Doesn’t matter if you’re threading the needle, splitting lanes on the 405 in LA or leisurely riding the backroads of Tennessee: your bike needs GOOD brakes, no question about it.  

Now, whether that means completely upgrading to the best performing setup on the market, or simply equipping your OE brakes with better friction and rotors is up to your personal financial situation—so for this go ‘round, let’s take the lower road to stepping up the braking game on your typical 2019-2024 FXLRS (though the same process can be applied to most any later-model Harley).  

Simply put, off the showroom floor the Lowrider S/ST rear brake has much, much more to be desired for. Along with a need for smaller-bore master cylinder (such as a 13mm Brembo, down from the stock 5/8), the geometry of the brake pedal doesn’t allow quite enough foot leverage to achieve sufficient clamping power without having to come up off the seat. Fortunately, that latter issue is solvable with an adjustable connecting rod (such as the one from FXR Division currently in use) and/or an adjustable brake pedal.  

The FLXR’s stock front brakes, on the other hand, work exceptionally well. But with nearly 20k miles on the clock, the front pads were about expired—no better time than now to upgrade them with not only GBrakes’s 1370 HH-rated (aggressive road use) sintered friction (both front and rear), but also their 11.8 front and 11.5-inch rear Wave rotors (PN DF835CW / DF681CW).  

And since the wheels were coming off, I also took advantage of the situation—rather, had Anthony at V-Twin Now—swap out the stock hollow axles for a set of Bareknuckle Performance’s “unbreakable” 17-4 front and 630 rear stainless-steel axles to complete the rolling stock component upgrade perfectly.  

Sources:

GBrakes: gbrakes.com
Bareknuckle Performance: bareknuckleperformance.com 
V-Twin Now: vtwinnow.com  

Words and Photos: Rob Fortier