I been laying low for a while. You know how those winter projects get...one thing leads to another thing...which leads to another thing and before you know... it's spring time. I'm thawed out and ready to blabber again, since I have my winter projects pretty well done.

U know....none of us need to try and figure out what various MOCO (or any other firm) engineers are thinking about when they design stuff. I am sure it has a lot to do with economics, but in the case of the trike, it may have a lot to do with how us 2-wheelers have understood most of the braking power is in the front wheel. Some new trike owners still think that is the case and are a bit reluctant to use the rears. You see posts all the time referring to folks using the fronts and not the rears. Some because the rear designs are so weak (on some trikes) and some because they still think that only the fronts ought to be used. This is nonsense on a properly "braked" trike. A trike ought to have better rears than it does fronts, or at least something of equal performance. I refuse to wear-out my itty-bitty front tire when I have 10-times the foot print to use on the back tires. Try to stop that trike on the damp pavement one day with just the fronts and see what happens. I know...the best thing to do is use both front and back, but I want something that will stop me in a real hurry if I need to and wimpy brakes on the rear don't address that issue for me. If I hit the rear brake....I want my machine to stop. Not squeal, not drag, not pull....but stop!

I have radial-mounted 4-piston opposed calipers on my rear rotors (which I got off e-Bay for $25) and if I had a TG (no....not knocking the TG) I would find a way to upgrade my calipers so I could stop if I had to. I realize I converted from drums (which in my case were junk) to disc, but the same thing applies. Replacement of the rear components with something more reliable would not be that big of a deal....it's just a shame the manufacturer doesn't do it in the first place.

 

I hate to think about re-engineering a $35000+ motorcycle but if I still have this TG in 4 or 5 years I may consider the option. Who knows, maybe someone will have an after-market upgrade that uses the 12" H-D rotors with calipers.
I too have used the Lyndall pads on my previous bikes with great results but I'm not sure pads alone could improve the rear braking on this TG.

 

I may be stupid but I have not had any concern with my rear brakes on my TG. A couple of times last year I had to bring it down it a hurry and I did with out any problem. I really can't imagine having to stop any quicker. I do know that I can slide my rear wheels which I do not want to do in an emergency situation. If they are sliding I am not stopping as quickly as if the rear was not sliding.

I plan to switch front and rear brake pads out to Lyndall as soon as they offer them. I have over 11,000 miles on my TG and still have plenty of pad left on the rear. I quess I am lucky with the wear.

 

Thie is my first trike so I may not have a good brake to compare with but mine seem fine! A little noise, squeal every now and then when it sits for awhile but the first time or two I hit the brake it clears up. I usually hold them in lightly and run a few feet and they clear up when they warm up.

Other than the little heat thing last summer I have not found to much about the Tri to complain about! Will change to the good pads also when they come out with them, just to see if it quiets them down some.

 

This is mainly the reason I'm looking to change mine, I don't like the squeal. I haven't had any issues with stopping, seems to work pretty decent. This was one of the breakfast conversations my dad and I had this morning. While we were discussing this topic I mentioned the 34 Plymouth coupe my brother used to drag race. The car weighed about 3,200 pounds and towards the end before we switched to a dragster it was running 9.50's @138-140mph. The car was old school, I mean Dana 60 rear end with drum brakes and disk breaks in the front that had pucks for pads that were about 1 1/2" in diameter, the car had a chute but we elected not to use it because we didn't know how the car would react. This car was an evil little sucker to drive, you didn't know which car was coming to the line. The good one or its evil twin. The Triglide has more friction material and breaking area than that 3,200 pound car did, and he never had a problem getting it stopped. I know its kind of apple to oranges but weight, rotating mass and stopping power is apples to apples.

While travelling down memory lane I dug up an old picture, this is about 1998. We ran a 468 BBC on methanol via bug catcher with mechanical injection. That is an all steel body.

 

I helped a friend with a 30 Ford Coupe back in the day it was an SBC and I never thought that was a good engine for the 1/4 mile. I had a COPO engine in my 55, the 512 BBC Block. All of the good stuff but I pulled it as it was just to much for a Sunday Hamburger run! 850 cfm double pumper Holly and with the 456 gear, I think I was getting around 6 miles to the gallon! I would have liked to have that set up on the little coupe. All we had on the coupe back then was drum breaks, no booster! Even with the SBC it was a bear to stop!

If they come out with an upgrade or a larger rear brake set up for the Tri I may take a look at it, if it is a direct bolt on! Funny how all we tought about early on was going fast, brakes were secondary to most builds.

 

The little coupe basically taught my brother how to drive. It was evil, 2nd time out he swatted the wall when it started swaying and with each swing it got worse until at one point it was side ways in his lane. After that he had the old ladder bar suspension removed and a 4 link put in. Tamed it down quite a bit, it still at times had a mind of its own. When he switched to the dragster and decided to go into the Top Dragster class he needed the track manager to sign off on his license. The guy said it's a no brainer, I spent so many weekends watching you wrestle with that little coupe I know you can drive.

 

Some of the stuff I see indicates some folks have rear brake problems with the TG (and other trikes) and some think they work just fine. Some think they wear out the pads too quickly and some don't seem to have any pad-wear problems at all. I read some post from a fellow "poster" some time back that seemed to be very knowledegable in the TG rear brake design and indicated they had some alignment issues in some cases, and recommended the use of shims, etc to square it all up. Some of this makes sense...maybe during the assembly process along the production line some got good brakes and some didn't. Using shims to align brake calipers is nothing new and the brake manufacturers sell them for this purpose. I certainly would not advocate the swapping out of stuff on a brand new 35K-plus machine myself....unless they were really bad. You know....stuff comes off the production line that varies. Some folks have noise, some don't. Some folks have heat issues, others don't..on-and-on etc.

In any event, it would not be that difficult to change brake components and I don't think it's at all necessary to get those 12-inch rotors on the rear. Fitment problems will jump up and bite you when you try to stuff the calipers in over those 12-inch rotors anyway...unless you have larger diameter wheels. I have 10-inch T-Bird rotors (milled down to .22) on mine and they work wonderfully. It's the "binding" process....like the calipers and pads that do the trick and not so much the science of the leverage from the larger diameter rotors.

 

Possibly some of the differences is because of the style of riding between folks?? I sure would want to be sure of what I am doing if redesigning the rear brakes. Beside the rotors and calibers, the master cylinder has to be up to the task.

 

I totally agree there oldmsocko. People perceive and handle braking differently. What may be uncomfortable for some folks may be just fine with others. Some people love to ride the brakes and others use the braking ability of gearing down to slow down. What may be a problem for you could work just fine for me.

Yes...it is very important that one matches the caliper piston area to the master cylinder piston area in the correct ratio. I worked from the stock HD master cylinder backwards and determined how much caliper piston area I could have and still have a comfortable feel in the brake pedal. You cannot find an oversize HD rear brake master cylinder that will just bolt on in the place of the stock unit.....so you have to work backwards from that. You have to know the piston area of the MC and the total piston area of all the caliper pistons you plan to push.