Front Brake calipers not square......

[smokey999]

So there is something that i have noticed on all of the xx9 bikes that i come in contact with (5 different bikes, two of which i own). After crashing my 749 track bike I had a bent rotor that was causing it to drag on the brake pads. So i replaced the brake pads but continued to observe the fact that the brake calipers are not square with the brake rotor. And its not the same on either caliper. ITs not angle the same direction i mean. By square i am going off the two machined tangs that hold up the brake pads. The one in the front is not th same distance as the one in the back. Now in the world of Stock racing (where i work) I know our front suspension guy spends a lot of time dialing in the brake calipers on the front end of our short track cars that run massive 6 piston brembos. By having the brake caliper directly square with the plane of travel of the brake rotor, you reduce drag and also increase brake feel by allowing the pad to contact the rotor completely rather than being laid on to it. This also helps on the other end where your not using the brakes and your reducing drag. So after shimming and griding on my calipers and fork mounts i was able to make the front wheel free wheel longer and on the following track days, had a much better feel for the front brakes. I'm sharing this to see if anyone else has noticed and also to help get the grey matter warm.

[davy.j]

I found the same thing on the rear on my 748 and once squared up I have a solid brake that really works.
I did post on here somewhere about it.

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[Dmitry]

Caliper alignment can be thrown off by damaged axle or fork.

Test:

with front end suspended (doh!) remove front wheel, insert axle and rotate it by hand, it should be smooth as butter, if it's uniformly tight make sure the forks are level, if it makes fork move up/down when rotated it's bent, seen it many times, does not take much to bend it, also many of them are crushed form over-tightening pinch bolts