Hi All
Again time for an upgrade. I would like to stop my Bandit 600 98 faster. Can i buy larger calipers and fit them to my bike? Also what do braided lines do.
Only been riding 5 weeks?
Any help or ideas would be appreicated.
Ride safe.
not sure about the callipers, but the braided lines will make a lot of difference. the steel braid stops any flex in the walls of the brake lines so all the energy from the brake lever goes into moving the pistons in the callipers and isn’t wasted stretching the actual brake lines (well that’s my take on things anyway!)
Sounds good any idea on the best make and are the easy to fit?
not commenting on ya riding in any way but how about practise with what ya got first??? p’haps bleed the brakes?? cheaper way would to buy better brake pads?? hh sintered are quite good
The issue is I was given a higher bandit 650 on a K6 plate for three weeks. The brakes far out perform mine I will try bleeding them tonight. and let you know how I get on.
goodridge hoses are pretty much the norm and you can get a set on ebay for a reasonable price.
to be honest i’d put braided hoses on any bike as soon as i got it…then practise with them if you need to!
I tend to replace the OEM hoses with braided stuff as soon as I get it.
Secondly, give the discs a damn good clean up and if they are floaters ensute the bobbins are free to move about.
New pads aren’t going to hurt, consider HH rated stoppers:)
As Curtis rightly says, after 5 weeks in the saddle your braking will no doubt improve with practice as well.
H-E-L Performance make very nice hoses
a lot of pepes put on 6 pots on the bandits but find out after that the original 4 pots are better anyway.
but as all have said, braided lines are the way to go, also ya gotta remember the hire bike you have had is much newer so should be better just through less miles etc
Well thank you all. I shall try braided hoses tonight and replace the pads. while I am there i shall clean the discs. Is there any special way to clean the disks? or just soap & water and a good scrub?
I’d bet the pistons are full of crud too which is absorbing some of the pressure you put on the lever. Take the caliper off and clean the pistons, if they are really crudded up they might need to come out to have the whole lot cleaned.
clean the brakes/disc with brake cleaner, can get it from halfords.
OK, the bandit 6 and sv650 share calipers and they ain’t great, but they are not too bad.
As mentioned before, give the discs a good clean, clean and lube the calipers and deglaze your pads (take them out, find a good flat paving slab and roughen them on it )
If the pads are old or worn, get some sintered pads (Carbone Loraine A3+ are very, very good).
Braided hoses can help with feel, but you won’t get any more braking power.
Caliper swaps for the bandit 6 will need caliper adaptors because they don’t use the common 90mm spacing that Suzuki used on most of their sports bikes until the ealry noughties.
they do!
i had OE hoses on my 650,p but ran EBC HH sintered pads…made braking much better
on the 1000 i have goodridge hoses, it feels less spongy, specially when you been using them a bit and the heat up, not sure what pads im running but the need changing soon, gonna try the ferrodo ones, supposed to be good;)
I have now ordered the braided hoses, 10 day wait but should be here quicker.
I am going to get the brakes a total overhall on saturday. Take then of clean each part as you have all kindly said and put new pads in if needed I have a spares shop up the road.
I will let you know how they feel. Fingers crossed, Do I need a special tool to bleep them?
All you need is a clear tube, jam jar and brake fluid. They can be a bugger to bleed sometimes, get someone to help you do it. Good luck 
GSXR radial front end 
A lot of ppl swap hoses to braided no matter waht - which is snever a bad move IMO… but you will notice more of a difference the older the rubber hoses are on the bike…
Brand new bikes’ rubber hoses will bulge very little and so the difference between OEM on a nnew bike and braided hoses will be comparatively small (normal road riding/braking), in comparison to on a 8 yr old bike who’s hoses will be bulging a lot.
If yours is a 98 and still running on OEM rubbers then IMO you will be chuffed with the diff… i was when i moved mine over… just very linear braking as all the pressure you put on the lever is going onto the calipers… even when really piling the pressure on.
I went with HEL and they do the job well and look the part too.
A good overhaul of the basics will no doubt smarten thigs up too… You might want to ffit it one bit at a time (just an idea…) so you can tell what had the biggest improvement.
I.e. clean brakes out and deglaxe disks this weekend and go for a ride… then fit some HHs etc and go for a ride the next day… then once the lines come, fit them and go for a ride…
Jsut that way in future you might know what adds the best value for a future bike that needs a bit of work, as you might not aalways have trhe cash to do pads and hoses, but do have time to clean out etc… just aan idea.
Good luck and post up how you get on.
there are LOADS Of options for brakes on the 600… from changing the calipers to using a different type of fluid… good resource for these things is www.maximum-suzuki.com Lots of knowledge and plenty of affable peeps 
Hi All,
I have replaced the hose’s for goodridge braided… 3 hours but well well well worth it. It fells and stops so much better. New pads going in at the weekend. There was alot of crud in the calipers but very nevous about taking them apart to clean. Lots of small parts which aren’t exactly like lego to but back together.
Thanks for all your advice I will update again when I have taken the next steps.