Katana Owners Club U.K.

I’ve never been 100% happy with my Kats front brake. I’ve bled it until I’m blue in the face and even invested in a vacuum bleed kit (highly recommended by the way) but although the brakes work fine there has always been too much travel at the lever. The brakes have been completely overhauled with new seals, pads, fluid and braided lines. Even the anti dive units are new and work a treat. I always use two fingers to brake so I can blip the throttle while changing down but on my first proper ride I trapped my remaining fingers between the lever and handlebar! only for the fact I’ve always used the rear brake I would have ended up under a bus
After doing some maintenance on it today I returned to the brake problem, the span adjuster is set at max and is still not right for me so I thought I would try and put a bit of packing between the adjuster and the piston to see what happens. lo and behold I’ve now got a properly functioning front brake and after cleaning any grease out and super gluing my bit of aluminium packing in place I’ve got the span adjusted just right and I can now go back to two finger braking in safety. Ok I know it’s a bit of a bodge and I really don’t like bodging but until something else turn up I’m happy.

Std Kat wouldn't have had a span adjuster anyhows, just required "proper" four finger death grip........

Ah I forgot to mention, the P.O. swapped the std master cylinder with one from a gsxr1100.
I first thought the ratios where all wrong as the gsxr had either four or six pot calipers. I’m thinking of upgrading to either 4 or 6 pots at some point in the future. As to the full four finger death grip I’ve got that well sorted after my old Kettle with drum brakes back & front

The adding a small washer to the end of the piston to take up the slack is a technique employed by myself and many tightarsed couriers. Added bonus thicker washers can be applied after many more miles. Eventually however the "packing" moved ....this became interesting