Topic: Brake pads...that old chestnut.

[Vin750]

Hey Terry are you in our Australian SOHC Facebook group?


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[Terry in Australia]

Hey Terry are you in our Australian SOHC Facebook group?


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No idea mate, can you send me a link? I'm just Terry Prendergast on Facebook. Cheers, Terry.

[scottly]

You're dead right that the stock calipers are the biggest culprit, but due to Honda's ancient design, they're also the hardest component in the brake "train" to replace,

Hey Terry, I've wised up and slipped some F2/3 forks into my K triples, which have a more friendly caliper mounting system, allowing more options in caliper selection.
I've fitted a 30mm twin piston Honda caliper with a 320mm Ducati rotor and K7 14mm MC, and I'm happy to report that it works VERY well!
I'd wager that the Honda 30mm caliper would trump a 2 piston Brembo, and the 32mm version would be close to a 4 piston Brembo, without the spoke clearance issue. 

[Terry in Australia]

That looks great Scott. I was lucky enough to score a used PM 4 piston caliper cheap on Ebay last year, so I made an adapter plate to fit it on my Harley Sportster, and I can't get over how aggressive it is with the standard MC and the braided line that was on the bike when I bought it, it will happily do a stoppie from just about any speed, which is amazing on one piddly 290mm OEM disc!

Sporty PM Caliper 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr 

It is a really tight fit betwixt caliper and spokes though, like the CB750's the main problem with installing decent 4 piston or twin opposed piston calipers is the clearance between the spokes and the caliper, I'm thinking that if we could find some slightly wider period triple clamps for 35mm fork tubes and with similar offset from bikes with Brembo's fitted as standard (1970's Moto Guzzis, for instance) and as you've done, fit F2/3 forks, we could put some decent brakes on our bikes. Cheers, Terry.    

[Vin750]

Hey Terry are you in our Australian SOHC Facebook group?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

No idea mate, can you send me a link? I'm just Terry Prendergast on Facebook. Cheers, Terry.

Here is the link https://www.facebook.com/groups/cb750AU/

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks mate!

[spotty]

the one thing no-one seems to mention in these "which brakes are best" posts is its all dependent on the tyres you're using.
 a great super sticky tyre will partly compensate for #$%* brakes whereas a crap tyre will make the best brakes in the world absolutely pointless. all the "feel" in the world doesn't count if the tyre isn't gripping the road

on a personal note, I have to agree with terry on the stock CB m/c is rubbish, also got to say the calipers were sh!t as well, anything that is designed to wear the pads out diagonally is a bad design in the first place.
 
i'm lucky to have found a good set of CB900 forks so I can use a real caliper (Braking Supermotard model 4 piston) and i'm hoping to use a Magura Racing M/C (if I can rebuild its seized little arse) and I anticipate it will work and feel far superior to anything Soichiro slapped on in the first place.

on my last CB I changed to a CX650 rear caliper on an ensmallened grooved disc and that was still better than stock.

as for best compound for road use I always use SBS HS compound (H for high friction S for sintered), I've used them on stock CB calipers and whilst they weren't going to be great they were better than any other compound/brands and I use them on the Vmax which has full hayabusa 6 pot calipers and M/C on R1 discs and it'll almost do stoppies (not quite but we are talking about 400kg combined weight here)

I just had a thought, Terry, did you ever buy a load of CB750 stuff from a particularly handsome chap in Northcote maybe 11 or 12 years ago? whole bike with spare engine, wheels, forks etc?  I have a vague memory of selling  the stuff to a largish gentleman who said he was in the army and lived somewhere in the outer northish area of melbourne or something to that effect. whoever it was had a white station wagon from memory, probably not you but its a small world

[1976cb750f836]

My 76 with 78 front end has had all 3 types of pads in search of brakes?
Mine felt like wood!
I bought a gs750 master off ebay 25$, 14mm.
They are great, stock was 17mm+
The stock brakes were CraP!

[Terry in Australia]

I just had a thought, Terry, did you ever buy a load of CB750 stuff from a particularly handsome chap in Northcote maybe 11 or 12 years ago? whole bike with spare engine, wheels, forks etc?  I have a vague memory of selling  the stuff to a largish gentleman who said he was in the army and lived somewhere in the outer northish area of melbourne or something to that effect. whoever it was had a white station wagon from memory, probably not you but its a small world

Hey Spotty, well that's interesting, I am huge, drove a white XE wagon for years, and am always buying (and occasionally selling) CB750 stuff! I bought a very rough looking (but sweet running) red K2 back in the late 90's from a bloke in the Northcote area with almost a complete bike in spares, he said it was the result of collecting CB750 stuff for 10 years? He also had an old BSA, from memory? Probably not the same transaction, but interesting similarities?

[spotty]

well what do you know, we have met in a former life. that was me. I thought that would be the end of my ÇB habit, I went on to GS850s for a while after that and then after we moved to rezza I got the Vmax, took the bsa with me and I've still got it, progress has been made (albeit very slowly)

all I had left after that sell off was a Cycle Gear chopper frame and some custom parts which I later sold to a mate who is going to build the chopper of his dreams
 
whatever happened to my CB's or are they still hiding in the Tardis of infinite capacity?

[Terry in Australia]

Ha ha, well I restored the red one for a customer and it won BOTM here, and some of the other parts are probably still in the tardis, or occupying space on my current K2 bitsa Spotty, I wish I still had that red K2 of yours, it had the sweetest engine and gearbox in just about any of the 20-odd CB750's I've owned! Cheers, Terry.

[spotty]

tis indeed a small world, glad to know my stuff went to good homes. when I eventually finish the trailbike we shall have to get together for a ride and a beer

[Terry in Australia]

Sounds good mate, I'll look forward to it!