Go on, tell me.

[tkent02]

This bike in Seattle was a '77 550, same little brake, it worked fine.
Get off the computer and maintain your brakes.

[Brendan W]

I rode solid discs in the late 70s on my 160 mile commute and braking in the rain just wasn't an option. About 1980 along came metallic pads and drilled discs and that was that as they say.

[Grimly]

I rode solid discs in the late 70s on my 160 mile commute and braking in the rain just wasn't an option. About 1980 along came metallic pads and drilled discs and that was that as they say.

Exactly.
Suzuki (and the other makers) knew they were selling death on wheels to hapless riders who used them in the rain. The 1980 bike was a turning point and the advent of sintered pads also helped a lot (even if you paid the price for saving your neck with shorter disc life). I had nothing like the same apprehension of wet motorways on the '80 as I did on the '79 and it was nothing to do with lack of maintenance tkent - it was a shoite design that deserved the dustbin of history.
I would like to point out that I've posted on a couple of occasions my liking of the later calipers - they're only really crap with wear and tear; when they're within wear allowances they're actually quite good with decent pads, rain or shine. In my rejuvenation of the '79, I'm fitting the later calipers (a Brembo upgrade may come later) but this will be a summertime bike, so the solid discs on it aren't a particular drawback. No matter, I have a spare wheel with slotted discs, anyway.