Rear Brake

[Adrian]

Hi there once again Brains Trust.
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Having figured out the front brake problem now I can turn my attention to the rear brake.
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Frankly it's very poor. Little or no braking power. So what can I do about it.
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It has new (1000 kilometer old) shoes & definitely no oil or grease on them or the drum.
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Hoping to hear something soon.
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Thanks......

[wilcom]

"Frankly it's very poor. Little or no braking power."

Adrian, you have already figured the R65 rear brake. I've never had Beemer with a back brake that was worth a darn and maybe that's a blessing. I had a Kawasaki with an excellent back brake and it kept getting me in trouble.

Could be someone here has been able to increase the stopping power and will chime in.

[georgesgiralt]

Hello,
My rear wheel had it's drum way oversize. So I found a second hand wheel with a very good drum. (The donor bike had a very few miles on the clock). The drum was perfect and I put "new" shoes on the brake (actually, a local truck brake shop refurbished them). The rear brake is fine.
Of course it is not a fantastic thing, but IMHO in the spec BMW put from the factory.
Those rear brake where meant to slow you down and not seize the wheel.
So you won't be able to make flats on your rear wheel tire .....
Check the inside diameter of the drum and its profile. (is it a cylinder or what ? ) then check the shoes and maybe change them ....
Have a nice ride !

[Bob_Roller]

I've replaced the rear OEM brake shoes with EBC parts and saw little if any improvement in braking .
I scuffed up the surface of the drum with some fine sand paper saw a slight improvement there .
May want to try adjusting the rear brake rod to see if you can gain anything there, make sure to check the brake light afterwards .
I didn't do this and the brake light was on all the time .

[dogshome]

My mate has the 1/2 width brake from a police version. He 'says' it will lock up the rear wheel no bother and he uses it more than the front. I reckon it's an age thing, I'm still a whippersnapper and have found the limitations of the rear brake within weeks after a 20-year layoff and the front ones almost as soon as the 860 kit went on! Driving Miss Daisy....

The bevel gear is being swapped at the weekend, so I will investigate! SLS drums can be OK, but they have to be in tip-top dimensional condition as stated above. My XT 500 had to have its puny SLS front drum replaced with a TLS from a brit bike bent wheel I found in the hedge. That was after a rebore, head work, bigger carb and flat track cam went in 

[Whippersnapper = person less than 70!]