Being a complete newb at this I have a questions about brake upgrades... My rear brake seized on me while riding last week and I am curious about either rebuilding my rear brake system or upgrading the whole thing. If I were to ebay some duel front calipers off of a ducati could I use one caliper on the front and one on the back? (with some modifications of course) I am currently setup with mag wheels and a single caliper/rotor on the front and the rear.
The Ducati 4 piston calipers are usually sold as a pair. Yes, you can use one caliper on the front and one on the back.
The stock brakes on my 78SE were providing good but not great braking. They were quealing as well, so I decided to go for better braking. In my pics you can see what I did. I bought a pair of Brembo 4 piston (65 mm mounting) calipers that are from the front of Ducati 1999 to 2004 models.
I was originally going to use just a 2 piston Brembo on the back. When I had the pair of 4 piston calipers in my hands, I could see that the 4 piston would go very well on the back wheel as well.
I used 3/8" aluminum flat stock to make the caliper adapter brackets. I like to fabricate parts and this was an easy and enjoyable project. $20 dollars for the aluminum was all I needed to make the adapters.
The Brembo calipers are a natural fit to our bikes. I did not even have to use a spacer for the stock rotor mounting. I used my stock master cylinders and stock rotors, front and rear.
You do have to grind the caliper throat slightly wider to about 1/2" to accomodate the stock 7 mm rotors. If you used 5 mm Yamaha rotors or 3 or 4 mm Ducati rotors, then maybe no widening required.
I moved the front rotor from the right side to the left side,as it made for an almost perfect alinement of the caliper and rotor. I did use one small shim washer for the caliper.
At the back, I had to use 3 or 4 thick washers as spacers on the axle.
How do they work, after one season of riding? Its a big increase in braking power and gives very nice modulation. I used to grab the front brake with all 4 fingers, but now mostly2 fingers. The back brake is also just a joy to use. I'm big on safety, and these calipers give a big increase in safety. I like to ride in the mountains, and these brakes just instill confidence when coming down a long grade.
After using these calipers, you would never go back to stock brakes.