Rear Drum To Disk Swap?

[crash-harris]

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?

[SqDancerLynn1]

Without looking at the frame, probably need to fab Mcyl mount and a calaper torque arm mount. so it is fairly easy swap

[Hammered]

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.

[Billy Ricks]

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.

[TheCafeKid]

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?

[posplayr]

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?

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-GSX-R-1000-rear-brake-caliper-holder-pad-2006-06_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQhashZitem3ca79aa1a4QQitemZ260509966756QQptZMotorcyclesQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories

[cyclefvr2]

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

[Hammered]

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.

[Fritzhund]

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

Love this site. Been reading a lot.

Fritzhund

[crash-harris]

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?