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Load of parts from Bike Bandit came in today, extra-fun stuff from Dime City coming in next week. Getting my tail hoop made and welded on tonight, things are moving right along
My front brake master cylinder is totally roached, and the clutch lever has taken a battering too so I'm looking replace both assemblies. I hoping not to spend too much on replacements - I've found some on Dime City (their universal master cylinder was around $110) but was wondering if anyone had any other recommendations for less $$ but still good for the job in hand?
not sure on your bike but I went with a good used CBR600 master from the mid 90's on my GL, cost me like 25 usd or so and was better than the Chinese universal I had on it before.
$50 shipped for the pair. Cheap as chips - but never having bought these things before I'm not sure if there are pitfalls to look out for. Also, my clutch is not hydraulic - pretty sure the hydraulic clutch lever won't work on my bike - would I be better off looking for a regular clutch lever, non hydraulic?
Nah you need a standard cable actuated lever for your clutch. You should be able to find them for $10 on ebay. You can also just buy a new lever to replace yours.
As for the master, is there any reason you can't just rebuild the one you have? OEM honda parts are much better quality than China stuff, and you can usually find a full rebuild kit with a new piston and seals for around $30. If you're going to replace it do some research and find a perch with a separate reservoir (like on a modern sportbike) that way you'll have maximum flexibility when positioning your bars. Or even one of these, super slick Brembo master...
If the angle of your bars changes and the master has a slope to one side or back to front etc and you mount the master on the new bars the angle could be out and cause no fluid to go into the piston when you pull the lever. Hard to describe without pictures. remote res can be mounted level no matter what bar angle you go with.
That makes sense. I'm going with Renthal Ultra Low bars, think I should hold off ordering the levers until I get the bars and mock them up? I don't think the angle is going to change a crazy amount but the bars will of course be lower.
You will likely only run into a fitment issue if you're running clipons. A lot of the original master cylinders on the old street bikes were made for those mini-ape handlebars they came factory with. The master outlet on the 360 brakes hit the knuckle of the clip-ons so I couldn't adjust the lever to get a comfortable/safe position.
But it would be a good idea to test for fitment when you get the bars.
your clutch lever shouldn't matter, the mast would be the only one you'd need to worry about. Renthals would be pretty level I would think so a standard master would be fine. My GL was the opposite it had stupid mini apes so the master sloped and if I tried to use it on the lower straight bars I put on the fluid would have not made it to the piston even if I filled it all the way up.
Nice one chaps, appreciate the help. Good to know I should be ok with the master cylinder on the Renthals, now just need to find myself a decent set. I'm going to be re-working the levers so they don't have to look too spiffy, just want to make sure I'm not doing myself a huge disservice/putting my brakes in jeopardy by ordering poor quality assemblies.
I accidentally ordered two oil filters from Bike Bandit - I have no idea how universal they are but if anyone needs one or could use one let me know and I'll get it in the mail. On the house, it's all good.
If I were you, I wouldn't rebuild the MC but instead upgrade. A newer one will improve braking. I'm not sure what is recommended for your bike but maybe the one from the 600 previously mentioned would work. It is a simple upgrade to improve braking on these older bikes with crappy brakes.
not sure on your bike but I went with a good used CBR600 master from the mid 90's on my GL, cost me like 25 usd or so and was better than the Chinese universal I had on it before.
I found a guy on kijiji who sold me the front brake master and clutchave levers from a 00-03 GSXR for $50. Met me on my lunch break. GSXR has cable clutch, so readyou to bolt on. Brake fluid reservoir is remote, so you can angle it as required.
As far as your bars go, I just installed a set of fat bars off my bud's Aprillia SXV450. They're 1 1/8" at the clamps and 7/8" at the ends. I noticed that, because of the bar's taper, it was a pretty tight squeeze fitting the controls all back in there. They made kill switches BIG in 1981!
Here's a pic of it:
Everything was big in the 80's - hair, tennis rackets and kill switches. Good to know these levers are somewhat interchangeable, thanks man.
Last night a mate and I worked on my seat hoop, he's got one of those pipe bender rigs and man I want one -
He only had a 6" radial die so we had to bend the pipe twice. This gave the hoop a cool, flattened profile rather than completely circular. Kinda winged it, but I totally dig it. Chamfered(?) up the edges of the hoop and frame -
then made up some slugs -
here's how it looks -
Still needs welding (hopefully tomorrow) but for my first hoop I'm stoked. Thought I wanted the perfect circular hoop but think this squarer hoop is going to work great with the squarer tank that my bike has. Damn that pipe bending tool is something - not having the right size die turned out well. Bike's starting to look like something now...
Looks good man. Do yourself a favor before you weld it and loosely bolt up the swinger and rear wheel and one shock, then ratchet the swinger toward the frameuntil the shock bottoms out. Will show you full travel of rear wheel to make sure that it won't rub on the hoop.
Excellent advice. Thing is I don't have the shocks yet that I'll be using. I'm going for a longer shock (around 14"+) - when I mocked it up with the 2x4's the clearance looked pretty good. Totally hear what you're saying though, and I'm reminded now of all the threads I've read of folk running into clearance issues. Watch this space
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