Angle of master cylinder

huck_finn

Been Around the Block
I have been a cyclist for years, so riding in tucked position feels much more natural. My handlebars are angled to give me that same feel, but I know I am pushing the limit for the angle of my stock master cylinder (74 CB360).

Can I just overfill my reservoir? Or do I need to start hunting for something with a remote reservoir or sloped?

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Not ideal,but I think it will be fine. Fill it up as high as you can go with the bars straight and bike level. Thats my thought anyways.
 
It may work for you if it's overfilled, but if it were my bike, I'd pick up a MC from a more modern sport bike that has a separate reservoir (GSXR comes to mind). that way, you can mount the reservoir at a more level attitude and not have to worry about over/under filling, sucking air, etc. As an added bonus, the translucent plastic that they are made of makes for easy checking of the level.
 
Cookie said:
I'd pick up a MC from a more modern sport bike that has a separate reservoir (GSXR comes to mind).

That is what I was thinking/leaning towards. I spent some time looking around at different MC's over the weekend on ebay. I will try and find one from a GSXR and hopefully get it at a good price.
 
Does it matter if the GSXR has a dual front disc? I found this <a href="http://www.ebay.com/itm/07-GSX-R-GSXR-600-750-FRONT-BRAKE-CALIPERS-MASTER-CYLINDER-Stainless-lines-bolts-/122470261807?hash=item1c83cbe42f:g:LNUAAOSwhvFZBMOo&amp;vxp=mtr">one on ebay</a>, but I want to make sure the dual disc setup won't be a problem for my stock single disc.
 
The size of the piston in the master cylinder matters. An MC made for a new bike with large piston dual calipers isn't going to work as expected on an old single caliper, small piston brake.
 
The piston in the GSXR mc is bigger to move more fluid... The lever won't move as far, and you'll have to squeeze harder to stop... It will feel like drum brakes.
 
I´ve used modern masters on my Kz400 and RD350.
Chosen the right size they work fine and can even improve the brake power (which can be too much).

I once lost one brake pad during a rideout on my RD and was happy to have mounted a smaller reservoir than the stock GSXR because the piston couldnt slide out so far that it could have hit my brake disc.
Keep in mind that using more or less fluid in the system could cause different effects.

Some people just put a screw into the hose that comes from the master (with a wire wrapped around to seal it)...never tried that...this removes A LOT of fluid from the system-
 
Back to your original MC question - if you can fill it and put the diaphragm back on so there is no air in the reservoir it will work OK.
 
Separate reservoir. You will only know the overfill fails when you get a are braking in anger heading to heaven or hell and that's way too late. What's your life worth?

Sent from my SM-G920I using Tapatalk
 
Does anyone have any suggestions of a particular master cylinder that would work with the single disc setup? I have been looking through ebay since I posted this question...and a lot of the stuff I am seeing looks like cheap junk, or way out of my price range at the moment.

Just found out the house has termites. :mad:
 
I have never bought anything from this group (Classic Cycle Parts)...nor can I find any real reviews on their products online. If anybody could weigh in on them, I would appreciate it. <a href="http://classiccycleparts.com/index.php/motorcycle-front-brake-lever-master-cylinder-with-reservoir-honda-cbr-cb-custom.html">This is the MC that I found</a>...I think it might work.
 
You'll probably want a 14mm MC.


Early GSXR MC's were angled, so they might be an option. Also some FZ's had them as well.


Or you can get a new one from Mikes XS:


https://www.mikesxs.net/yamaha-xs650-master-cylinder-with-sloped-reservoir-oem-3g1-25850-00-00.html
 
for that price, i'd be thinking its cheaparse chinese crap. I've been down that track before, thinking i'd get some real flash looking m/cyls and levers for the Vmax, when I tried to fit them , they wouldn't bleed up for ages and as soon as I got any pressure on the brake it stripped the pushrod actuator which, if i'd been on the road, would have been a serious situation, to put it mildly.
keep looking round the wreckers for maybe something similar but genuine jap parts, possibly off a smaller capacity bike that had smaller brakes but still had clip-ons like one of the cbr250's, vfr400 etc
the prob you'll have with a m/cyl off a bigger bike is that with a larger capacity m/cyl pushing on a small piston brake is it will feel quite soft, it'll still work, just feel horrible. if you go the other way and use a small capacity m/cyl on bigger brakes it will be rock hard but you get less force and therefore less braking effect (which is what I did after the above experiment, I had GSXR 4 piston calipers with the stock Vmax m/cyl and it felt great, just didn't work as well as I wanted, I now have 'busa 6 piston calipers and m/cyl as a matched set and it works way better than the front tyre can handle...)
 
spotty said:
I had GSXR 4 piston calipers with the stock Vmax m/cyl and it felt great, just didn't work as well as I wanted, I now have 'busa 6 piston calipers and m/cyl as a matched set and it works way better than the front tyre can handle...)

Thanks for the info - when I search ebay using "hayabusa caliper" instead of just "GSXR master cylinder" I get a ton better results. There complete caliper/MC sets on there for less than $100. I may end up getting a whole set - just in case I ever decide to do a front-end swap and go to dual disc.
 
huck_finn said:
Thanks for the info - when I search ebay using "hayabusa caliper" instead of just "GSXR master cylinder" I get a ton better results. There complete caliper/MC sets on there for less than $100. I may end up getting a whole set - just in case I ever decide to do a front-end swap and go to dual disc.


There's a stack of sportsbike calipers / MC's you can use - ZX6/9, R1/6, Busa, GSXR, Bandit, SV......list is kinda endless.


Back to your original issue though I would still fill up the MC so there's no air in it. It can't suck in air if there isn't any.


Or get the angled master from Mikes XS.
 
I went cheap...really cheap, and just adjusted my handlebars. Termites ended up costing over $1K just to get treated.
 
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