1982 R65 LS front brakes - final chapter

[Justin B.]

I finally got around to getting the banjo-bolt to hook up the front brake line to my recently scrounged and rebuilt 12 mm master cylinder.  After rodding out clogged brake lines, installing my rebuilt calipers, and bleeding everything all appears to work fine.  There is more travel with the 12 mm MC but it does seem to give a more progressive feel, will know more if I ever get around to licensing this thing and actually riding it.  

My home-made stainless steel caliper pistons appear to work, well, at least they don't freeze up and/or leak!  I'll have to measure and turn some caliper bushings/spacers per a thread a while back as just bolting them up shows they are off-centered on the rotor by a couple mm.

[thrang]

Any chance of a piccy of the garage ornament's Justin?

[Justin B.]

This is what I refer to as the "garage ornament", it's had about 50 miles put on it in the past 2 years...

Oh, and that's the Moto-Bins R65 seat cover.

[nhmaf]

Gee, you installed a 12mm m/c, Justin ?   I had rebuilt mine when I first got my 82 LS home, but
the bore was definitely a bit pitted.   I thought it would work OK, but it is starting to get sticky again,
so I'm ordering a new one shortly - pricey, but I have a thing about brakes working as perfectly as
possible.    The original m/c on my bike is a 15mm unit - it provided plenty of stopping power and I think that
I'm going to stick with a 15mm.

[Justin B.]

After having the brake lever tie-wrapped down all day I now have a rock-hard lever (with no apparent leaking) and I can just barely squeeze it all the way to the bar so I have no doubt that being able to lock up the front brake will not be out of the question since the 12mm MC has greater mechanical advantage than the 16mm.  If I would have been able to squeze it to the bar with little effort then I would have doubts.  Damn, guess I'm going to have to swap a plate onto it and take it around the block and hope I don't get busted.  Last car I tried it with cost me over $200 in fines, right in front of the house.  I sometimes hate cops...

[Justin B.]

The MC was missing when I bought the bike and after watching e-Bay for 6 months this was all I could get that didn't sell for waaay too much.  The bore wasn't perfect in this one either but after "honing" it with 800 grit on a dowel it cleaned up pretty good.  If I have any problems I'll figure out how to chuck it in the lathe or mill and bore it out and maybe re-sleeve it in brass to a larger size.

[thrang]

How did you find the Motobins seat cover to fit? I could never get mine to quite sit right?

[nhmaf]

Yes, the 12mm cylinder will give you more hydraulic advantage - I wasn't sure if it would pump
enough oil to really squeeze the brake rotors hard before the lever bottomed out, but you seem to
have taken care of that.   I found that switching to stainless steel brake lines really firmed up
the front brakes and reduced the necessary lever travel, and I seldom need more than 1 or 2 fingers' pressure to really haul things down.
With the 15mm m/c and SS lines, I cannot squeeze the brake lever more than about half-way to the grip, so the action is alot less  "progressive" from what a smaller piston would do.  

Thrang - I was about to order a new seat cover from motobins for my R65LS - are you not happy with the yours ?

[Justin B.]

thrang, I think the cover was designed for the shape of the '79-'80 seats so I had to stretch it pretty tight.  Maybe this contributed to the premature failure of the spot of embossed fake stitching.  Other than that, you can see by the photo that once on it doesn't look too bad...

nhmaf, probably stainless lines would remove some of the "progressive" feel from the 12mm/dual brake setup as well.  The date codes on the rubber lines are from 1984 so this being an '82 hints that they have been replaced?  Doesn't make much sense if that's so, maybe I'm reading the line incorrectly...

[Semper Gumby]

Hey Justin,

If the 12mm doesn't work out, why not put you metal working experience to work and drill it out to 15mm and put in ththe larger piston?  Should not be too hard and would save you a few bucks.

Bill

[Justin B.]

I was mulling that over except with boring it and using a stainless or brass "sleeve".  It would really suck to have thrown away $50 on the rebuild kit, though...  I would likely sell the MC and continue the search for a 15 or 16.

[MrRiden]

nhmaf,
oh please order a cover from motobins mine is back ordered and they say they are waiting for a few orders to come in before making a run.
Justin,
When you tiewrap the lever do you pull it back to its limit or have it held somewhere in the middle of it's travel?
rich

[nhmaf]

MRRiden - I placed an order with motobins for the seat cover - they didn't tell me that it
was on back order though - yet....    (Fingers crossed)

[MrRiden]

nhmaf,
  you're the man!

[Jon_P]

zip tie it so it touches the handle bar. i then tap the brake line with my finger to help the air start to move up.

 i noticed that when switching over to stainless line that i really firmed up the lever also. i thought i just didnt remember what the lever was like.