Calipers in front of or behind fork legs

[ChrisOnABike]

I was wondering if it is safe to turn the fork legs around to put the disk calipers behind the fork legs so they are pushing on the leg instead of pulling on two little tabs?

Is this a doable mod?  Has it been done before? 

Thanks for any thoughts/help.

Chris

[mick]

Hi Chris yes it has been done before but I don't know it benefits or disadvantages? cheers Mick

[K2-K6]

I ran a 750K2 like this with twin discs for a number of years with no problems at all.

It was originally done to supposedly reduce the tendency for the bike to lift up if you braked while lent over in a corner as I understood at the time. I really don't know if I could feel any difference to front mounted but it certainly didn't feel any worse or cause any issues.

[ChrisOnABike]

Thanks guys, I appreciate the responses.  I just think it would be safer for the calipers to push on the fork leg itself instead of pulling on the bolt tabs during braking.  I'm sure it's a million to one shot that the tabs would ever break, but why take the chance.  And, aesthetically, it looks nicer with the calipers on the back side of the fork leg.

[K2-K6]

Welcome to the forum as well Chris.

A couple of other thoughts as well, the front mudguard is particular to the caliper mounts and has to be reversed also, the spindle clamps will also run backwards to match the fork legs as the tightening sequence will of course be reversed from normal.

I know what you mean with castings run in compressive direction being theoretically less risk than in tension but have never seen one fail in normal use. Also along the same thought line, runing a twin disc setup should reduce the load on caliper torque by approaching 50% for any given braking effect so this should make by far the biggest difference to braking component load  if that is what you are running.

[ChrisOnABike]

I'm just getting into this project, picked up the bike last week.  I found and ordered a set of forks from a '78 GL-1000 so I'll be working on getting that set up for the braking system.  I'm planning about two years for this project, no rush on it, just need something I can fiddle with when I need to get away from daily stuff.  I'll try to get some pics up as I go.

Right now I can say that the plan is to head towards this direction:
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EOuN_cXFbt4/Ud6qrdaeRRI/AAAAAAAAvKs/jb9cIlESsIY/s1600/honda+cb+750+fab+four+by+oberdan+bezzi.jpg

with a lot of side-tracked directions thanks to google images and all who have done this before me.

[Bryanj]

No real world problem although they must have been OK originaly or Honda would not have done it that way!

On an old 500 four before the 550 came in I had one caliper in front and one behind

[ChrisOnABike]

I'll bet you're right, they would be fine because I'm sure Honda knew what they were doing.    Still… aesthetics and a little extra strength never hurt (much).