Front Brake & Clutch Levers

[Rich Weyand <weyand@xxxxxxx>]

Couple of recent quotes are typical of these two threads:

>"The front brakes have plenty of power, but do *nothing* for the
>first quarter of the lever travel - is this as good as it gets?  Would
>bleeding help?  Any suggestions?"

> Has anybody found the clutch action a little intense - my wrist was killing 
> me after a few shifts. I know I'm getting old and its been a long winter but 
> the clutch action was a lot firmer than my friend's R1100RT.

Welcome to British motorcycles!  My 1975 Norton Commando has the exact same
front controls feel.  The 1977 Suzuki GS400 I had before the Norton had a
very soft clutch, and braking action that started about as soon as you 
moved the lever.  But the Norton had a very stiff clutch lever, and about
1/4 of dead pedal on the front brakes.  When I got the ST, I felt right at
home, right away.  The riding position and control lever positions and feels 
are dead on the same as the Norton all around.

Two side notes:  The brake lights come on well before the brake action on
the front brake lever, allowing one to light up the stop lights without any
decel, which can be a benefit in traffic.  This is also a way to use com-
pression (downshift) braking without leaving the guy on your tail clueless.

And as far as the clutch, it may be all my practice on the Norton, but the 
ST upshifts cleaner and smoother without any clutch at all.  Never did use 
the clutch for upshifts on the Norton, and the ST doesn't seem to need any 
clutch action for upshifts either.  Man, but I love British motorcycles!


Rich Weyand      |  _______   ___,---. ---+_______:_   |Rich Weyand
Weyand Associates| |_N_&_W_| |_N_&_W_| |__|________|_  |TracTronics
Comm Consultants |  ooo ooo ~ ooo ooo ~ oOOOO- OOOO=o\ |Model RR Electronics
weyand@xxxxxxx   |     http://www.mcs.net/~weyand/     |weyand@xxxxxxx

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