Brake calipers

My regular bike mechanic has been working on all sorts of bikes for
almost 50 years (he's 65 now) and he's in a country town in a country
motorbike shop.

He started working on them post WWII but was trained by a guy who had a
motorbike shop in Bendigo pre WWII.

Better make that 75 years plus... [1]


G-S

[1] Hey johno, when did you and Fred Flintstone buy your first Harley
Rocker?

 

There were most certainly formal qualifications for mechanics that far
back, although many of them were trained 'in house' as it were not all were.

There were 'technical colleges' doing that sort of training well prior
to 1960.


G-S

 

I'm going back fifty years and now you tell me I did it wrong by taking my
trusty steed to a motorcycle mechanic - nice type of friend you are !

and you also learned that the motorcycle manufacturers used more parts than
they really needed - and I still have a couple of small buckets of
superfluous bits and pieces

the only steaks I saw back in them there daze came from the emu I met near
Cobargo - but that's another story

or you can save up a lot of spare parts while endeavouring to discover why
your bike won't work or run

OI !!! I resemble that remark ...


--
--
a friendly growl and a hug from a former slave of a CX 500

_--| \ __ __ __ _ __
/ \ /__/ / /__/ /__ /_\ /__/
\.-- *_/ /__/ _/ /__/ /__ / \ / \
v

by the pool at 34 58' 45.27" S 138 36' 47.89" E elev 281 ft


barry j taylor < >

************************************************
"Never be boastful, someone
may pass who knew you as a
child" karma bear
************************************************

 

I'll bet that made it hard to put your foot in your mouth

just saying

nothing personal

bjt

 

Not from him, but of him.

He is, apparently, in the wilds of Broken Hill, and he has become a
Daddy, a few months ago.

regards,
CrazyCam

 

Lars Chance wrote:

<waves>

Yup! Turbo Kwaka, picked it up from Parrys after a one-into-one after
market muffler had been fitted, as it turns out, badly.

I picked up the bike, in pissing it down rain, and headed off towards
Beresfield, from Thornleigh.

Everything felt fine, in the heavy rain, but, when I got past Freeman's
Water hole turn off, the rain eased off, and the bike started getting
slower and slower.

Now, at that point, they were still working on the Freeway there, and I
was on my way to work.

I had to use more and more throttle, and boost, to get the bloody thing
to go at all!

So I stopped to have a look......... rear disc was glowing red hot!

Hmmm, can't afford not to get to work, so press on regardless, until the
caliper's seals gave up due to the heat, dumped all the fluid onto the
disc, which immediately set up a smoke screen, and suddenly the bike was
going REALLY fast!

The fools had fitted the new muffler, with it interfering with the rear
brake pedal, causing it to be slightly on. Didn't matter in cooling
and lubricating rain, but in the dry......

Also, on the Z50, on Victoria Road, when I had worked up the engine a
bit, but the brakes were still standard coffee cup sized drums, I found
that one stop for a traffic light turning red was doable, but, if, in
the next couple of minutes, you got a second light going red, just after
you've worked up to a frenzy of 60 kph....... forget it, you ain't going
to stop. (Brought back memories of Cooper S brakes on a race circuit!)

regards,
CrazyCam

 

Yes. We bought our first motorcycle (RD200) from them in 1972, 37 years
ago, and they looked like they'd been in business for yonks.

 

Old wives tails can be fun at any speed - just depends on the mood of
the operator

 

XF Falcon brakes going down a mountain!!

My fun time with brakes on a bike was having the rear brake sticking so
that I tried to avoid using it - for a few weeks until the roundtuit
arrived.

When I had to, or forgot not to, use it it would drag just enough to
heat up...and grab more & more.

So whenever I used the back brake I had to get off the bike and give the
caliper a bit of a kicking to release it.

 

I think it was actually Queensland Raceway but yes, fuggin' scary!!

Last I heard he was living up the road from you at Broken Hill.

 

In aus.motorcycles on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 10:54:21 GMT

I suppose it depends what you class as brake failure.


Big had that episode with Fraser's forgetting to do up the rear
caliper.

I've seen a Z250 with such abused and neglected brakes that the cams
froze solid and the drum didn't work.

I've had a bike wheelbearing collapse and the disks then knocked the
pads open so a handful of brake led to not much happening.

THe drums on the SR 250 were pretty well incapable of stopping even
its insignificant weight at the paltry speeds it was capable of but I
think that was broken as designed.

Zebee

 

Not training for motorcycles Geoff

Cars and trucks only
and of coarse the bus.

 

Yes but there isn't training for motorcycles even now.

There is a light engine stream which covers motor mowers, boat engines
and motorcycles.

And there isn't a bus stream even now, just a heavy stream (although I'm
told they've changed the name now).


G-S

 

I remember lashing around Lakeside in the chair years ago ( RZ700)
grabbing the front lever off the straight and the line bursting at full
tilt
needless to say we had a journey into the grass and stained out undies
Another time on the waterbottle heading east over the Mater Hospital
bypass and wanting to brake for the right onto the freeway , apply
pleasure hit big oil patch and slide into gutter with glowing brakes and
no traction >fall down >owwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
Had a disk explode once on he pacific highway south or the tambourine
turn off at full blast on a honda 4
still after 40 years these things happen

 

Go faster

 

Sure


G-S

 

Now you're going into an incredulous area Cam. I believed all you said
right up to you suggesting that some Minis were actually fitted with
some form of retardation device.

Theo

 

Even young wives tails can be attractive at any speed.

Theo

 

Not talking about today Nev, I am talking about 30 - 40 years ago
and there was ****-all motorcycle trade teaching, only cars and trucks

 

A cryptic response but you obviously know what you are on about. Or on