Front brake upgrade

[Rick]

The vintage racing crowd really likes Honda CB series brakes, the 180mm CB160 and the 20mm CB77/CB450, and it won't be too difficult to adapt the Honda brake plate to the Ducati(Grimeca??) front hub.
Here's a picture of the stock assembly:

ducati hub and plate.jpg

And here's the Ducati hub with the CB160 brake plate:

CB160 plate.jpg

And, the inside of the CB160 plate:

Honda CB160 brake plate.jpg

The Ducati hub can remain stock, and the width will be stock if 0.230" is removed from the inside of the Honda plate.
You'll need a reaction arm to replace the fork lug, but there should be some real improvement in braking. The 2LS Honda plate will provide more power and the Honda brake shoes are available in several compounds.
My plan is to open up the fake vents on the speedometer drive plate, bore some holes in the hub, and have real cooling for the brake- the Honda plate is a good match with the Ducati hub since it's hard to find any place to mount a cooling scoop on the Honda brake plate- all of the arms and linkages get in the way. I'm going to add another reaction arm to the speedo side brake plate- the stock Ducati setup always looked a little wrong to my eye.
The CB160 brake plates are still cheap- I saw some Buy It Now plates on Ebay for around $30.00.
I need to build a fixture to hold the plate, and will report back with any problems I run into.
Rick

[Teckhardt]

Great project. Keep the details and pics coming.

[Rick]

Stripped and cleaned a Honda and a Ducati brake plate- the Honda is well designed and built, good structure, bushings where there's metal-to-metal movement. I'm still confident that it will be a better brake.
Here's the Honda 2 leading shoe plate:

bare CB160 plate.jpg

And the Ducati single leading shoe part:

bare Ducati plate.jpg

The Ducati plate was broken when I got it in a box of parts, but I doubt if it broke in use- probably someone beating on it. Still, the Honda part looks to be more robust.
Honda punches 'witness marks' on the splined shaft and the actuating arm to show the correct alignment- if you take the arms off keep the arms with the correct splined shafts, and line them up when reassembling.

witness marks.jpg

It looks like the shoes will line up correctly with the lining after machining- hope to get into the shop soon to test it out.
No changes to the Ducati parts, so everything can be undone to return to stock, and the speedometer drive stays stock.
Rick

[STEVENM63]

Did you complete this project? How did it come out? Did everything line up and fit?

Steve

[fhauler]

I have a Honda cb350 front brake with racing shoes on my 250 bitsa. Stopping power feels like it has been doubled. Required some machining back of axel tube (?) to fit in drum and the addition of a brace to prevent rotation. Work was done by my vintage road racing friend who also built the bike. This brake upgrade plus new Hagon shocks and an Airhawk cushion make my bike a great ride in the USCRA Motogiro events.

[fhauler]

IMG_2756 - Version 2.jpg

http://www.motoscrubs.com/forum/download/file.php?id=2081&mode=view

[BevelBitsaBrighton]

Due to Covid a couple of the reputable companies that reline brakes here in the UK are closed. Finding this thread I am inspired to attempt using a Honda hub to upgrade the brakes instead! Found a complete hub on eBay so will post some pictures as I go through this. Hope it's as easy as it seems....

[syrup head]

Hi
I used to race a Ducati 250 and fitted a front brake from a Honda K4 250 .I did,nt have any facilities for machining and if my memory is correct all that was needed was to fit the spindle from the other side with maybe a spacer.The twin leading shoe front brake if set up correctly is a good stopper.I used to do practice days on my Honda K4 at Mallory and could out brake the modern bikes into the Hairpin.
Cheers Syrup Head.

[blethermaskite]

I ran a honda cb77 front brake on my 350 mk3 for a couple of years and as with the above comments a new axle spacer and a torque arm were all that was needed (oh and a mod to get a speedo drive) I had race linings from Saftec on this and I arced them to fit the drum perfectly.......it was a very good brake. I did the conversion because I could never get the double sided grimeca brake to work properly, until I contacted Dick Hunt, he relined my shoes with proper competition lining material and I arced these to fit the hub perfectly........did it fix it?....well no.....I contacted Dick again and after some questions he asked me what sort of brake cables I was using? I replied "the original Ducati ones"...... "how old are they"?......"about 40years" I said ....."probably time to replace them" Dick advised So as instructed I replaced the two cables with Venhill nylon lined jobs, put on the gear started the bike and rode it up my lane to the tarmac road, applied the front brake and for the first time in 40 odd years I very nearly came off on my a***e as the front wheel locked, that brake is now superb and I would never swap it out again, but the point of this ramble is regular replacement of your front brake cable/s (even if they seem fine) is essential to getting the best performance from your front brake.
Cheers,
George

[Ventodue]

A good point, George, and one which I, for one, am guilty of overlooking ...