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How I solved the Suzuki Gixxer 155 / 250 spongy brake problem

8th July 2024, 15:03 by Rahul Nagaraj

If you do your bike's servicing on your own, then it is hardly a 15-minute process.

BHPian ridealongkirtan recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Every Gixxer (new generation) is plagued with the problem of spongy brakes and many owners might have pinched their fingers when trying to use maximum braking (speaking from experience:-P).

After owning the Gixxer for a while, I was very irritated with the feedback from the brake lever. It would always bring my confidence level down whenever I went for spirited rides. So after failing to find a solution (or video) for this online and even from my technical friends, I decided to find a solution on my own.

Lots of my friends who I look up to for technical knowledge suggested that I should upgrade to a steel braided line to improve feedback, but from my analysis, I could only see that it could be a master cylinder problem and not a rubber brake line problem as this was not happening only on braking from high speeds but also low speeds. The rubber lines shouldn’t expand this easily at city speeds.

After a lot of back and forth, I went out to the market. Having owned a 2011 CBR 250R ABS variant (still regret selling it), I always loved the brake feedback from that bike and was trying to get a similar feel. So I set out to find the master cylinder for the bike. Sadly, the shopkeeper told me he didn't have a Nissin master cylinder for the CBR. He only the Bybre one from the non-abs variant of CBR. But he had a Nissin one from a different bike. I am assuming it was from the Hornet 2.0. I took my chances and asked him to show me the master cylinder to check if it was anywhere close to what I wanted. To my surprise, it was exactly the same one as the Gixxer. Only the mirror mount and the clamp were in a different angle and position. Note that you will also have to buy the lever for the same master cylinder. It cost me ~Rs.1,500 for both (this was around February 2024 and prices and availability might change). So I just bought it right away and started prepping my tools to get it fitted.

The piston that pushes the brake oil is huge and doesn’t move around like the one in the Bybre, which is literally like a stick and gives that wobbly free play-like feeling. The screw size, the brake switch, everything is plug and play I just emptied the brake oil put new Vesrah disc pads in and then proceeded to bleed the brake system with new fresh Motul Dot 4 oil. Once I was done with flushing the old oil out and removing all the air bubbles I was ready to take a test ride.

The initial response was just amazing. Exactly what I wanted. Braking would start just with a touch and I didn’t have to pull the lever a lot to get maximum braking. The new master cylinder was perfect. No more loose feelings of the Bybre lever. Even the brake switch sound when using the brake was satisfying. Paired with Vesrah brake pads now my spirited rides are safer and more fun.

If you do your bike's servicing on your own, then it is hardly a 15-minute process. If you can’t service it on your own, then just buy the parts that I have put photos of and take them to a good mechanic and get them fitted. They will charge anywhere around Rs 300 - Rs 500 which is reasonable for the amount of work involved. I will highly recommend this upgrade to every new-gen Gixxer owner. I've not tried this with the older Gixxer, so have no idea if that would fit.

If you liked this post and it helped you out please drop a smiley, it will motivate me to find solutions for other issues of the Gixxer too. Feel free to ask me any questions about this upgrade to me here.

Peace.