Brake Caliper mounting

RustiePyles

RustiePyles

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I have what I thought was an 83ish set of forks, I went to mount up a spare front caliper I had laying around and was surprised to find that the mounting bosses on the lower leg were to close together. Did they change the front brakes from 80-83 or do I just have a set of 34mm lower legs from another bike? And yes I realize the forks are backwards. I will be running a leading caliper front brake on the left, and totally turning all the tabs off the right. But now I gotta figure out what caliper fits these forks...
Brakes1.jpg
Brakes.jpg
 
Those are 34mm forks. The tell is the two small tabs with threaded holes, one on each side of the tube, below the caliper mount tabs. Those are for mounting early style fender struts.
 
DogBunny said:
Those are 34mm forks. The tell is the two small tabs with threaded holes, one on each side of the tube, below the caliper mount tabs. Those are for mounting early style fender struts.
Click to expand...
Duuhhhh..... Dangit! I knew I they were 34mm and apparently just totally spaced out the fact that XS's went to 35mm in 78 :banghead:. Thanks for jogging the ole noodle. Sometimes I need someone to point out the obvious thing I'm overlooking :poke: to many irons in the fire and they all start running together.
 
But if you acquire an older style caliper to use, you will also need the older type disc because it offsets differently than the new style disc.
 
Quote. Dangit! I knew I they were 34mm and apparently just totally spaced out the fact that XS's went to 35mm in 78

You did space out Rusty, they went to 35 in 77.
 
I'd like to do the same, run the brake on the left and not the right. Is it as simple as swapping sides with the forks then running it as a leading brake instead of trailing? I have an 81 Special II with spokes and single disc. Hmm just thought of something, will that screw up the speedo since it will be on the other side??
 
There is a cap on the hup that covers the holes that take a rotor.............The rotor should swap over to the other side and every thing else stays the same, speedo forks and all

Can see the lip the rotor slips over. Speedo drive sits inside the hub
IMG_7864 b.jpg
 
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Calipers have a right and left. The fittings for the brake line and the bleed screw are correct for the original application. Not sure what to think of switching sides and flipping a caliper over ?
 
It will have a round cap like this. Same set up as meaning the rotor will swap and there is a lip the the rotor slips onto...........all 36 spoke hubs from 73 -81 are the same just some have a chrome cap and others a plastic..even the 82/83 64 spoke hub has the provision for the second rotor
81 SIIb.jpg
 
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Yes, the disc will readily swap to the left side but your caliper and caliper mount will not. Google "1978 SR500" for a look at the left hand version of the caliper and mount.
 
I think mikesxs has SR500 calipers, at least they did, I bought one a couple of years ago, the SR disc is considerably lighter too if that’s something your interested in.
 
Left handed calipers get be bought on eBay from the UK pretty easily. The right handed caliper will actually mount up and function just fine if you don't mind the hose & bleeder positions being swapped. I did this on an XS in about 2002, ran dual disc. All I had to do was come up with the left side caliper bracket and hose manifold for the bottom triple tree to split to two hoses.
 
For the left side caliper you can get one off a XS750, XS850 triples and the XS1100 fours as long as they are a standard bike. The specials used a totally different caliper. and smaller diameter rotors.
Leo
 
XSLeo said:
For the left side caliper you can get one off a XS750, XS850 triples and the XS1100 fours as long as they are a standard bike. The specials used a totally different caliper. and smaller diameter rotors.
Leo
Click to expand...

Hi XSLeo,
yup, the left-side caliper from an XS750/850/1100 Standard is identical to the left-side caliper of a '77 or later European or Asian market XS650.
Although the (IMHO Effin' stupid) ATE pattern swiveling tapered pad calipers of XS750/850/1100s won't swap onto an XS650 the brake disks will.
The larger diameter XS11 disk fits the front and the smaller diameter XS750/850 disk fits the back.
 

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