CB450 Front brake caliper upgrade

[Rocan]

Anyone have any idea if there is a caliper upgrade for the 450? I dont see why i cant just buy a nice new brembo caliper (like in the link below) along with some brand new levers cables etc and just have a shop make me a mounting bracket....


any ideas?

http://www.guzzino.com/brembobrakes.html

 

[Rocan]

anyone?!

 

[Swagger]

The problem lies in the swinging mount that bike came with, there's a reason they gave it up too.

Here's what I've seen done (though on mine I swapped the forks and went a different direction):
1) Swap to a 320mm disc off a sportbike with the same bolt pattern at the hub. Conversely you can also redrill.....
2) Swap your forks left to right in the triples and rotate so that the tabs at to bottom and middle(for the arm spring whatsit) are facing the rear. You can now use those to mount an aluminum bracket to any number of current sportbike callipers. I love love LOVE the blue dots on the R1. As well...there's a boat load of pad options.
3) Get used to MUCH better brakes.

That stock disc is heavy with a capital HEAVY with all the associated gyroscopic effect. The lighter/larger diameter discs are better in just about every conceivable way. Add to that, you should be able to get a disc/carrier, good caliper and master cylinder from a wrecking yard for less than that old school brembo...which won't be much better than what you've got...never mind finding pads.

Add a burly fork brace, rebuild the forks in general and add cartridge emulators and you'll be a happy camper.

 

[Rocan]

The problem lies in the swinging mount that bike came with, there's a reason they gave it up too.

Here's what I've seen done (though on mine I swapped the forks and went a different direction):
1) Swap to a 320mm disc off a sportbike with the same bolt pattern at the hub. Conversely you can also redrill.....
2) Swap your forks left to right in the triples and rotate so that the tabs at to bottom and middle(for the arm spring whatsit) are facing the rear. You can now use those to mount an aluminum bracket to any number of current sportbike callipers. I love love LOVE the blue dots on the R1. As well...there's a boat load of pad options.
3) Get used to MUCH better brakes.

That stock disc is heavy with a capital HEAVY with all the associated gyroscopic effect. The lighter/larger diameter discs are better in just about every conceivable way. Add to that, you should be able to get a disc/carrier, good caliper and master cylinder from a wrecking yard for less than that old school brembo...which won't be much better than what you've got...never mind finding pads.

Add a burly fork brace, rebuild the forks in general and add cartridge emulators and you'll be a happy camper.

Fucking amazing idea...

never even thought about rotating the forks around.

So i guess it wont be that hard to make a bracket.

Ill have to head over to the junk yard sometime.

Also a question- On my CB450 forks that i bought, when i took off the bolts at the top, i didnt see any rod attached to them. There was only the spring inside. Is there supposed to be some rod or what? and ive heard about putting modern cartridges in the classic forks- how hard is it to do?

 

[Swagger]

http://www.cb450stuff.com/forkoil/K5_Fork_diagram.jpg
http://images.cmsnl.com/img/partslists/front-fork-cb450sc-nighthawk-450-83-us_bighu0187f9c08_2b58.gif

there's a couple different variations, your best bet is to get a manual specific to your bike and work thru that.
My cb500t forks were like yours though...

I've heard of guys doing a cartidge conversion but haven't seen it with my own eyes so I can't answer. My issue would be the weight, since these are essentially 40 year old forks based on 80 year old technology....they are chubby by modern standards.

If you're headed to a wrecker anyway, look into mid 90's BMW K95 forks. They're 40mm Showas and they weigh about 2/3s what the stock front end does. I got mine with triples and the oem fork brace. They are so much better than the original, it's almost hard to even compare. This fork was also on GSXR and at least one model FZR of the same era. They're very fine forks with tons of aftermarket. As well, they are far more rigid than the honda pogos. I made shims for the axle mounts since the BMW axle is larger in diameter, but they'll work well. From there it'll be the same progression to make brackets to suit a 320mm disc (or two)

 

[Rocan]

http://www.cb450stuff.com/forkoil/K5_Fork_diagram.jpg
http://images.cmsnl.com/img/partslists/front-fork-cb450sc-nighthawk-450-83-us_bighu0187f9c08_2b58.gif

there's a couple different variations, your best bet is to get a manual specific to your bike and work thru that.
My cb500t forks were like yours though...

I've heard of guys doing a cartidge conversion but haven't seen it with my own eyes so I can't answer. My issue would be the weight, since these are essentially 40 year old forks based on 80 year old technology....they are chubby by modern standards.

If you're headed to a wrecker anyway, look into mid 90's BMW K95 forks. They're 40mm Showas and they weigh about 2/3s what the stock front end does. I got mine with triples and the oem fork brace. They are so much better than the original, it's almost hard to even compare. This fork was also on GSXR and at least one model FZR of the same era. They're very fine forks with tons of aftermarket. As well, they are far more rigid than the honda pogos. I made shims for the axle mounts since the BMW axle is larger in diameter, but they'll work well. From there it'll be the same progression to make brackets to suit a 320mm disc (or two)

are the triples a bolt on application? what did you use for shims for the wheel?

 

[Swagger]

are the triples a bolt on application? what did you use for shims for the wheel?

No they aren't a bolt on, you'd need to swap the honda stem into the BMW triples.
Shims; 7075 aluminum, turned on a lathe.