Looking to upgrade front brake

[john jupiter]

Going to keep it a drum style but looking for the most stopping power i can get in a 180mm set up. Any ideas On what might fit off of other bikes of the period that would give a nice improvment? If anyone has something laying around that might work, feel free to PM me.

[Bevel bob]

The standard front brake on my 250 was below par,I have made a dramatic improvement by openning out the brakeplate to give a loose fit to the axle and allowing centering,fitting handlebar levers with a smaller distance between nipple and pivot to improve leverage,shimming between plate stop and fork leg to correct out of true plate.The MOT examiner commented that my drum was better than many discs he had tested.

[JimF]

Somebody on this list did something similar to this:

http://www.mts.net/~jkrocker/Duke1/

Scroll down and take a look at these vents that were modified to be functional....

That being said, my stock front brake really grabs! No idea why!

[Bevel bob]

Grabby brake possibly due to out of round hub or wrong fitted linings. Had a Norton brake machined to fit a trued hub and it made a big difference.

[Jordan]

I discovered an easy mod for a single leading shoe brake, that I tried with good results. It wasn't on my Ducati though.
If the actuating lever on the brake plate is made to point forward rather than backwards, it rotates the brake cam in the opposite direction. Then the leverage on the 2 shoes changes. One always gets more the other less (with a symmetrical cam like most bikes have). When the cam rotates in the opposite direction from wheel rotation, it gives more leverage to the leading shoe - the one that does most of the work. The braking on my bike improved after I did this mod. Might be worth trying? An alternative cable outer mounting point needs to be arranged of course, maybe a bracket from the mudguard mount.

Jordan

[ericpritchard]

The front brake from a 350 Honda fits right in, only needing a fabricated anchor arm and axle spacers.
I know it's not really kosher - but it does work better than the original.
Eric Pritchard

[wcorey]

Then the leverage on the 2 shoes changes. One always gets more the other less

Couldn't you just take a little material off the cam on one side to bias the applied pressure?


Bill

[MotoMike]

JJ

My front brake is probably original to a scrambler. I don't push the envelope, but find it adequit for my back road twisty riding. I know that you can go big dollar on current after market brakes like theseL

http://francescobazzani.com/freni.htm

this link gives some critical measurements of older drums that might fit the bill

http://www.eurospares.com/drumbrak.htm

ducbits has some interesting stuff. at the bottom of this link is shows a new product, a 2LS backing plate that fits 180mm hub from italian lightweights. they don't say Ducati specifically, but might be a way to go if you really want to upgrade, but make it easy on yourself.

http://ducbits.com/id5.html

just some thoughts. I would try to optimize my existing setup first. If I were road racing, I'd definately go for a more serious upgrade, but for spirited riding on the back roads, I'm good where I'm at.

[Jordan]

Couldn't you just take a little material off the cam on one side to bias the applied pressure?
Bill

I didn't try that, but I guess it might have a similar effect.
In my case, I fitted the wheel the other way around, putting the brake plate on the other side, changing the fork sliders over as well. There was no speedo drive gearbox to worry about like on the Ducati.

Jordan

[Rick]

The vintage racing guys all gush about the Honda 200mm brake from the CB450 and CB77- you can read about them here:
http://www.vintagebrake.com/drumspec.htm
Legendary mechanic Bob Hansen shows how he gets a factory racing look from a Honda drum brake here:
http://www.teamhansenhonda.com/hailproj.htm
I plan to use a Honda brake with Ceriani or Betor forks that were designed for the brake arm style of holding the brake plate- shouldn't be too hard to rig up an arm on the stock forks.
Rick