I have a radial M/C and really notice the difference along with the braided lines and 4 pot brembos.

This set up can easily (too easily ) lock the front wheel at any speed, which is not always what you want (especially when you are just riding around the block without leathers on!)

But as many have said a good/sorted standard set up is enough for the bike. I have only change mine as it looks more bling and is in keeping with the rest of the bike.

Smev

bit of wd40 on the disks will stop that smev

might be th eonly thing it stops tho

I've tried both the standard M/C & the radial type on track and wouldn't change back to O.E. now! I also had CBR600RR calipers at one point with new standard Nissin pads, but with the Brembo M/C + braided lines I found it was too ON/OFF for the street with not much feedback, especially at lower speeds! Part of the problem may have been the bore size of the M/C for those calipers, but I reckon for the track it was just right!
Give the standard stuff a good go first, but do get some braided lines and I'd recommend the O.E. pads too!

I run a 16mm brembo radial mastercylinder from the R1 and find that a perfect match for the sp1 calipers. Much stronger than the standard 14mm and progressive as well. As a comparison the 16mm sp1 master cylinder i used to run was almost as powerful but seemed quite harsh when applied. The radial type master cylinders are much improved over the old parallel type but as far as radial calipers go there really is no benefit apart from maybe the usage in endurance racing.

i test rode the new daytona 675 last weekend, and the radial brakes on that were bloody awsome for a standard set up.
when i got on my vfr to go home i realised how poo my vfr brakes were, compared to them 675 ones anyway.

id say my zxr ones are on just about as good, the have cbr600fx calipers, DP race pads, braided lines, zxr400 master cylinder, 5.1 fluid.

id like to fit a radial master cylinder to my zxr, as the lever still has alot of travel on the standard master cylinder.


id say try a radial master cylinder, and try some bigger calipers, and id say buy some DP race pads, because they are bloody awsome!!!

Has anyone actually done a proper, fair comparission between a radial M/C to a good condition standard M/C?

Its just a lot of people here seem to be comparing their radial M/C & new brakes to their old system, or using a bigger sized Radial M/C, plus a lot of the OE 14mm? Brake M/C's are probably knocking on in terms of wear and tear.

I've rode a few 400's with quite awful brakes, I have also got to try an NC30 that had just had both the calipers and the mastercylinder overhauled and rebuilt, goodrich hoses and nissin OE pads and quite honestly the braking was awesome. Oodles of stopping power, not too agressive that your frightened to pull the lever but enough to stop you from almost anything that would need stopping, probably the best matched factory brakes to a bike i'd ridden in a long time, especially when you consider how old the 400 is!

Having said that, with the price of rebuilt kits, seals, pistons and genuine pads it might be cheaper to upgrade to fireblade / sp1 calipers :)

Would be nice to see though what the difference is between an 'as new' factory set-up and a new / radial system.

yes PB did one a couple of months back on their 2004 cbr600rr that they test various parts on each month, they said it made a huge difference and had th edata logging and tests to back these statements, think they used an AP Racing adjustable unit, and this was on the non radial caliper bike so its the same brake setup as alot of people (including myself) put on their nc's