R6/R1 Calipers on Stock XJ600 Wheel
Posted: Mon Dec 28, 2015 2:29 pm
I'm not sure how relevant this will be to anyone or if it's been covered before (I spent a few minutes searching the forum looking for any previous posts) but I came up with the answer to something that I had been wondering about for quite a while. As most know, it's a popular upgrade to switch to the FZR600 front wheel to get dual disc brakes and then use R6/R1 calipers to up the ante even more. My thought was "why doesn't anyone just install a single R6/R1 caliper with the stock XJ wheel?". Well, I had the parts and pieces laying in my garage, so I gave it a try.
To my surprise, the Bluedot caliper that I picked up for my front end conversion bolted on the stock XJ fork stanchion and was even correctly centered over the brake disc rotor. Even more impressive was the fact that the the pad placement matched the rotor's friction surface pretty much perfectly. I almost kicked myself for not trying this sooner.
Ok, keep your pants on everyone; this is the unfortunate part. Before going out for a ride (as if I would try to ride with 3" of snow on the ground), I gently turned the wheel to check the clearance with the spokes of the wheel and found out that the rear portion of the caliper fouls the spokes. :thumbdown: It's kinda hard to see since I can't physically poke my head inside the wheel for a straight-on view but it appears to be something in the ballpark of about 10mm to 15mm of interference. I pondered the notion of machining the rear housing of the caliper to make it work but I don't think that there is enough meat there to not run into the piston, let alone have a safely functioning caliper.
To my surprise, the Bluedot caliper that I picked up for my front end conversion bolted on the stock XJ fork stanchion and was even correctly centered over the brake disc rotor. Even more impressive was the fact that the the pad placement matched the rotor's friction surface pretty much perfectly. I almost kicked myself for not trying this sooner.
Ok, keep your pants on everyone; this is the unfortunate part. Before going out for a ride (as if I would try to ride with 3" of snow on the ground), I gently turned the wheel to check the clearance with the spokes of the wheel and found out that the rear portion of the caliper fouls the spokes. :thumbdown: It's kinda hard to see since I can't physically poke my head inside the wheel for a straight-on view but it appears to be something in the ballpark of about 10mm to 15mm of interference. I pondered the notion of machining the rear housing of the caliper to make it work but I don't think that there is enough meat there to not run into the piston, let alone have a safely functioning caliper.