Brakes

Martyn Goodwin

Martyn Goodwin

Well Known and Active Forum User
Non-VOC Member
davidd said:
The new shoes certainly must help the stock brakes considerably. The question I would pose would be that if you list all of the parts in the stock brake system that are inadequately stiff or high friction you would get a long list. If it is a list of twenty items, for example, where do brake shoes come on that list? If the new, improved shoes are high up or at the top of the list, they may not be as expensive as you thought. Unfortunately, there is little information on the Vincent brake system that would allow this type of analysis, so we just guess and try out different things.

I think it was Neville Higgins that noted that all these mods seem to work for the first 50 miles and then the linings equalize and you are left with the same crappy brakes (that is a very loose paraphrasing). I would guess that linings, shoes and cables would be the first three on the triage list for stock brakes, but I am not certain.

Fortunately, Vincent Speet has done a great service to owners who are not tied to stock by building good brakes that cure many of the problems on the list. I am also glad that the 8" brakes are available for those of us who need to have a 2LS brake. These solutions are expensive, but seem to offer genuine improvements.

As a rule, I do not use the rear brake. This is mostly because the rear brakes have never seemed to work well for me and I was taught to use the front brake. I think Greg is correct that the rear brakes should be used as a habit. I wanted to stick with stock brakes on the rear of the racer for simplicity reasons and I saw it as a bit of a challenge to get it working well. I noted that rear bake shoes are activated in the opposite direction as the fronts, which favors the trailing shoe instead of the leading shoe. I will install a cast aluminum plate, reverse the brake arm, use good linings and a compressionless cable. I hope it proves reliable!

David
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New Shoe???? What is this? Will it fit within a 'standard' brake? What do they cost? Who sells them?

Just wondering........

Martyn
 
Bill Thomas

Bill Thomas

Well Known and Active Forum User
VOC Member
ernie said:
Police Motorcycling handbook recommends using both front and rear brakes.

What about making the holes on the shoes 1mm bigger?
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That's what I do now, The Late Roger haylett, A very clever bloke. Told us elongate the holes a bit !!, It seems to work well, My Comet is even better now with longer arms, I welded them to the length of rear ones. Cheers Bill.
 
john998

john998

Well Known and Active Forum User
VOC Member
That is a little scary, as I have 2 bikes. Am still making up the floating pivots but suspect they won't get used. No one has come forward to say that they have used the mod successfully, and I am not keen on cutting up original plates, a pity as it does improve the brakes. Will need to think about elongating the holes in the shoes as Bill suggest. John
 
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