I had occasion to ride my daughter's Ninja the other day and was reminded what
real brakes feel like. Wooooo!
So now I'm thinking my next upgrade to my '79 will be brakes.
Search function brought up your bike that appears to use stock discs with Brembo calipers.
Couple of questions:
1. Is it really that straight-forward? Brembo pots, custom mounts and maybe master cylinders? No machining special spacers or wheel hub mods or special discs?
2. Roughly what should I expect to spend to do this?
3. Sources?
Thanks,
Another Old Retired Fart.
Yes, it really is quite simple. I made up my own adapter plate from 3/8" aluminum, but you could buy the kit you mentioned. My album on this site shows more details of the adapter plates. I enjoy making things, which is probably why I made my own. Well, it is cheaper, as it only cost me $10.00 CAD for the aluminum used for the front caliper.
Correct, no special spacers along as you move the stock disc from the right side over to the left side. If you wanted to keep the stock disc on the right side, you have to use some type of spacer for the disc or the caliper mounting. I did have to do some minor machining....................the throat of the caliper is designed for thinner discs, so you need to grind away some material to allow for our thicker discs. The grinding is easy an take only a few minutes.
The 65 mm mounting, Brembo 4 piston caliper is a natural fit to our bikes. When mounting, you will likely have to use 1 or more shim washers to get the perfect
alinement. I used 1 shim washer.
The stock 14 mm M/C is too strong for the Brembo. It will work, but because the Brembo 4 piston calipers are so powerful, its too easy to lock up the front brake and cause skidding etc. I replaced the stock M/C with a 12 mm M/C and it works very well.
This gives much better modulation of the front brake.
A minor problem area. The Brembo calipers come with semi-metalic pads which give amazing braking , but they really wear the stock discs on our bikes. I changed over to Galfer "green" Kevlar organic pads. They still give excellent braking, but they are more gentle on the stock discs.
I bought the Brembo calipers from
www.gothamcycles.com. They only sell them in pairs, so that's what I bought, assuming I would sell the left one. However, once I had them, I found that the left caliper was an easy fit to my front wheel, and the right one was an easy fit to the rear wheel. I paid $149.99 USD for the pair, back in 2011, but I see now that they are $199.99/pair. These prices are for used calipers. Shipping cost is extra.
Perhaps you can find a single caliper on Ebay if you shop around.
Its a considerable improvement in braking. It reminds me of when cars changed over from manual brakes to power brakes. I could not go back to the stock brakes now.