Anti-dive haters?

[RJ]

FYI, back in the day ('82-'83) pretty much all of the bike magazines panned the whole anti-dive thing on brand new bikes due to spongy brake feel and produced a bunch of write-ups as to disabling these systems, so cleaning up the lines and calipers won't help much.

[Big Nick]

Alrighty then.

Wow, great info and feed back. My thanks to all that weighed in on this subject. It would appear that a combination of grooving the block off plate (to allow fluid flow), good set of progressive springs, new seals/oil, and brake pads will put the front end about right for regular street riding. I've only put 160 miles on the bike since I got it, but all that work will have to wait till spring since shop is closed up for the winter months. I suppose my pettite figure (305lbs) is contributing to a little more weight transfer then the bike would like anyway. Thanks again to all for your input. Side note; I'm building another GS out of my collection for an assault on the Bonneville Salt Flats in 2012. Will keep you guys posted on the build progress. Planning on the build to happen 2010, testing and working the bugs out 2011 season, then hit the salt for the BUB bike trials in 2012. After that just run at local 1/4 & 1/8 mile tracks, and once a year go to the Maxton Mile. Thanks again for the forum and the feedback.

[Mark M]

Stock anti-dive sucked. It created spongy front brake feel and the front end still dove about 90% as much as it would without anti-dive.

Actually, it dives 100% as much as without, just at a slower rate. All the anti-dive does is jack up the compression damping when activated. All the extra damping does is slow down the rate at which the dive occurs, if you brake hard for any length of time, you get all the dive you would without any anti-dive.

The extra compression makes the front end harsh and less able to absorb bumps under braking, right when you would like the tires to stay firmly in contact with the road.

As for the Suzuki engineers, they were caught up in the fad and probably hostage to the marketing department demanding anti-dive because everybody else had it. If it had value, current bikes would still use it and they do not. Far better is to use proper spring rates and oil weight along with Race Tech cartridge emulators. This will get the old tech GS forks as good as they can get and provide ride, handling and control that is worlds ahead of the original set up.

Mark

[schlyme]

wow great thread, learn alot. i was thinking of trying to rebuild mine as i think they are allowing brake fluid to enter my forks. now i may just block them out,add the progressive spring and the cartridge emulators. at least till i give her the 1st gen gixxer upgrade

[bwringer]

Love the spikes!

Badass. Very badass.

i disabled mine, using gsx1100 katana forks on my gs 1000. kept the origonal anti dive units for the "look" but blocked them off. better feel from the forks and the brake.

[kingofvenus]

Clean the valving in the unit and won`t do that.

Mine worked like crap fresh out of the crate back in April of '83. Never any need for it in the first place.....

[hampshirehog]

Maybe I'm missing something. I've had a few bikes fitted with it through the years and if I'm honest never really noticed any difference in either handling or braking. Sure, if you concentrate on the anti-dive when braking you'll notice it (even then it's marginal) but if you forget you've got it you won't.

[gearhead13]

When I got my bike the antidive was still active, and in an emergency stop my brake lever would touch the bars, if there were any fingers on the bars they got squished. This is after bleeding the brakes a few times. After disconnecting it the brakes were firmer, and no noticable increase in front end dive. The brakes were still mushy though. I upgraded to the kawasaki twinpot calipers and cbr rotors, and its like night and day difference. And I am still using the stock brake lines

[posplayr]

When I got my bike the antidive was still active, and in an emergency stop my brake lever would touch the bars, if there were any fingers on the bars they got squished. This is after bleeding the brakes a few times. After disconnecting it the brakes were firmer, and no noticable increase in front end dive. The brakes were still mushy though. I upgraded to the kawasaki twinpot calipers and cbr rotors, and its like night and day difference. And I am still using the stock brake lines

Very interesting