I really like the old school look of a brakeless 21" front wheel but I do like being able to stop. I realize that the front brakes do most of the stopping. I'm wondering what I could do to increase the rear braking force. I've had a few ideas but I'm not sure how they would work. I was thinking about using 2 disc brakes, a big front brake set up off a buell, or just flintstoning it..... well maybe not that last one so much. Let me know what yall think.
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Once the back wheel locks up you can't brake any more, and you don't want to lock up the back in a braking situation. The front takes the breaking.
Some people have put a trail bike front wheel with the smaller front brake hub
Some people have put a trail bike front wheel with the smaller front brake hub
Just try using only the rear brake on a hard stop(somewhere safe of course). You will see right away why your idea ia not a good one. If you are just into bar hopping it would be fine. But in traffic it would be suicide.
Yeah that's true. I've never seen it but is there a way to opperate the front brake from a foot control or something else? I want to try clean up the handle bars. I was thinking about doing a jockey/sucide shift set up. Hmmm... Maybe a foot brake and the clutch on the shifter? I don't know. Any ideas?
pyroman
Pyroman
Think about weight transfer. What happens when You brake on a bike? Weight transfers to the front of the bike, the rear is lightened. Remove the front brake, and You are hanging You life out in the wind. I love the look of a spool with no brake. I also enjoy sunrises, and warm Girls, and cold beer. In the old days, before good brakes, Guys would "lay Her down". That makes for good barroom stories, and impresses the Ladies, but in today's world, only drunks or unskilled ignorant noobs would voluntarily "lay Her down". Please, keep the front brake. Looking cool is not worth dying.
Guys use a proportioning valve. I think if you look at street rod cat., you will find an adjustable one. I've seen guys hook it to the brake pedal, and adjust for how much brake force goes to each wheel. It can be done off of your foot brake.
I saw one XS with both brakes Tee'd to a rear master cylinder but got no reply when I asked how well it worked. Modern bikes with ABS use linked brakes and I think even a few older ones did it.
pyroman
Pyroman
I remember working on a Gold Bling, years ago ,that had the linked brakes. Pain in the ass to bleeed, dont know how well they worked, never cared to ride one.
mehunglong
XS650 Member
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You could try something like this if you have the bling! www.krausmotorco.com I pesonally love the look of nothing on the bars but two grips and a naked 21" front wheel, and i'm building a hardtailed, jockey shift, footclutch xs650 right now. BUT in the name of safety i'm gonna have to go with a front brake and do to lack of funds and trying to keep the build cost as low as possible gonna have to go with a hand brake with master cyl on the bars 
. If you should come up with something good and fairly inexpensive let me know.
. If you should come up with something good and fairly inexpensive let me know.
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jmcadoo
...SO...
About thirty years ago, I was the first person to get to a guy who had just passed me, riding a chopper without a front brake. It was not a pretty sight. It was the first (and hopefully the last) fatality I actually witnessed. His death was instantantaneous. Do not ride without a decent front brake.
BigBoreSwede
XS650 Addict
I sweden we have lot´s customs without frontbrake and I love it!! I would almost say that it makes the whole bike! It´s fu..ing neat but as soon as you´re face tho face with an idiot driving a car in some streetcorner thinking you are some kid on a scooter you´re dead. Rearbrake is totaly whortless over 30 km/h.
The idea with foot frontbrake control seems a little creepy to! You want to control the whole bike while braking hard and I think that would be hard to do with footcontrolled frontbrake.
Clutch on the shifter on the other hand is supercool or "throttle clutch" on the left hand.
Keep on
your head and you´ll figured out soon
/BigBoreSwede
The idea with foot frontbrake control seems a little creepy to! You want to control the whole bike while braking hard and I think that would be hard to do with footcontrolled frontbrake.
Clutch on the shifter on the other hand is supercool or "throttle clutch" on the left hand.
Keep on
your head and you´ll figured out soon/BigBoreSwede
bluebikerblan
Geezer
This subject has been beat to death many times over.
Slice it anyway you want....beef up the rear brake anyway you wish...
70 % of your bikes stopping power comes from front wheel braking!
What else need be said?
Slice it anyway you want....beef up the rear brake anyway you wish...
70 % of your bikes stopping power comes from front wheel braking!
What else need be said?
roadcall
XS650 Addict
I had a old GL1200 with linked breaks. Worked great. Not a pain to bleed. Just have to read the instructions.
Yeah the more I think about it the more I think a buell style front brake set up would be pretty mean looking and I'm going to look more into the linked brake set up.
I totally forgot about the twist clutch. I've been debating the jockey style shifter and foot clutch. But who knows maybe by the time it comes to make that decision i'll have a little more courage and just go for it.
I totally forgot about the twist clutch. I've been debating the jockey style shifter and foot clutch. But who knows maybe by the time it comes to make that decision i'll have a little more courage and just go for it.
stuntdouble
Contract Killer
No front brakes here... I can see the validity of everyones input but as long as you maintain situational awareness, I dont think its that big a deal. I understand some cager can come outta nowhere and surprise you but that could happen with a front brake and typically riders end up being low-sided by locking up the fronts. yes 70% of your braking power comes from the front wheel, but hey, we build these things to look "cool" and I say, if thats what you want, go for it. try this, ride around for a while and try your hardest not to use the front brake at all. if its too sketchy, then I guess you know you need one. If you cant ride around cause your bike isnt complete yet, then I guess youre screwed... 
More like 70-100%.
When the front brakes are strong enough (and tires/road conditions good enough) to lift the rear tire, you are at 100% front braking power. People generally use the 70% figure with vehicles because when you stop hard, the rear tires won't lift off the ground, so the back brakes are still doing work.
What's really most important is stopping distances. Sport Rider magazine did a test with a Bandit 600S of stopping distances from 60-0 mph. Front only was 151 ft, rear only was 289ft, and both was 146ft. What that tells me is that when you have both brakes, the rear is almost worthless.. and when you only have the front brake, it takes 3.4% longer to stop; and when you only have the rear brake, it takes 97.9% longer to stop.
It's too bad bikes don't look good with only front brakes!
To the original question: as others have said, bigger or better rear brakes aren't going to really help unless your current rear brakes don't even have enough power to lock the rear wheel. The only thing that is going to help is better tires, a larger tire contact patch, or more weight on the rear tire. Even that won't help much.
Tech7
XS650 Junkie
I like the way a nice front brake caliper looks. Especially a nice sportbike caliper, or a Brembo. Definitely not safe to ride without one. Hands down, very dangerous. I'd like to use the helmet argument, it's your head, blah blah, whatever. But a bike without a front brake could also hurt someone else, a pedestrian, or child with its' poor braking. I don't think it's right to endanger the public. Just my 2 cents.
