niche front rotors Q?

[Don R]

Has anyone tried the Niche front replacement brake rotors? I'm sure they are made in China but my 81 GS1100e has a pulse when stopping, at least one rotor is warped, no one around here is interested in trying to turn them. The Ebay ad shows them fitting a wide variety of models and years, and that makes me a little suspicious. NICHE Front Rear Brake Rotor Set For Suzuki GN250 GS400 GS425 GS650M GS550M | eBay​

 

[Rich82GS750TZ]

Niche was one of the brands that recently came up when looking for economical replacement pads for my Tiger. I bought both front and rear sets. Neither set has the typical groove that lets you easily see wear depth remaining, so I only used the rears because I needed them to pass inspection. When my fronts are ready to go, I'll probably use them. They seem like decent quality. Would really like to have that wear groove though. I know you asked about rotors. Sorry I only wrote about my experience with the pads to say that the quality seems OK.

$148 for the pair seems cheap enough, but I wonder if you've priced any Japanese made rotors from a reputable dealer like Partzilla.
Never mind. A lookup or the left rotor 59221-45250 and right rotor 59211-45250 (there must be some difference) showed NA at partshark and partzilla.

Take your chances with the new Niche's or take your chances w/ a used OEM set found on ebay, which may be no better that the ones you've got. and all those will be 43 years old too.

 

[rphillips]

A thought, I had no luck at getting parts stores to turn bike rotors. Tried a local machine shop and they fixed me right up. It's been several yrs. don't remember cost, but for sure was reasonable or I wouldn't have used them

 

[Big T]

Bike rotors don't get turned
They get surface ground

 

[Don R]

A previous owner was an extreme over-tightener. I'm guessing he put the rotors in a bind, I'm hoping he didn't also hurt the hub.

 

[LAB3]

Over on the Yamaha XS1100 forum there seems to be a mixed bag of comments on Niche rotors. Some people are happy with them and some have had problems with them showing up warped. In either case the thickness of the new rotors requires some bit of modification to the pads to make them fit.

https://xs11.club/forum/idle-talk-forum/xs11-xj11-discussion/881544-niche-brake-rotors

 

[salty_monk]

I'd switch to CBR rotors & fit the twinpot brakes before I'd pay $150 for those.... You could have much better braking as well then.

 

[Don R]

I'm a big fan of big brakes, I did a 32mm V65 dual piston swap on my 78 Goldwing gl1000. I spent an hour or so finding rotors and calipers but after reading up on it, I have the 1981 GS1100e leading axle forks so the kit brackets don't fit. If I have to do a fork swap I'll go all in on one that already has the big brakes.

 

[salty_monk]

Yeah that’s right. It probably wouldn’t take much to knock some up though.. it’s been done by a handful of people but none have stuck around to show their final results… I do have a picture of a basically finished set. I never had an L to play with and the demand wasn’t there to make them cheap enough for the crowd here (you need to buy a bunch of sets to get reasonable pricing).

 

[Don R]

After a long ride two weeks ago with the warped rotors I just ordered a pair of Niche rotors. I got the Suzuki part number from partzilla, searched it and ordered what I could find. I've noticed in the old motorcycle parts world a lot of supply sources are drying up so I rolled the dice on a set. Buy it when you find it. I waited on quite a few items for a big bore 750 Honda motor I wanted to build and now that I'm ready to build it the supply has dried up.
I'll report how true they turn out to be, I'll check with a dial indicator before torquing them down, the PO of this bike was an extreme over-tightener, and I am concerned whether the hubs are still true. I'll check them also.

 

[dorkburger]

A member here used these guys a number of years ago to save his existing rotors. The work looked good. Looks like they are still in business, and GS content on their page...


https://truedisk.net/

 

[Don R]

Here are the niche rotors, on the left side the hub to rotor spools lightly touch something on the inside of the piston side of the calpier. I'm going to sand it down a tad after I check to be sure it's seated right. I polished the forks with an interleaf sanding wheel, 80 grit sounds like a lot but it ends up pretty smooth with the Scotchbrite pads between the flaps.

 

[Don R]

The left rotor spools were lightly touching the inside of the caliper, I thought I had it cured but was incorrect.

I'm not sure how a floating caliper plays with a floating rotor. I'm sure maintenance of the slider is a top concern.

 

[Don R]

Here's a video of the same issue with EBC rotors. I was able to spin the front wheel to a pretty good speed with a buffing wheel on a drill motor, as I eased on the brake there was no sign of pulsing or run-out on the new rotors.

HOW TO INSTALL EBC BRAKE ROTORS ON GS1100E OR SIMILAR MOTORCYCLES, LOTS OF GOOD TIPS.​

 

[Don R]

Niche says they engineer rotors to oem specifications and I should refer to the oem service manual. I'm unsure how that helps with clicking spools on their rotors that oem rotors do not have. In other words, tough ship. I'm confident that I can clearance them enough to work safely. Since the EBC rotors also do this I wonder, who copied who?

 

[Don R]

Today I checked the caliper clearance to the Niche rotors, the caliper brackets clear fine. When I removed the caliper section and held the pads in place the rotor buttons hit the pad material near the center. I removed a pad and ground the friction material maybe 1/32" and held the pad by hand in all 4 places. It cleared fine so I made the other 3 pads match. I re-assembled and all is well.
I'll find a product that niche makes and offer to trade my fix information for that. Maybe a new rear rotor. L0L!

 

[Don R]

My issue was different than the EBC rotor issue. The OD of the Niche rotor buttons were clicking on the pad material on the inside of both rotors. I clearanced the pad material about 1/32" and the problem is solved. Niche originally sent a snarky email when I asked about it. Then I told them how I feel about their engineering and they then E mailed again and asked for photos of the differences between original and their product and what it would take to correct the problem so they can pass that on to the folks that manufacture them.
I offered to do that if they send me a free rear rotor. I said I will test their rear to see if it also has the same clearance problem and provide photos of how to correct it all.
Another difference is the open cut-away area between the button arms will pass between the bottom 1/4" to 3/8" of the friction material. Since newer bikes run those wavy rotors I assume that isn't a deal breaker.

 

[Don R]

Final report. It got up to 40*F so I road tested the brakes today, no pulsing, no clicking and they stop well. I was going easy breaking them in but like what I'm feeling so far. The fresh fork fluid is awesome, mostly 10W Belray fork oil except for a few oz of ATF I added to get the amount that it needed.
If I don't hear back from Niche I may go ahead and purchase another rotor for the rear, that one is a little grooved.

 

[Don R]

I rode the GS today and the brakes worked perfectly, in the meantime Niche has refunded the purchase price. I guess I'll buy new pads and a rear rotor now also. Does anyone have favorite original type pads?

 

[Don R]

I took my niche refund money and ordered a set of sintered niche front pads, they arrived and are Emgo brand. I wonder if they bought the Emgo inventory? I mashed my finger and sliced it a little between the pad and wheel spoke while checking the clicking and clearance. I'll be sure not to do that again.