Kawasaki front brake caliper and master cylinder

Dear Ron,

Good luck with your conversion, It shows you intend riding it. If it has larger pad area / larger piston area or just a longer lever at the bars it should be an improvement. You don't mention the disc itself fitting a larger diameter one is another sound way forward.

I followed a slightly different route using Hinckley Triumph bits as they are cheap and plentiful in UK. Caliper spacer I made from 1/4 plate with two 1/2 circular spacers on bolts to caliper to offset it back in line. Only problem was finding a 5 hole disc carrier to suit norton wheel - that was until I realised I was looking at it. I simply turned down original Norton disc to same size / thickness as carrier that came with Triumph disc, milled new semicircles for 'buttons' and then had a 13'' disc. Performance was much better even with existing lockhead master cylinder.

Best bit was I then sold original caliper ( underpowered, but not Dangerous) for same as the Triumph bits cost. My only regret is I should have Milled Triumph Name off it before fitting.

Ron ...

I think you will find the lever action a bit 'wooden' if you use only one caliper. This is because the master cylinder had a larger diameter to feed two slave pistons. If you use only one, the lever will not move as much as with two.

The aftermarket modification reduces the diameter of the master piston with sleeved bore, thereby 'increasing' the leverage , at the cost of increased lever movement.

Try your mod, and get back !!

Colin

Previously Martin Freeman wrote:

I followed a slightly different route using Hinckley Triumph bits as they are cheap and plentiful in UK. Caliper spacer I made from 1/4 plate with two 1/2 circular spacers on bolts to caliper to offset it back in line. Only problem was finding a 5 hole disc carrier to suit norton wheel - that was until I realised I was looking at it. I simply turned down original Norton disc to same size / thickness as carrier that came with Triumph disc, milled new semicircles for 'buttons' and then had a 13'' disc.

Hi Martin

Sound's like an interesting conversion. Which Triumph model did the disc and caliper come from? Speed triple? Does the 5 hole pitching on the Triumph disc match the Norton hub and any chance of some pics?

I was thinking of going down the Don Pender route from Ebay. His comprehensive kits include a 6 piston Tokico caliper with carrier, 320mm disc, 1/2" master cylinder and stainless hoses, but it is a bit pricey with shipping and import duty.

Cheers Jim

Before you all get totally carried away on high power disc conversions, are you sure that the fork sliders are strong enough to cope?

Put RGM and Norvil upgrade kits on my Mk 1A and Mk 3 850's which vastly improved front brakes. Both have equal performance with the RGM kit significantly cheaper.

You'd be surprised how good the standard Norton setup is with a smaller bore master cylinder. "Monobloc" construction of the caliper is all the rage nowadays, eliminating flex of the bolted-together calipers, and guess what the standard production Norton-Lockheed caliper is?

Smaller bore master cylinders looking as the originals did about to be released after the success of the Grimeca conversion convinced us to invest in new castings for Mk3 and pre-Mk3 master cylinder bodies.

I used a master cylinder from a Kawasaki model that had a single disk and mated it to the original Norton disc and caliper. This cost $10 Canadian and provided excellent stopping power.

Dear Jim,

I sense the 'triumph' of hope over experience in your message, unfortunately Triumph have 6 hole centres and don't fit. They consist of centre part (carrier) an outer part = the actual disc connected (floating ) on a ring of 'buttons'. I used the outer part and made five hole carrier from my existing Norton disc, by turning down it's diameter and thickness to match Triumph carrier, then milled semicircles for buttons. So no free lunch just time ,sweat and grime!

Carrier mount is more of a functional than esthetic solution, look at the picture

regards Martin