1977 front brake... any good ?

[saxby]

the frount brake was seased when i got the bike  [was all in boxes mostley] but now have it working . 2 questions

1: is a single piston brake made back in 1977 any good? to toady's standards / should i be looking at  using a more modern twin piston system, and make a bracket out of alloy fit  the unit to  the forks . thinking about using maybe a gs500 st up or a ntv650

2: if i use what i have [it seams easier] how does the brake light switch work .. by manual doesn't say a lot about it . i dont have any leads or what looks like a switch coming out of the master cylinder.  i have no idea how it used to work back then ..
is its easier i could use a master cylinder off a newer bike . but would need some ideas on master cylinders  eg the  master cylinder of my ntv650 might be designed to push more brake fluid then the cb550 one as its set to move a twin piston type ./ might brake the seals maybe in the brake piston  ?

[SteveD CB500K0]

1. All the 70's brakes were crap compared to modern bikes - the upgrade of the day was to fit Lockheed calipers (as Rickman, Dresda etc did). Upgrading depends on what you want. Get the old caliper working properly and it's quite capable of squealing the front tyre - do you need more than that?
Be careful about fitting anything really modern and effective - remember you only have 70's spindly forks!

2. Brake light is operated by a pressure switch mounted on the bottom yolk. Brake line from the master cylinder goes from the bar to the switch and a second line goes from the switch to the caliper. Some people fitted single stainless braided line and missed out the switch all together. You don't need a front brake light to pass an MOT - as long as the back one works!

Any modern master cylinder that's designed for a single caliper should work. As long as you're happy to fab mounting plates etc and route new lines. (You'd also get a modern adjustable lever and intgral brake light switch)

Oh, welcome by the way!

[matthewmosse]

Hi, with a braided front brake line the front brake can lock up my front wheel with a sidecar fitted in the dry but in the wet its a whole different story, When it's really chucking it down it takes a while to get rid of the wet and actually start stopping, solution;-either put up with it and apply brakes 500 yards before a corner in the really wet weather or change the disks for some cast iron jobbies, I've not bothered but pfm are a uk company who do this for bmw's of the same era with the same stainlss steel brake disks and I can vouch for the effectiveness on them orrible things. Alternatively a cb400 superdream front end with more modern brakes fits streight in if you don't mind comstar alloys. cb650 rear wheel provides a matching rear. I'll update the group on another mad mod I'm up to when it's actually fitted, basically I'm fitting a rover mini set up into the rear hub to give hydrolic braking and a handbrake.......... remember I've got 3 wheels on the thing. Ps for the frequent 500/550 rear hub problem (cracking) use of the lathe and some time can sort it so don't bin them cracked hubs, I can re line em as can

[SteveD CB500K0]

Bryan Jones told me he knew someone down his way who could re-line carcked hubs.

Is that you?

[matthewmosse]

I don't think I'm the one he means as I don't know him but I can re line drums on the 500/550 though with my small lathe it takes a while as I use second hand linings off rover minis turned down on the lathe then stuck in the freezer and dropped into the hub after machineing the old lining out, biggest problem is the old lining snagging the lathe tool and chipping it.

[SteveD CB500K0]

Both my 500s are fine at the moment (one of them has a XS400 rear wheel though...)

But all of my previous bikes exhibited this problem.