KAWASAKI TENGAI
Our Roger (finally) decides to upgrade the brakes on his beloved ‘10’, Kawasaki Tengai
Roger Jones fits Venhill lines
Some of the more eagle-eyed among you will recognise my Kawasaki Tengai from the April 2018 issue. Now, Bertie quite enjoyed his riding experience, but his one criticism was that the brakes were ‘of their time’, saying that he had to grab a lot of front brake and stomp on the rear to slow down. He’s right… but how do I improve what the Tengai already has? Thoughts of twin discs were totally out of the question, and really a less spongey feel, especially on the front brake, is what I am looking for. As we all know on hydraulically actuated brake systems, when pressure is applied by either brake pedal or lever the brake fluid is compressed in the brake line, pushing one brake pad towards the brake disc. The pressure build-up in old brake lines can cause the line to expand, therefore giving that dreaded spongey feel. Thankfully, Venhill offered to help. A Jiffy bag with the required goodies soon arrived and I got the 10 on the bench in readiness. With no centre stand, I removed the bottom part of the fairing and put her on my home-made paddock stand. Let’s start with the rear brake lines. I undid the four screws to take the plastic covers off the brake fluid reservoir and brake caliper, then bled the fluid and undid the 12mm banjo bolts both front and rear. The replacement kit comes complete with new banjo bolts and copper washers, so fitting was easy peasy... that is, of course, if the correct length hose had been supplied! As you can see from the photos, the first hose supplied when fitted looked like a bow string. My thoughts were that as Venhill show on their listings a hose for only the standard 1990 KLR650 model, maybe the Tengai has a slightly longer swingarm, or either the caliper or master cylinder are positioned differently? Either way, the hose was short. Venhill (bless them) made up a slightly longer hose
and sent it to me within 24 hours. Now that’s what I call service. I ensured that the new hose followed the existing hose line course, and having positioned the two rubber protection sleeves, it was time to fill with Dot 4 brake fluid and bleed the system. The time taken was only about 30 minutes, once the correct hose had arrived. Time to get on with the front, which was much the same as the rear, but this one takes a little longer to fit due to the hose guide fittings on the near-side fork leg. I took the rubber guides off the original hose and fed them over the top of the guides on the Venhill hose to ensure the original clamps were used and fitted correctly. Fortunately, the inner diameter of the existing hose pipe rubber guides was the same as the external diameter of the Venhill rubber guides, so no bodge job here. Again, it was important to ensure the correct following of the existing hose line course, especially as when on full left or right steering lock the hose could easily be trapped by various other cables and wiring harness. The rubber sleeve at the reservoir was taken off the original hose and re-used with a small cable tie – time taken, about 45 minutes. For both front and rear brakes the manual bleeding method was used. Purging all the air from the system took next to no time. Only three cracks of the bleeder valve were required to purge all of the air away from both front and rear hoses. The Venhill hoses are available in
11 different colours, with the hose fittings available in three finishes. Marine grade stainless braiding over Teflon smooth bore hose eliminates expansion, so that all brake force is transmitted to the brake. Have the Venhill hoses transformed the bike? Yes, and what a difference. I should
have fitted braided hoses years ago to avoid all the previous heart-stopping (ahem) braking moments. This conversion will never be in ‘twin disc Brembo four-pot caliper’ territory, but for less than £60 I at least have a pretty decent improvement in slowing the Tengai down.