Galfer USA Wave Rotor Installation on 2022 Harley-Davidson Low Rider ST

We've long been fans of Galfer USA's Wave Rotors for Harley-Davidson motorcycles. Galfer's been making quality braking components since 1946! That's over 75 years of experience making things stop better, faster, and safer. Maybe it's type of materials they use, or the double-disc grinding technology, or their Sintered brake pads. Probably all of the above.
We've had great luck in improving stopping power with previous builds, so why not treat the new Harley-Davidson Low Rider ST to a new set of rotors and pads from our friends at Galfer USA!
You can find these exact rotors (dual 11.8-inch rotors up front, 11.5-inch rotor in the rear) directly on galferusa.com.
For 2022 Harley-Davidson Low Rider ST:
Front Rotors (x2): DF835CW
Rear rotor:DF681CW
Front Pads: FD219G
Rear Pads: FD542G

[@boioselstat4158]

why DF835CW instead DF835FLV

[@noonespecial1217]

Without a real front master you’re absolutely wasting time with those rotors. 100% no bullshit and I’ll tell ya! I have an inverted Ohlins, 320mm Galfer full floating rotors with Brembo M4 monoblock calipers, EBC EPFA brake pads, braided lines & tested my break theory first hand son. With all that hardware breaking was marginal (at best) over the O.E. system. I know, smoke crack every day. I use an RCS Brembo master on all my Ducati’s, but pulled the trigger on a Beringer front master for the Harley witha 20.6mm bore . I run a 17.5 bore on my single rotor- Supermoto and love the feel on track. Best thing you can do (besides good tires) for your HD brake system is throw that piece of shit stock master into the trash. Yes, I know a front master cylinder is big bucks, but how much is your life worth? I’m telling you right now,, if I had to put a percentage of brake loss left on the table using a stock Harley master (even with all that upgraded expensive ass hardware) I’d say you’re losing about 40% That’s no bullshit! So save your money on those rotors until you’re ready to put an upgraded master on that pig. That POS StockMaster doesn’t even come close to having the required power for those calipers to bite. That’s the truth! Your wife and family will thank me later when you actually come home through the front door after your ride

[@lloydsuddreth5343]

You know there’s a sucker born every minute that’ll watch this video and will have to have those for the ooh wow factor. SMH

[@jonnymac8925]

What Harley do you run the inverted Ohlins forks on? Your brake setup sounds very similar to the setup on my Sportster!

[@noonespecial1217]

@@jonnymac8925 it’s on my 2017 Dyna Lowrider S. If you went to this past Born Free show it was the black Dyna @Ohlins booth. Glad to here you’ve done Suspention upgrades! Having the correct damping is crucial for safety, traction and predictability. Having the confidence and knowing that your tires actually maintain continuity with the road surface 100% of the time can shave 1/3 off your breaking distance in the dry ‘even’ when utilizing the sub par OE brake system! If you want to take your Sportster to the next level let me recommend the Ohlins TTX 30’s for the rear. True, independent control of compression and rebound circuits. They’re pricey, but holy shit man- they’re insane! Take it easy my friend, ride safe🤙

[@jonnymac8925]

@@noonespecial1217 unfortunately I live in Canada so the Born Free show wasn't an option this year, but a lot of my friends down south went and had a blast! I'm debating on a NIX22 front end for the Sportster, but Rebuffini also makes a KILLER inverted front end that runs Mupo internals (another large Italian company used in SBK). The bike doesn't get tracked much so its more of a street ripper. That being said I think you may has misread my comment, I was saying my brake setup is similar to yours, my suspension at this time isn't nearly as badass as yours. Currently I'm running 13 inch Progressive Suspension 490 Sport Series shocks with a Progressive Suspension monotube cartridge forks kit, and a Daytona Steering Damper. I've been pondering keeping the 49mm forks with a Nix22 setup on some Zack Nation Racing 2 inch drop trees with the GPR stabilizer. As for brakes, I have the bike sitting right around the 500lb mark, and it doesn't get tracked (drag races are about it since we didn't have an actual road course until about a month ago in my area) so at this time I am running a single disc setup in the front, but it's a good setup! I'm running a 13 inch Galfer Radial Wave rotor, Brembo m4 monoblock, TTI radial bracket, HEL braided line and a Brembo RCS15 for the front. The rear is a completely custom setup that is still being made, I just recently ordered a Brembo p34 2 piston caliper, and sent MoSport machine my drawings/measurements for the bracket to run the larger 11.5 inch rear rotor with the upgraded Brembo caliper and upgraded Brembo rear master cylinder. As for upgrading to Ohlins shocks in the rear, that's a possibility but I am having a swingarm made and the original design is for a monoshock swingarm, so I may end up running a Ohlins monoshock if I keep the original design! I have 1000 other projects going on with the Sportster, I have a few videos on my page from when I got it (it was black) to how it was sitting a few months back (gray but not with the new upgraded brakes). I'm going to have to add an updated video very soon! My motor is built, but I have some more upgrades for that as well, ignition is done, foot controls are cnc foldable, motormounts are cnc and 1/4 the weight of OEM, changed the gearing slightly with the chain conversion, I added a HD tach, HD oil temp/level lcd dipstick, HD master cylinder fuel gauge that was built into the cover of the XR1200 master cylinder I was running, but fortunately there is also a fuel gauge built into the HD tach, so I still have a gauge haha! I replaced about 90% of the OEM bolts so far with ARP Stainless 12 point because I live 100 feet from the Atlantic Ocean and anything that isn't Stainless will rust very fast lol. As stated before the motor is built, 1250cc s&s big bore with 10.5:1 forged pistons, Feuling 505/515 cams (replacing with Feuling 580 cams in a few weeks), Feuling hp+ lifters, Feuling Endurance valve springs, Feuling 4.3g injectors, hammer performance solid pushrods, Buell bronze oil pump gear, s&s roller rockers, s&s teardrop air cleaner with s&s adaptors to run an extra large filter, TBR gen 2 stainless 2-1, v&h fp3 (swapping for dynojet powervision with target tune), The heads were stock minus the Feuling Endurance springs but they are getting cnc ported/polished with larger valves and I am installing a Buell XB12/HD XR1200 crank with CP Carillo pistons and rods, Jim's 1.5 crank pin welded and trued. The first mods I did to the bike were Suspension and brake related. I was running 11.5 inch Brembo rotors front and rear, a rebuilt Tokico with Brembo pads, braided line, XR1200 master cylinder and the rear was a bracket by Lyndall to run an 11.5 inch rotor (stock is 10.2 inches) with the stock caliper but like I said the front has been replaced again and the rear is being done now! Sorry for my response being all over the place! You have an affiliation with Ohlins, what is your opinion on the traditional style fork legs that Ohlins offers for the Sportster? The legs have the option to run either radial or axial calipers depending on which bracket is used. Here is the information on the Ohlins traditional legs offered in the kit! "We offer the complete kit Indianapolis Special triple tree with conventional 43mm Ohlins FG 433/FG 434 or FG 620/FG 621 for Sportster models. The Indianapolis Special triple tree is made from solid aluminum with CNC. Top tree thickness is 34 mm. Lower tree thickness is 56 mm." Again, sorry for the sloppy reply! Lol

[@noonespecial1217]

@@jonnymac8925 Wow! You’ve really done a lot for this bike. Love hearing that passion! I’m familiar with Rebuffini, and think they make a quality inverted fork. If you could swing it, I personally would run those over the NIX22’s. I currently run NIX22 cartridges on my 2022 Street Bob. This is a great money saver for those who want the tech of Ohlins suspension while at the same time preserving the option of running their factory conventional fork. The only thing with the NIX22’s was that on assembly I had to put quite a bit of pressure to screw in the top caps. It was essentially pre-loading the spring prior to the user dialing in their preload. Also, the shim stacks on the compression side looks to be a little less robust. It was still pyramided and all, I just wonder how it would hold up on a super hard hit or yanking wheelies. The piston is also a 22 mm (hence the name). It’s literally the size of a dime- half as big as my inverted set up on my Dyna. We ran them through the shock dyno and matched our suspension graph exactly. I’ve got about 300 miles,, so far so good! You mentioned creating a swingarm to run a mono shock. All the M8 Softtails run the mono shock in line with the backbone at a quirky angle. There’s no linkage system. The swingarm pivot, and radius design seem off to me. I run an Ohlins HD 504 shock to help, but keep in mind a top tier shock can’t fix a poorly designed chassis geometry. I’m not saying mono shocks are bad! Both my Ducati’s, SM, and dirt bike all run them. What I am saying is that the 2022 M8 has some strengths, but also some shortcomings. That rear chassis design is one of them. Let’s see what else… Oh yeah you mentioned a single brake rotor, and a radial versus axial mount. I think on a bike like yours, a single rotor would be sufficient. I would recommend going with a radial style caliper though. I think power over feel would benefit you more in this application. I’ll close with steering dampener’s. I have to tell you that I’ve seen a few rotary style stabilizers fail. This can lead to an extremely dangerous situation! I’ve been using the traditional style damper for 30 years no issues. In most cases because of the amount of rake Harley Davidson uses, plus the ridiculous 6 inches of trail, long wheelbase and sheer girth a steering dampener is not usually necessary. However, I wanted to run one. The only problem is no one makes mounting hardware other than buying a new top clamp from GPR’s dampener kit, so I designed one in CAD- modeled it with a 3-D printing machine, then sent my plans in for a five axis CNC machine to be cut and anodized. Now I’ve got my Ohlins dampener. I got the pieces a few weeks ago and I have to say the fit and finish came out Bitchin! Generally, you can use triple trees to dial in offsets for steering geometry, or hold giant 58 mm inverted Ohlins forks😆 Its not always necessary to run new clamps though. I hope all this helps. Yes I am partial to Ohlins, I’ve run their product almost exclusively the last 30 years. They make an incredible product. There’s a reason why 100% of Moto GP runs Ohlins suspension, 95% of world superbike, and 90% of Moto America. Ferrari is signed exclusively for Ohlins in Formula One this year. It’s an incredible product, and you get what you pay for. That said, addressing the poorly designed suspension issues of your Harley, Davidson motorcycle is Paramount. There are many many suspension brands and products out there other than Ohlins. You’re almost always better off, upgrading your suspension with whatever brand fits your budget, than not doing anything at all! Good chatting with you, my brother! Take it easy and ride on!