Front Brakes

The front brake system of the bike was not bad at all. It was full of old, nasty fluid, but no leakage and the pads had some life left. However, the rubber seals are nearly 30 years old, so for the sake of safety I wanted to replace them. The rubber hoses were cracked, and since the bike is fitted with shorter bars, were too long as well.

The master cylinder had a little grime inside, but no pitting. I bought a genuine Suzuki kit for it, and the quality and completeness of the parts was not lacking. A bit of scotchbrite and everything was as good as new. The master cylinder paint is suffering a bit, but not enough to warrant repainting. Possibly later...

The calipers were in good condition too. The pistons were a little tough to remove, but I did the channelock trick again (shhhhh!) and they came out with only a little drama. Each caliper took about 15 minutes to rebuild with all new seals and some new EBC brake pads. They're a nice, lightweight design for a '70s bike. Worlds better than the junk calipers found on some Hondas from the period.

Like with the rear brakes, I went to Earl's for new braided hoses. The stock system has three lines - the first one runs from the master cylinder to a tee on the lower triple clamp. Two more lines run from the tee down to the calipers on each side of the front fork. For simplicity's sake, I replaced them with two lines directly from the master cylinder to each caliper. The smaller braided lines fit easily within the stock hose brackets and work well. The little rubber boot doesn't fit over the long banjo bolt at the master, but it's not a necessary part anyway.

I installed the master cylinder and hoses, but not the calipers since the forks are not ready. I finally found some nice fork tubes on ebay - when they get here I can rebuild the forks and install the calipers and wheel.
In the meantime I'll keep working on the fuel system, cosmetics and a few other parts