74 cb125 front brake/wheel

[rupaulpierce]

cl350 wheelset just popped up on craigslist. i've seen all the threads and heard about how notoriously bad the cb125 front mechanical disc is. Should I pick up the cl350 front drum for future use? Or is finding a compatible hydraulic caliper and making a bracket the better route?

 

[born2expire]

when i snagged my 74' cb125 i heard and thought the same thing after taking it apart and figuring out how it worked. i fumble fucked with it for a while and got it moving again. eventually i did some digging and found this bike salvage yard. i drove like an hour and searched the yard for like an hour and found what felt like to me to be the last remaining 125 front disc setup ever. i bought it whole for 40$ and got it functioning and working. it's a solid setup just a pain in the ass and not as reliable as hydraulic but nostalgically it's whats supposed to be on the bike and to me makes it. traditionally i keep most of my bikes stock minus a few tid bits. When talking to the owner of the shop he said back in the day they would cut these brake setups off vintage hondas and use them on drag cars as e-brakes and also would put them on go kart engines. the only concern i have is parts availability for the brake pads. i ordered a set off ebay of what looked and said were 125 brake pads but they were way too big and did not fit and i've yet to find another set, so i guess i'll have to think about that once these wear out but if you do this front end swap please start a thread with some pics and stuff because if i cant get new pads this might be an option for me. Also there have been people to swap over a CB200, CB175, and CB100 front end ive seen online. there is a thread on here somewhere of fork sizes so you can see what bikes will fit the setup without any modifications to the bike. hope this helps