Brakes installed and updated in the detail!
Updated Sept. 11, 2004.
(click on each image to view the larger pic)
After a quite long talk with Pat and Shaun, I realized I had put the steering servo the other way around. As Shaun mentioned the steering servo's horn should be towards the front of the bike, so that the linkage would not extend outside the lexan covers. I have to add that the CF plates also prompt you to install the servo that way, having a neat cutout for the servo cables to pass through. The way I had the servo installed, the cables were hard pressed against the hard CF plate in order to pass through them. Now they just pass through easily. Only downside is that I used some shorter/harder linkage springs and the steering input gets translated in abrupt lean of the bike into the turn... I guess I will have to revert to using the older longer/softer springs I've been using up until now...
On the brake side, Shaun recommended that I use the 6-fingered servo horn, and test fit it until the brake cables come perpendicular to the servo horns. I also consulted his sketch (see previous page) and this resulted in more linear braking as well as less servo abuse... After running the bike in my back yard for a little, I realized the rear brake was very hard braking... In fact after a particularly hard braking, I realized the bike would not turn a wheel when I pushed the throttle! On closer examination, I saw that the rear caliper had gone to the lower part of the wheel, resulting in the brake cable having done a full circle around it, abd locking the rear wheel. I turned it on its top position, tightened the caliper bolt on the stub a little more, and released the blue adjuster bolt of the rear brake a couple of turns... Now there is sufficient braking action on the rear wheel, but NO locking! Thankfully, the brake cable was not kinked at all! Phew!
Two more additions that wait to be done to the brakes, actually the fininshing touches, are: First. adding a small piece of fuel tubing between the end collet and the lever at the caliper end of the brake cables to soften the brake torque impact on the servo. Second, adding some bracing between the CF plates where the servo bolts are passing through. These two, I will do sometime real soon before taking out the bike again.
Finally, a couple of clear pics of the brakes, on which you can see that fine patina of "use" in the braking area of the rotors!
The finished bike!
