So this brake conversion is excellent. A huge improvement. However it’s made me recognize the weakness of the 39mm fork, and has sparked the idea of finding a Dyna dual disc fork and doing a conversion. Luckily Vulcan Machine makes a 3/4 to 25mm axle and spacer conversion kit to allow the use of my Thunderstar.
Just to wrap up the LED idiot lights, here’s a shot of them in direct midday Florida sunlight, where the stock lights were barely noticeable. It’s just a shame the Chinese garbage replacement lights from Drag Specialities, are slanted… Oh well. At least the signals are aligned, so the slant of the others isn’t terribly noticible.
They are factory bullets. A shop had a bunch of used parts and I fished out 4 nice ones. Same threads, they just screw in, in place of the originals.
I'm going to replace the big ones on mine as well. I'll look through some parts books to find some factory ones that I like. When you said they "screw in", is that they stem to base or stem to blinker housing?
I'm going to replace the big ones on mine as well. I'll look through some parts books to find some factory ones that I like. When you said they "screw in", is that they stem to base or stem to blinker housing?
Honestly, I have no idea what year/model they are from. My local shop has a crazy selection of used parts in huge boxes so I just rifled through for 4 of the same and came up with these. My only condition was they looked clean. Thankfully the stock stalks are the same threads as the bolts that tighten the bullets down to their bases. 5/16 I think. In the box were reflectors with just wire tails so I took what I needed (2 1157 and 2 1156) and soldered longer wire tails on them. Joined them using linesman splices under solder and adhesive lined heat shrink under the factory black plastic sleeves.
(Bikes are covered since we’re getting a new AC installed. Yay)
So this brake conversion is excellent. A huge improvement. However it’s made me recognize the weakness of the 39mm fork, and has sparked the idea of finding a Dyna dual disc fork and doing a conversion. Luckily Vulcan Machine makes a 3/4 to 25mm axle and spacer conversion kit to allow the use of my Thunderstar.
TBC
I put 1200R front forks on mine, dual rotors with 4 piston callipers, big difference.
While my upgrade to a bagger caliper was a big improvement over the stock single piston deal, after my initial giddiness over having actual brakes, I realized they were still lacking. So I took the next step and ordered a 2000 chrome slider, an Arlen Ness 15” big brake kit, the standard Dyna caliper it’s made for, a Vulcan Engineering hub spacer and two caliper shims. Also got some Lyndall gold+ pads again. And another rebuild kit.
So I rebuilt the caliper to clear out any residual DOT4, pulled the wheel and mounted up the AN kit using the VE hub centric spacer. I had to Dremel a notch in the rotor and spacer for the speedo drive. NBD. Getting the caliper on was fun, as there was insufficient clearance to just slip it over the huge rotor, so I had to loosen the rotor bolts to angel it out a bit. Once I did that, it fit right on. Got the wheel.
Next I had to pull apart my left fork to swap the slider. Also no big deal as I wanted to add a little compression dampening to the emulator settings. Did that, got it all together installing burley brand preload adjusters while I was at it.
Wheel on, caliper bolted and line swapped, and bled. I really hate bleeding brakes. But I ended up with a great lever.
All clearances are good, wheel spun true and freely. Wiped it all down (silicon brake fluid on wheels or brakes = a bad day) and went for a ride.
After 40 or so local miles the pads and rotor bed and I had f’ing excellent brakes. Which will only improve over the next 50 or so miles. NOW I’m happy with the brakes.
Once they got good, I started pushing the frame a little and I gotta say, I’m probably going to abandon my 49mm fork upgrade. I’m sure it would be an improvement, but this handles so good as-is, I doubt I’ll push it to the point where I’d notice a difference.
A very worthwhile upgrade.
I have to find the right speedo cable though. I ordered a +4” cable from FXR Division but the speedo side screw on collar is about 30% bigger diameter then what’s on mine. Got to look further into that…
09-05-2021, 06:41 PM
