Ok, I know this seems like it should be a no brainer, and I used to slam my friends on sportbikes who removed one of their discs (mainly to show off chrome wheels), but I remember people debating this on other forums and I can't remember what the verdict was.

If you remove one of the discs on these big tourer's (mine's a street glide), what are the effects to your braking? I noticed that alot of the other Harleys only come with one disc brake. The Dyna and Softail line only have the one brake on the left side. The Heritage Softail Classic is only 20 or 30 pounds lighter than the Street Glide.

So how much a difference does it make?

I'm looking at getting spoke wheels and I would like to show the wheel I guess, but not at the expense of safety......or atleast a big difference in safety.

Fatguy

 

I'd be more than happy to nominate anyone that removes braking capacity for a Darwin Award!

 

It seems like a fairly expensive mod...for looks, and a LOSS of functionality.

Obviously, you will have less braking power, though they have run one sided disc brakes on the front for years. I have spoked wheels, and dual discs, I think it looks fine...this is obviously a personal choice.

I would sooner recommend getting a nicer looking set of discs for your brakes than removing one...

My $.02

Mac

 

Why would you do this? I'm getting the Big Fatty spokes on my street glide and getting the matching rotors if you want to show more chrome. If you chrome the forks, cow bells, and brake that's more than enough chrome. Harley use the dual brakes for a reason the and that being the bike is heavier. JMHO

 

In normal riding, you probably will not realize a big difference, however under an emergency situation hauling an 800 pound bike to a stop would mean whether you make it or not. There are many options in rotors available that would compliment the front end without reducing the braking. JMHO

 

I was trying to avoid Darwin Award comments and speculation of the obvious.

My thoughts are/were exactly what TCSTD said.

I agree that it appears braking would suffer some, but sometimes not all is as appears. HARLEY DAVIDSON themselves decided that a bike of similar weight and one that is used by most for touring (Heritage Softail Classic) only needs one disc. WHY??? Does anybody know for sure.

I'm alot more safety conscious than this post might imply, but if it's possible there is a look I'm trying to achieve.

I don't want Chrome. I'm going all black spokes and the abscence of a rotor on the right side would make a major difference in the look.

I'm just trying to get to the bottom of it and find out if its plausible.

If it's good enough for the Heritage.....why not for the Street Glide?

 

I would "think" that the front master cylinder would be different for a dual disc setup and a single disc setup.

That said, I think my dual front disc show just enough of the spokes

 

The rear brakes do very little, the front brakes do most of the work.

yes in days gone by single discs were the norm, but personally I want as much braking capacity as I can get, short of locking the wheel.

If I were to do a single disc I would certainly run DOT 5.1 fluid, SS Braided line, or the newer Kevlar lines, aftermarket pads, and maybe an aftermarket 4 or 6 piston caliper. Those upgrades would certainly replace most of the capacity you would loose pulling half of the system off.

If you are not replacing your brake fluid every 2 years you are missing a very important part of your bikes maintanence.
It goes bad, it will corrode caliper bores, it will boil under hard braking resulting in a loss or reduction of braking power.

 

saw a couple baggers in myrtle beach that did this and it really cleande up the front end. i did not notice if they put a plain lower in place of the caliper they took off i did notice a brimbo brake calliper in the left side. i dont care for the dual disk, however i have grown to like stopping that big rascal, so for now ill leave mine alone!

 

Basically I've decided that I'm going to wait until I have a lot of money to waste and go the route Neggy was talking about. It's expensive to go with a high dollar brake setup and doesn't make a whole lot of sense to spend all that money on a brake upgrade, when the brake upgrade is only to get you back to where you were before you removed a disc in the first place.

But Eventually, I want to go with black spokes and one disc. But I think ugrading the Master cylinder, caliper and brake line will actually perform better than stock duals. But it's definately something that's down the road.........like tax return time 2007 or '08.