R1 brake conversion confusion. Guide me wise ones

[Snaggletooth]

Ok, I've been gathering parts for my R1 upgrade for my '84 for a while. Got the calipers a while back and a set of MKII rotors have been hanging on the wall for a while. I had bought a set of MKII forks during the summer and they were in such bad shape I scrapped them. The PO, before they were listed on eBay had beat the daylights out of the lowers and scarred the upper so bad it destroyed any chance of ever getting a seal to seat again.

 

So this is where I'm confused today. I bought another set of forks off eBay listed as off an '87. The pics looked ok and all the parts seemed to be there. But, when they arrived today I took them down to clean them up and strip them down I noticed they were different from the last set I bought.

 

The anti-dives (electric) mount on the front of the fork, not the side like the MKII pics I have seen from you guys in the past. Then what caught my attention was that there was no cinch bolt on the one side. The outer section is threaded for the axle with the shoulder for the axle to ride on in the inner section.

 

Did I miss something somewhere? I thought the axles were the same of both MKI & MKII. But the AD's on the front threw me. Does the MKI axle thread into the lower or am I going to need a different axle?

 

The flanges for the R1's line up fine. Every thing else looks like it should.

 

So tell me what I am looking at.

 

Mike

[dingy]

86-87 have AD valves on front, 88-93 are on the sides.

 

The axle bolt is not a through bolt on the 86-87, it screws into left tube & has a pinch bolt on right tube, no nut on left side.

 

Picture shows 86-87 forks with Skydoc17's block off plates in place of AD's.

 

Gary

[Snaggletooth]

Thanks Gary,

 

So will the '84 axle work or do I need to pickup one for an '87?

 

Mike

[dingy]

Thanks Gary,

 

So will the '84 axle work or do I need to pickup one for an '87?

 

Mike

 

I'm not sure, does the end of the 84 neck down a little like a shoulder bolt or are threads just straight on the end of it?

 

Does the 84 have a lock nut where axle sticks through forks?

 

I found a picture of my 83 and it has a castle jam nut with a cotter pin. The 86-87 is different than what my 83 was once upon a time.

 

Won't interchange IMHO.

 

Gary

 

[dingy]

And I have 2 of them on work bench that would probably fit it, but I am not sure. They are of VMax's that I got from pinwall just for the spacers on them. Need them when I put VMax rim on.

 

I don't have my wheel of at this point to be able to check them.

 

Gary

[Snaggletooth]

Yep the '84 has a washer and castle nut on the end. Best of memory it is a straight shaft until the 90 degree shoulder where it exits the fork.

 

I haven't torn the bike down yet. I was going to rebuild the new forks and get everything ready then do a quick swap with the whole assembly. Might have to rethink that plan.

 

Again......

 

Mike

[dingy]

Yep the '84 has a washer and castle nut on the end. Best of memory it is a straight shaft until the 90 degree shoulder where it exits the fork.

 

I haven't torn the bike down yet. I was going to rebuild the new forks and get everything ready then do a quick swap with the whole assembly. Might have to rethink that plan.

 

Again......

 

Mike

 

 

That won't work with 86-87 forks, I'm sure on this.

 

Look at picture I posted above, axle does not stick through fork much at all.

 

Gary

[Snaggletooth]

So the parts search continues..........

 

I'm getting there.

 

Someday.

 

[twigg]

So the parts search continues..........

 

I'm getting there.

 

Someday.

 

 

Are you planning on de-linking the brakes?

 

Where will you get the brake lines from?

 

I was planning the same upgrade. The plan is to delink the brakes and use braided lines on the front calipers ... Two lines and a double banjo should make it nice and simple. There is an ebay seller that makes up the lines for about $21 per line, and stocks the banjos and crush washers.

 

I plan on leaving the rubber hose on the rear simply because it offers a slightly "softer" action. I will need skydocs blocking plug for the rear caliper.

[Snaggletooth]

Hi Twigg,

 

At this point I am not planning on de-linking the system. I had gone through that issue way back when I first got the bike and was having major problems with the proportioning valve not working right. Once I got past that I played with a couple different configurations with the valve and ended up liking the feel of the linked brakes.

 

Being an old school kinda guy, front is front and back is back, it surpised me that I was comfortable with the system, once I got it working correctly.

 

Now...... that may change once the R1's are on. Got to see how it feels.

 

I already have the SS lines on the bike with the exception of the clutch lines. The brake lines were done in a bit of a crisis moment after some joker cut both my OEM rubber lines right at the calpers on the fork while I was at work.

 

The only reason I'm even doing the conversion now is I found a Markland hitch and have been sniffing around the trailer market. Be happy to have a lil more anchor to drag for that.

 

I got my lines at the time from Buckeye Performance.

 

So I shall see how it all pans out.

 

Mike

[kbran]

You did good bidding on those. If it's the same set I bid on the other day, I was the only bidder and you got me in the last 30 seconds. Oh well that's the way it goes, hope it all works out for you.

[Snaggletooth]

Yea, I was surpised they sat at that low bid as long as they did. I expected them to run up a bit more.

 

Still cleaning up the outsides. The seller had scotch tape all over the upper tubes. There are some minor scratches on the uppers but looks to be outside of the sealing area. If not, I have a decent set of uppers I can swap out.

 

Can't wait to see how the lowers look inside. That is where I always find the worst problems.

 

You may not have missed out on much.

 

And 30 seconds? Give me some credit! It was 4 seconds according to my stop watch.

 

Now I gotta drop the rotors of at a shop. I got a set from one of the V-Max boys down south and they are ok but have a bit of a lip on the outter edges. Got a guy here that looked at them and can do a light surface on them to remove the lips and clean up the contact surface. Should look a lil better.

 

Nuttin like having a hobby eh?

 

Mike

[twigg]

Yea, I was surpised they sat at that low bid as long as they did. I expected them to run up a bit more.

 

Still cleaning up the outsides. The seller had scotch tape all over the upper tubes. There are some minor scratches on the uppers but looks to be outside of the sealing area. If not, I have a decent set of uppers I can swap out.

 

Can't wait to see how the lowers look inside. That is where I always find the worst problems.

 

You may not have missed out on much.

 

And 30 seconds? Give me some credit! It was 4 seconds according to my stop watch.

 

Now I gotta drop the rotors of at a shop. I got a set from one of the V-Max boys down south and they are ok but have a bit of a lip on the outter edges. Got a guy here that looked at them and can do a light surface on them to remove the lips and clean up the contact surface. Should look a lil better.

 

Nuttin like having a hobby eh?

 

Mike

 

If they go below minimum spec you absolutely MUST replace them. It's no place to be chancing it

[Snaggletooth]

If they go below minimum spec you absolutely MUST replace them. It's no place to be chancing it

 

Don't think there should be an issue on spec. The contact area is still above that. It's mostly to dress that lip off an a light touch on the contact area.

 

I had a rotor on one of my cars fragment once. Never risk that on a bike. And that's the truth truth.

 

I may be crazy but I'm not insane....... yet.

[twigg]

The more comforting news is that your bike rotors will never fragment like that.

 

Car rotors are usually made of cast iron, which is brittle. Bile rotors are stainless steel.

 

The danger is that they will overheat and warp, making braking even more hit and miss than it already is

 

Good news that you have thickness to spare.

[jeffg]

I had a rotor on one of my cars fragment once. Never risk that on a bike. And that's the truth truth.

 

I may be crazy but I'm not insane....... yet.

 

I had that happen to me once also. I wasn't hurt in the wreck because I had 2 tons of Ford LTD around me when the right front wheel locked up. Definitely NOT something I would want to happen on a bike!

[muaymendez1]

not the rotor but My 85 toyota camrys brake pad exploded in 1998 on the way to work. front right side which left all the braking to left side and emergency brake was badly out of adjustment. Not gooooooood.