Carbon brushes

[80650xs]

I installed ricks carbon brushes over the summer when I bought one of jim's rotors which I highly recommend. The last sunny day we had I took it out for a quick and chilly 15 mile ride (still 45°f). a few miles from home the bike died at a stop, and had no juice to turn over. Long story short one of the brushes broke in half and tried to ruin the pretty rotor Jim sent me.
Now the question is what brushes do you guys recommend? I'm not very keen on going back to ricks since they lasted 5 months and left me on the roadside. Are oem ones still available?

 

[Jim]

Are oem ones still available?

They show up on Ebay from time to time. Here's an old style for 10 bucks. You can dremmel off one side of the mount to make it work for your bike.
Here's the correct type for 20 bucks.

 

[GLJ]

I've put several thousands of smiles on brushes from Niche Cycle.
Probably not as good as OEM but they have worked so far.

 

[80650xs]

Thanks guys! Looks like I'll do some ebay digging for an oem set, and order a niche cycles set for the saddlebags. Better safe than stuck roadside.

 

[gggGary]

Just out of curiosity you did do the odd ball flip the brush wire up over the top of the metal square install? I've been running cheap fleabay brushes, so far no issues, did wear one brush out on Madness, installed so long ago it was prolly from MikesXS. Had over 8,000 miles on it, went intermittent half way through an iron butt ride but continued to function "good enough" to complete the ride.

 

[5twins]

I like originals. I think they're made better and last longer. I search eBay from time to time for them. If you're patient, you can usually find them for about the same price as the repops. Even if a few dollars more, I still consider them worth it. I just replaced one recently on my '78. It was the outer and when I inspected it, I came to the conclusion it was aftermarket (no wear line). It was worn down to about 10mm long, not the absolute wear limit (7mm), but I was chasing charging issues so decided to replace it. It was still very good about 5K miles ago when I last checked it at about 12.5mm long. I ran it for about 13K miles, and there's no telling how long it was in there before I got the bike, so I guess I can't complain. Still, it's nice to know I have an O.E.M. one in there now.

The brackets on the inner and outer brushes differ on the early brush sets .....

They are the same on the later sets .....

This means you can swap their positions to help balance out the wear if you like. The outer brush wears more and quicker because it rubs more on the rotor for every revolution (larger diameter slip ring). Also of note - the early outer brush is the same as both of these later brushes. The brush part numbers differ by one number. The early inner is an "81612" .....

The early outer and both later brushes are an "81611" .....