Steel Line Folly

[Ossian]

If it was me, I'd try the new master cylinder with the existing lines to see if you get the improvement you're looking for, before going with the additional expense of a 2 dedicated line set up. 
I'm very interested to hear of your results.

I have done as you suggested and I'm very happy with the result. Two fingers on the lever doesn't require as large an arc of operation to get the brakes to bite as with the standard cylinder.
The only caveat is that the adjustable lever has a second bolt through it as part of the adjustment system and this fouls the hand guard. I sorted that by a little judicious easing of the guard with a Dremel tool. The clearancing can't be seen after assembly.

[lukeman]

I basically just did all the above over the past week or so.  I upgrade to gaffers steel lines (2 lines from master cylinder).  I rebuilt the front calipers as well as the master cylinder.  After all that I still didn't like the way the brake felt.  It was way too soft and pulled to the grip.  I bleed the heck out of it, syringe pushed up from the caliper, hung the calipers so it was straight up and down, no real improvement.  Still soft, there was no air in the system.  I got fed up with it and picked up a used Explorer 5/8 MC.  It's firm now    It looks identical to the OEM 1/2in tiger one.  I think the Tiger 800 14mm (308mm 2 piston caliper) is a great choice.  You'll definitely notice a difference, the stock is undersized.   The 14mm is on the new bonnies with the same size calipers (310mm 2 piston) as well.  Seems to be Triumph implementation for ~310mm 2 pistons is 14mm. I've done too much research on this. 

[Sin_Tiger]

If you're doing this and don't want to resort to cutting or grinding the hand guards, you might be able to stretch the plastic in the areas you need clearance by using a hair dryer or heat gun and manipulating with the ball peen of a hammer or other tool.

I've done this on the Steamer successfully.

[Ossian]

I've seen photos of other (later ?) Nissin cylinders on Triumphs where the adjustable lever appears to be slightly different and does not have the problematical hinge bolt. So if one of these was available, no 'easing' should be necessary.

[Dyn Blin]

Curiosity piqued!

Please post some photos of the set up and clearance.

[Timbox2]

Knew Id seen something about Kawasaki master cyls on Girlies somewhere:

http://tiger955i.adrianmolloy.com/Brakes.html.

This guy, Adrian, also says he could always pull the lever back to the bars with the stock set-up. I cant, and I can quite easily lock the front wheel. On the last Tiger I did once end up with no lever after a brake flush, but eventually after more bleeding, tapping and tying the lever back I got a good lever back again. Im with Sin in that if you havent got a good lever there is an issue with dodgy seals/ partially seized calipers or air in the system. I intend to rebuild all calipers and master cyl over the winter, Triumph recommend this every 4 years in the service schedule, my bike is 13 years old and Im fairly sure its never been done.

[Ossian]

Curiosity piqued!
Please post some photos of the set up and clearance.

There isn't much to see when everything is together as it mostly looks just like the standard cylinder.

In this view you can see the bolt that I referred to. It's the flange nut on the underside that fouls slightly.

[Dyn Blin]

was curious to see your "clearance" mod- thanks!

[Ossian]

DB, it was just a case of assembling the hand guard on to the lever etc. and operating it a few times. The guard is flexible and this could be done OK even though it was slightly impeding the lever. The movement made a scratch where the lever bolt touched the guard, and it was just a case of removing a little of the plastic along the scratch line.
I used a Dremel tool for this, but a round file would work. SinTigers suggestion is also an option. Maybe with the later lever, it isn't even necessary.

[JayDub]

Or, how not to do it  (not my handywork btw)

[Ossian]

As a follow on to this, I see that Wezmoto (not Wemoto) do a stainless steel etc. twin line ('race') set for the Tiger for £39.95 which is a very keen price. The single long line alone from World of Triumph is £55.40  . I've used Wezmoto lines in the past on a Honda and the quality is just fine.

[Dyn Blin]

That is an amazing deal, even with international shipping.  2/3 of the cost from other sources.  thanks for posting.

[aesdj]

Just finished my front brake mod this year. It's a long tale so I apologise now.

First I put a Brembo radial master cylinder off a Ducati 999S on and that's were the first head ache started. The reservoir is built into the top and it's designed to be level when on a clip on handle bar. Had to mod it with a different reservoir that would be level when bolted to straight bars. The lever fouled on the hand guards so off they come. Thought it might look stupid but it looks fine to me. The new hose I used seemed to sweat what I found out to be brake fluid (not a nice taste). Replaced it with brake fluid resistant hose. Removed the clutch lever and mount and had them soda blasted to remove the paint which the bloke said was as touch as hell. Polished it up to match the silver master cylinder.

Got some brand new, never fitted 4 pot callipers off of a sporty faired Triumph but I can not remember the model (what a steal). Perfect for the Tiger as the disc size is the same on both bikes. Set about designing mounting plates as the mounting hole centres are different for both callipers so the new ones wouldn't bolt straight to the fork legs and then had them laser cut out of 8mm stainless steel. Mate turned me some ali spacers to centralize the callipers over the disc's. Spent 6/8 hours wet and drying to a good finish then polished everything to a mirror finish (what a horrible job). Got new bolts for both the mounting plates and callipers from ProBolt (rip off price but lovely). Fitted new floating discs and bolts. Decided the route for the new Venhill braided hoses that I'd decided to use but once fitted they pressed against the wiring loom down the right side of the steering head. This is because I've mounted a 'T' branch to the bottom yoke to send a hose independently down to both callipers (not over the mud guard from 1 calliper to the other). Having 2 hoses straight from the master to the callipers would have avoided this but I didn't know this until I'd fitted the hoses. But being honest I don't like the look of that set up anyway so would have still done it the way I have, petty I know but that's just me. Repositioned the loom to the left side with quite a bit of third eye twitching in case anything broke as there was minimal bend in the thick taped up loom. Bled everything up then waited for the good weather for a test drive.

Immense is all I can say. Can stand it on it's nose with minimal 1 finger pressure and if I'm being totally honest there probable to powerful now if you can have such a thing. But I wouldn't swap back for all the tea in China.

[Ossian]

This is interesting. Can you post up some pics of your installation ?

[aesdj]

Love to if you can explain how to do it. When I've  done it before it just puts the link up and not the picture.