Harrison Billet

[Strawhead]

I have really enjoyed riding the shovel since December, however the lack of sensible brakes has made the experience really exciting, possibly more so than it should have been,

whilst browsing on Ebay i saw a sale for a mini 6 Harrison BILLET, to be used with a 320mm disc from a Yamaha 250 ( right side).

Now is there any reason why this would not fit on the rear of the FXWG, clearly I would need a bracket made up but the 320mm disc is pretty close to a 13" disc which is far from standard sizing.

would it fit on a smaller disc and would the mods to change it to the rear of the shovel be easy.

or alternatively shall i just wait three years and buy the Harrison brakes brand new

with thanmks

Andy

[Strawhead]

FYI

currently have stock brakes with floaters on the front.

braided hosing all round, all brand new. still the braking is interesting

any hints gratefully received, don't want a particularly costly amount of fabrication done but would rather have the second hand bits that work and are in keeping with the bikes age

[the_french_owl]

Hi, Strawhead,

Don't take it the wrong way, but wouldn't it better if you tried to improve the FRONT brake.

I always thought rear brakes were just there to keep the bike in line...

The proper way is of course to make your bike lighter, but this probably goes against the grain for most H-D owners!!!

Patrick

[Strawhead]

Hi Patrick,

You are of course right. I have just sourced some floating discs for the front which are about to be put on. I am hoping that this will improve the front a little.

sadly have very little money to play around with at the moment but in the fullness of time will be putting twin Harrison 4 pots on the front!

so was hoping for something compatable with them on the rear. I tend to be pretty laid back on the bike and certainly with the Evo use the rear brake more often than the front and was hoping to be able to do something similar on the shovel.

Your thoughts and opimions gratefully received

[Kiwi]

save your self a load of money

brembo brake off the back end of a ducati is around £20 on fleabay

this will work fine on a shovel

was worried that it would be too much for my panhead so I had a bracket made up to fit two of the suckers onto the back end, fu@ked one of the hoses up and ran it with only one caliper and it worked fine, have since connected the second caliper and its even more impresive

if i was to repeat the exercise I would only use one caliper

[panheadpete]

OK, this is a serious question, not a wind up; what am I missing here?
My pan has an '80's single caliper front brake and a '70's 'banana' rear; either will lock it's wheel if used hard, how can you want more than that?
The single biggest improvement I made was to reduce the size of the stock front m/cyl from three-quarter inch to five-eigths, which gave both 'feel' and leverage. If you hit both brakes hard to the point of lock-up the effect is all that I can cope with and I've never experienced 'fade'.
OK it's not going to out-brake a GSXR but I can't balance it with the back wheel 4" off the floor...
Any unkind posts about a pan not being fast enough to need brakes will be treated with pesticide.
Cheers, Pete.

[panheadpete]

A further thought; research into braking on 'custom' bikes has shown that using a powerful front brake on a bike with a low C-of-G will only lock the front wheel whilst the weight of the bike pushes it onwards...
In the '70's a chopper rider was cited for not having a front brake; he challenged the ticket and the Court saw a comparison of his bike against a Police Electraglide - he out-braked it. (What are the chances of that happening here?)
Sorry Patrick; not wishing to be argumentative; your bikes are light and there is far more weight transference when you're riding them hard; that's just my humble opinion, try mine sometime, if only for a laugh.
Cheers, Pete.

[Kiwi]

my shovel had a banana caliper on the rear, it was total crap and a combination of excessive caliper weight and vibration elongated all the mounting holes and wrecked the caliper

replaced this caliper with a performance machine caliper, the difference was like night and day

the brembo calipers I have on the pan are far better than anything harley ever fitted to anything pre 2000

[panheadpete]

OK, OK, I give in; the banana caliper is indeed a piece of crap, although mine's worked alright for 6 years. What I was trying to say is that if a brake can slow a wheel to the point of locking then why would it need to be more powerful? Quality of manufacture, appearance, ease of servicing are a different matter and I agree with you there.
Memo to self; when typing at that time of night, read it again in the morning before pressing 'submit'....
Cheers, Pete.

[chilly]

Go for a second hand one of e-bay mate,there cheap as chips,Yam blue spot or Triumph are really good,but there are loads out there that will do a good job,you just need to make up the locating plate to site it in the right position.

Good luck
Chill