SOHC.co.uk Forums > CB350/400

New to CB400 four and new here! Front brake improvement?

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pastitpete:
I have an engineered right hand fork leg hung up in the shed which has been machined to house a right hand disk conversion to twin disk. can't convince myself that I want to go the the trouble of the extra engineering that would be involved. having said that I had a twin disc front end on my 400/4 back in the 80's and I could do stoppies on that. also had both disks cross drilled which helped.
pastitpete

Mikep328:
In doing some research for fueling on my 400 (different thread), I found an original road test from Cycle World of a 1977 CB400 four.

The 1977 Cycle World test showed the bike stopped from 60MPH in 135 feet.  Now that's not fabulous by current standards but it isn't bad.  Interestingly, that is the same stopping distance that Cycle World reported for a 2022 Honda CB1000R.   

Frankly, I think the "common knowledge" that these bikes "always" had poor brakes may be internet fiction.  Apparently, they had good brakes when they were new...well, as good as a 2022 Honda CB1000R anyway!  :)

Laverda Dave:
Prior to buying my first 400/4 I owned a 250 Matchless single with a drum front brake. Braking was scary on the matchbox to say the least, it really was ‘hit & (or) miss’. The disc brake on the 400/4 was a revelation, not in the ‘stoppie’ league but still really good........until it rained and then it was another story! The rain deflector fitted by Honda over the leading edge of the disc itself did nothing to help either and it was only following the development of EBC sintered pads that wet weather braking became acceptable on early disc braked motorcycles. Compared to a bog standard OEM drum brakes (forgetting the fancy Fontana and Robinson racing drum brakes) disc brakes were a league ahead in the 70’s.

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