Your motorcycle’s brakes are one of the most important components, and routine maintenance is essential to keeping the braking system operating at its best. There are also a few easy hacks to improve braking performance, like replacing stock pads with aftermarket sintered pads and swapping rubber OE lines with stainless steel. Photos by Spenser Robert.

We all like to talk about our motorcycle?s acceleration and handling capabilities, but when you really think about it, being able to stop efficiently is probably the most important thing your motorcycle has to do. Your brakes are critical, but unfortunately brake componentry is often where manufacturers skimp on quality to help keep a motorcycle?s MSRP down. The result can be a soft lever, poor initial bite, crummy modulation, fading under hard use or just plain lack of stopping power.
Not all issues are caused by less-than-ideal componentry, however, which is why the first suggestion for addressing underwhelming brake performance is to bleed the system.

Bleeding your brakes is actually just regular maintenance that your owner?s manual will probably suggest doing every 24 months, and if you ignore it then brake performance may suffer as a result. That?s because over time, brake fluid will absorb moisture out of the atmosphere and air can creep past the seals, making the fluid more compressible and lowering its boiling point. Both of those are bad things for your brakes and can lead to a brake lever or pedal tha...