• Required reading for all forum users!!!

    Welcome!
    Register to access the full functionality of the GSResources forum. Until you register and activate your account you will not have full forum access, nor will you be able to post or reply to messages.

    A note to new registrants...
    All new forum registrations must be activated via email before you have full access to the forum.

    A Special Note about Email accounts!
    DO NOT SIGN UP USING hotmail, outlook, gmx, sbcglobal, att, bellsouth or email.com. They delete our forum signup emails.

    A note to old forum members...
    I receive numerous requests from people who can no longer log in because their accounts were deleted. As mentioned in the forum FAQ, user accounts are deleted if you haven't logged in for the past 6 months. If you can't log in, then create a new forum account. If you don't get an error message, then check your email account for an activation message. If you get a message stating that the email address is already in use, then your account still exists so follow the instructions in the forum FAQ for resetting your password.

    Have you forgotten your password or have a new email address? Then read the forum FAQ for details on how to reset it.

    Any email requests for "can't log in anymore" problems or "lost my password" problems will be deleted. Read the forum FAQ and follow the instructions there - that's what we have one for...

  • Returning Visitors

    If you are a returning visitor who never received your confirmation email, then odds are your email provider is blockinig emails from our server. The only thing that can be done to get around this is you will have to try creating another forum account using an email address from another domain.

    If you are a returning visitor to the forum and can't log in using your old forum name and password but used to be able to then chances are your account is deleted. Purges of the databases are done regularly. You will have to create a new forum account and you should be all set.

Rear Drum To Disk Swap?

  • Thread starter Thread starter crash-harris
  • Start date Start date
C

crash-harris

Guest
I'm fairly sure I've seen this done on here before, but I can't find any info on it at all. I've searched and looked through a lot of threads in tis section and can't find anything.

I'm going to bob my '82 450L and I'd kinda like to run a rear disc instead of the drum. I'm not sure if I've seen them, but are there disc brake rear wheels that are the same star design as the drum brake one? I know I'll have to get a rear MC and a disk brake rear wheel and the calipers n' junk, but what else do I need for this to be successful and safe?
 
Without looking at the frame, probably need to fab Mcyl mount and a calaper torque arm mount. so it is fairly easy swap
 
I have one of each in my shop right now. Its a pretty easy swap. Infact its nice to make the swap as you can set the rear caliper to sit under the swinger if youd like. It doesnt change the way the bike will stop and in my opinion, looks cleaner. All you need is to fab up a caliper mount and as stated, a mount for the rear MC.
 
The rear brake only accounts for about 20% of your stopping power if you're using the brakes right. All I use the rear brake for is to control the bike under braking. When Kevin Schwantz first hooked up with Yoshimura the team didn't like how hard he was using the rear brake. They greased the rotor without telling him and his lap times came down as a result.
 
Yanno I've seen some other bikes from our era (KZs namely) that didn't use a torque arm. They simply had a flat bracket/brace or what have you as part of the caliper hanger. This rested on the swingarm as the only thing it was intended to do was to keep the caliper from moving when the brake was applied. I've been running over a few different ideas in my head on how to approach sorting out the rear caliper on my soon to be modded 1100ES without having to weld an underslung torque arm bracket to the swinger (I have a spare so if it comes down to it I will but if I can manage a way around it even better) so I was thinking I could simply drill and bolt a plate to the hanger to essentially do what the KZs I've seen with this set up do. It might be a cure to part of your problem as well. Anybody have any comments or ideas about this?
 
TheCafeKid said:
Yanno I've seen some other bikes from our era (KZs namely) that didn't use a torque arm. They simply had a flat bracket/brace or what have you as part of the caliper hanger. This rested on the swingarm as the only thing it was intended to do was to keep the caliper from moving when the brake was applied. I've been running over a few different ideas in my head on how to approach sorting out the rear caliper on my soon to be modded 1100ES without having to weld an underslung torque arm bracket to the swinger (I have a spare so if it comes down to it I will but if I can manage a way around it even better) so I was thinking I could simply drill and bolt a plate to the hanger to essentially do what the KZs I've seen with this set up do. It might be a cure to part of your problem as well. Anybody have any comments or ideas about this?
Click to expand...

Suzuki did this in the water cooler GSXR's

I never pursued it as I like the under slung look ; katman does it so he know the details. Might be something like this. Not sure if the swing arm needs to be modified.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/GSXR...9966756QQptZMotorcyclesQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories
 
Last edited:
i love spoke wheels but anytime someone can go to disc they should do it for the safety,and performance of stopping, i did it on a kz i had,its 2 differnent worlds i tell you
 
TCK, do a caliper bracket thats like those on pedel bikes. No need to drill, weld or anything. It will take a little fabbing, but atleast its reversible if you dont care for it. The caliper stop bracket mounted with a saddle clamp is a sound concept and with the forces in consideration when you make it, should be more than enough to do the job. Id make the saddle clamp a 2 piece as to make installing/removing easier and have the movement restricting plate mount out of 1/4" and maybe even SS. A couple relief beads in it will increase its ability to resist bending greatly.

we262.JPG
 
That sounds like a really interesting project! Will you post some photos?

Love this site. Been reading a lot.

Fritzhund
 
I will be hardtailing the bike so no more swingarm when I get around to doing this. I don't like how the rear brake feels with the drum setup and it doesn't help to control the front that much, like there's an inbalance in braking force. When I wrecked last month, the rear brake didn't do too much while the front grabbed hard enough to bust my face off the tach and knock me out for a second.

Fabbing a hefty bolt-on bracket won't be too difficult, but does anyone have a pic of a setup like this on an older 70's-80's model GS?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top