Twinpot Brake upgrade on 78 Skunk

[The1970's]

20181005_180739.jpg

Here's my old pad and new pad. Now that I've I've done it, I think throwing in a set of used pads is the best way to gauge where it needs to be chamfered at. I'll hang on to my old pads and when I get some extra free time I'll make a printable template from them.

Another note is that I think I will start checking the pads at every oil change because I imagine they will need to he re-chamfered after 5000 miles or so

[salty_monk]

Yes, unless you chamfer at a much more acute angle they will.

[Chuck78]

It's annoying that the left calipers are harder to source than the right ones! Would be much better for our purposes if the left was used on the Ninja 250! They can provide a good source of parts for an older left caliper though as pistons, bracket etc are the same.

FYI I'm not sure which was which, but Kawasaki guru at the local motorcycle junk yard told me that the early EX500 used a left side caliper, and the later models used a right side, or vice versa. Please check and see which side was which year because I don't know! I would just show up there and buy a pile of lefts and rights because they had so many

[The1970's]

FYI I'm not sure which was which, but Kawasaki guru at the local motorcycle junk yard told me that the early EX500 used a left side caliper, and the later models used a right side, or vice versa. Please check and see which side was which year because I don't know! I would just show up there and buy a pile of lefts and rights because they had so many

Yes, 87-93 EX500 calipers are on the left hand side. I just got one in today from ebay. As it turns out they are painted black on the EX500 which makes it look factory on the GS

[salty_monk]

Yes, not sure why they switched sides on that model but at some point they did.... All the Ninja ones are black but some are a different gloss level/texture (the newer 250 ones). The Concourse ones are always silver.

[salty_monk]

Just bumping this up & letting people know that I will not be able to ship brackets over the Christmas period - If you want some lets get them shipped in the next couple of weeks.

[salty_monk]

Back & can ship brackets again for anyone who needs a set.

Happy New Year everyone!

[salty_monk]

Bumping this thread up as I've been asked for the link a couple of times recently. I do have some brackets on my shelf.

[Grimly]

Can I retain the original discs while using your brackets with Kwak calipers?
I ask because I have several front wheels I routinely swap out when needed and don't want to have to fit CBR discs to all of them.

[Mmazach22]

Salty monk I PM’d you

[salty_monk]

Can I retain the original discs while using your brackets with Kwak calipers?
I ask because I have several front wheels I routinely swap out when needed and don't want to have to fit CBR discs to all of them.

No, the only alternate disc is the GS550 one. They can be picked up cheap enough and cross-drilled to look similar to the later ones though...

[salty_monk]

Salty monk I PM’d you

one back at ya

[Grimly]

No, the only alternate disc is the GS550 one. They can be picked up cheap enough and cross-drilled to look similar to the later ones though...

Ok, thanks. I take it the GS550 disc is the right dish/offset and diameter, needing no mods other than some drilling?

[Chuck78]

Can I retain the original discs while using your brackets with Kwak calipers?
I ask because I have several front wheels I routinely swap out when needed and don't want to have to fit CBR discs to all of them.

Yes, you can run the factory 295 mm rotors, but due to the different steel alloys and brake pad compounds used in the 70s and early 80s, the pads for the upgrade calipers will tear up the old rotors quickly.
Also somewhat related to that, it's not a good idea to use worn rotors with any grooving or anything of that sort and then swap to a different set of rotors on those same pads. The pads will not say consistently bedded in, and I suspect the breaking performance will be downgraded a bit. I would keep the same set of rotors matched to the pads if you want the best performance.

[Chuck78]

I found it interesting after telling my wife to look into these Tokico brake calipers & a custom DIY bracket, & forego all of these $800 dual disc aftermarket brake caliper sets for her '86 Harley FXR front end upgrade (crash replacement/huge upgrade to $975 rebuilt 39mm "Jap" Showa fully adjustable XL1200S Sportster Sport forks), that it turns out that Still Kicking Moto sells CNC aluminum adapter brackets to use these brakes on 1999 and earlier Harley Davidson dual disc forks with 292mm (11.5") rotors!
Quite the popular choice all around! At least for those Harley owners that don't use the word "Jap" as a racial slur when describing our bikes!
I know this caliper or this family of malphurs rather is also used by other circles of bike enthusiasts for different models, but I think that our GS useage maybe the most widely used and documented, thanks to Dan the Salty Monk!



They actually recommend the SV650 type of Tokico caliper for the Still Kicking Moto '99 & earlier Harley upgrade, but they are nearly the same thing, but use 2 pistons of the same larger size, rather than having the trailing pistons being a slightly smaller diameter (I believe doing this leads to less chatter and squeal due to toe-in tendencies, but wear more unevenly), and also the mounting brackets are not universal left and right on this other style, so both the caliper and the mounting bracket are side specific. The calipers we use on the GS upgrade mount exactly the same, and the calipers are handed left and right, but the mounting brackets can be taken off the calipers and are identical when flipped around to the other side.

https://www.hotbikeweb.com/first-gen-39mm-dual-disc-upgrade#page-20

I'm pretty certain that we could utilize these SV650 and EX650 (600?) calipers as well, they should bolt up the same as far as I can tell. I have an ADP version that looks just like them from a later GS500 after they stopped using the Tokico caliper on the GS500. The only difference is the hydraulic leverage ratio. Using a master cylinder with a slightly larger bore by 1 mm or so might benefit? Or just get the matched master cylinder off of those bikes.