Everyone on here spends an incredible amount of time talking about horsepower and shit but I rarely see anything written up about stopping! What the fuck happens when you try to come out of warp speed with the pissy standard harley brakes?
So this leads to my question, does anyone know someone that makes a good 3 pot front brake calipers for HD Softails. I see some on ebay but since my life is on the line I would like some feedback of things people have tried, even some super grippy pads that may help in the standard set-up.
Thanks lads.
A good sticky front tyre and a prayer often as not. The real secret is to not outride your bike! I have high HP and go bloody fast, but always know my braking limitations and ride to that. I have found a 3 pot front Nissin unit that may actually fit my wire spoked FXR which I will try to fir this weekend; then I'll have some stopping power. If it works I'll post up a construction thread about it.
exactly as quoted by most members know your bike thats essentiall ,in all areas accelleration stopping ah well yrs of riding is probably the most essantall aspect here ,so no matter what brakes are on bike in the end it's all in the rider's hands and foot SHINGLES
ah ha looked at your bike very nice machine ,the biggest prob i see is 1 front rotor which will never give u wat u want that grip u can feel with fingers when useing front brake ,if poss look at some interchangeable wheel with twin rotors that would be my path on giving that feeling that something is actually happening when lever applied ,or buy used forks and wheel with twin rotors ,as your forkleg may not have mounting for caliper there is plenty of those parts around you just have to look and research certain things forkleg diameters is first thing ,a lot of harley parts are interchangeable you just have to measure things ,but i would certainly look at this if it were me u can buy new pads first lyndall brand good but 2 get what i'd call stopping power is twin front as i have twin front on fatbob and they work will lock tyre if demanded have done so just to test limits also rears ,i rekon theres plenty of front ends go straight on your ride u will have to do brake lines but thats available online every thing is available it's up 2 you SHINGLES
Roadking lowers or twin disc 41 mm forks fit a Softail which will give you twin disc's unless you can just buy a single right slider from harley (plenty of near new cheap ones around from people who put on chrome ones). Just need to find a wheel that is twin disc and fits as well with a few different spacers, bigger master cylinder, twin disc brake lines and right hand caliper. Not used the Lyndall pads myself yet (soon), but someone who swapped touring or Vrod brembo's onto his bike said that the standard harley twin calipers with Lyndall pads were better. You can leave the single disc master cylinder on there, it just means the lever comes back further and takes less pressure to lock up the front end (edit, the bolt fastening the brake line to the master cylinder is bigger on the single caliper one, think its 12 mm and 10 mm on the twin cylinder master cylinder and line if using standard Harley lines). Ditch the skinny 21 front wheel and fit Intiminators without lowering the springs. The 19 and 16 front wheels have the same rolling diameter which is a bit less than the 21. Do a search on bike tyre diameters on google and there are a few sites that will give the tyre diameters with the tyre specs entered in. The intiminators are great, just do a search even if its only on this site. With them fitted, without reducing the spring height and the slightly smaller diameter front wheel, the front end keeps about the same height as before. Brake dive and scrapping are much less and handling is much better especially on rough roads. A Softail will handle and brake so much better you will think father christmas has given you a new bike. Will need a different mudguard than the skinny one if you have a 21 front wheel as its too high and narrow for the wider tyres on the smaller rims. More work and money than just swapping the pads but well worth it.
Lots of good stuff in there Captain. Thanks for the advice.
Have a read of what he asked at the start. I tried to offer an affordable alternative to the 300 + kg being stopped by a basic single disc set up. A CBR is half the weight and has twice the braking capability. A Harley single front disc of lower quality is trying to do the equivalent of 4 times the amount of work to stop his bike in the same distance which will never happen, unless he hits the car or whatever first. The standard Harley forks do not seem to have progressed far, if at all since 1950, which I think is the case. There is a good, simple, easy and relatively cheap way to fit that and it makes the bike much more fun to ride at the same time. Easy to do if the fork slider is off to swap to twin disc. Personally I´d rather have the option of being able to stop in time to save my hide and be able to control the stop. If your happy with the standard set up that´s fine too, just as long as you don't kid yourself about how good it is. (Edit, still can't figure out how knowledge is going to stop a bike).
