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View Full Version : Some pics of my crappy arse 'chinese' brakes...



IamCornholio
21st June 2007, 11:35
Below you will find some pics of my 'Crappy ASS "Chinese" brake hardware'. :yes:

I very highly suggest that ANYONE with a 'china' bike COMPLETELY disassemble the ENTIRE thing when they get it... Check out ALL the parts for proper fit and quality and then REPAIR whatever needs repairing BEFORE riding the bike. :innocent:

This really does NOT take long at all considering the size and simplicity of these bikes and this advice WILL save you both time and trouble in the future friends... :scooter:

Our 'stock' calipers were causing much drag, had VERY poor alignment, had different sized ball bearings in the actual piston assembly itself and BADLY needed fixing. Aside of that, The stupid ass 'FLAME' lettering was just a pile of extra weight and advertising that I really did NOT need... :puke:


I will now allow you guys a few moments to put on your sunglasses before I post up pictures of the 'repairs' and such... :cool:




IamCornholio (Lord of the Harvest - Master of the Worm)

IamCornholio
21st June 2007, 11:56
Here are some pics of the 'repairs' that I made... :innocent:



After I tore all this garbage down and discovered the problems, I reparied them...



I ground off the stupid lettering and excess weight... :yes:

I made sure that all the threads were freshly tappped with qualitly taps and such and then replaced all the crappy 'chinese' bolts with quality hardware...

I fixed the problem with the stupid 'lopsized' balls and both made the ALL the same size AND used slightly 'larger' balls to better fit the grooves in the piston assembly... This was a good mod here IMHO as this will allow the piston to move a slight bit farther with the same amount of pressure/distance applied to the actual brake lever... AND the piston wil rotate out in a more 'true' manner by having equal sized ball bearings installed in it... :Punk:




I badly wish that those 'kids' in 'China' would buy some better glasses as they DO tend to cause me a pile of work by having to fix their garbage... :sherlock:


FWIW, Our 'china' bike will very easily toss an inexperienced rider over the front of the bars now. Our shit HAS beeen fixed and IS working properly now...

A good 'tuner' can very easily make up for shoddy workmanship in the beginning IMHO... :cool:

IamCornholio
21st June 2007, 12:03
One more pic friends... :shit:

(I got a bad low 'postcount and it's cool... :yes:)
If you guys would like to discuss 2-stoke port timing/degree wheels and/or more 'intricate' pocketbike stuff, I will be glad to help out if I can. I am not scared to ride fast and low... It's all good friends... :second:



IamCornholio (Lord of the Harvest - Master of the Catbox)

sugilite
21st June 2007, 12:33
Nice work! :Punk:

scumdog
21st June 2007, 12:41
Handy stuff for anybody with a similar problem, good pics too!!

NofearX18
21st June 2007, 16:01
very good job. and yes the brakes are pretty crappy. mine suck too....:(

IamCornholio
21st June 2007, 22:53
Thanks for all the comments guys! Very cool indeed! :scooter:

I understand that all the 'bling' may not have been required here... :innocent:


But Tripoli is cheap and so is spare time to do things right IMO. :niceone:


The best advice I ever received when first starting out on these little bikes was to: Take it ALL apart and put it back correctly.

I followed this advice and learned a pile in the process. (also found a bunch of stuff that needed fixing) :shit:

A slight bit of effort on the front end = more time spent riding instead of repairing later... :ride:



Only problem I have with our 'china' bike here lately is getting my son to let me ride the darn thing some. Kid won't get off!! :brick:


IamCornholio (hope this is helpful to someone as I was trying here friends)

NofearX18
22nd June 2007, 07:44
will be useful to me when i get mine ;)

riffer
22nd June 2007, 19:58
Nice work feller. A good read and really helpful.

Keep up these posts and I'll keep reading for sure. Nice start on KB.

SHELRACING
22nd June 2007, 21:14
[QUOTE=IamCornholio;1103826]One more pic friends... :shit:


Why did you upgrade the rear brakes?

When racing we rarely if ever use the back brake.

Mine is set up so you have one brake lever on the right hand side and it operates the front and rear brake. The front brake comes on first then the rear, if you need it. :shit:

IamCornholio
22nd June 2007, 23:10
[QUOTE=IamCornholio;1103826]One more pic friends... :shit:


Why did you upgrade the rear brakes?

When racing we rarely if ever use the back brake.

Mine is set up so you have one brake lever on the right hand side and it operates the front and rear brake. The front brake comes on first then the rear, if you need it. :shit:

I did all this mostly because in stock form the 'china' brakes suck at best. Very poory assembled mostly. :(

FWIW, My PB racing 'instructor' flips his levers around soas that the front brake is operated on the left side. He rarely uses the back brakes when racing and with the fronts operated on the left side, he does not have to readjust his twist on the throttle to use the front brakes... :yes:

I have not gone sofar as to flip our levers, but both our brakes DO work very well now and we can quickly scrub speed when we choose. I could not really see much sence in upgrading the power of our bike if we could not stop good as well... JMHO friend :scooter:

riffer... Thank you very much friend. Glad you guys would have me here at KB for sure! :yes:



IamCornholio

mr_penguin
27th June 2007, 17:49
I like the work you did on that caliper very nice :rockon:

How did you polish it like that ?.

Just interested as I have a new few custom projects and can't get
a good clean polished job like that :angry:

Best regards
Ian

IamCornholio
28th June 2007, 12:30
I like the work you did on that caliper very nice :rockon:

How did you polish it like that ?.

Just interested as I have a new few custom projects and can't get
a good clean polished job like that :angry:

Best regards
Ian


Thanks for the comment Ian. :yes:

All but the last 20 minutes of work here was done over my kitchen sink and was not at all hard to do friend...

I removed the 'goofy' lettering and all the rough casting marks with a small handfile (6", mill type) and then used fine sandpaper to get the finish as smooth as I could before the final buffing.

When using the sandpaper, I worked on a large rubber block placed in the sink and allowed the water to run a slight bit while doing the sanding. I used 'wet type' sandpaper starting with 320grit then 400 then 600 and finished with a very light wipe with the 1200grit.

If you leave the water runnning, the aluminum will not clog a quality wet type paper very easily and very small pieces will do the job easily. :cool:

After smoothing out the surface the best I could with the sandpaper, Then came the final 'buffing' to bring out the 'wet' look. This was the messy part and I had to do this at work... (wife would have crapped if I flung around all that rouge in the house :shit:) I used a 4 or 5" polishing wheel (using Tripoli as the actual buffing compound) that I mounted in a simple electric handdrill and fastened to the table. I needed a small wheel to be able to get in the nooks and crannies for sure! :niceone:




If you are like me and get impatient when polishing parts (They tend to get hot after a few...) , You can keep a large cup of icewater close to your workpiece and when it gets too hot to handle you can simply dunk it for a few moments and then when it cools down, You can either shake or blow it dry and continue on with your buffing.... I cheated and used an air compressor to dry the part in between 'soakings' but I WAS able to polish a few different parts in less than 15 or 20 minutes by swapping parts in and out of the icewater when they got too hot to hold... :beer:



I have this friend that is a jeweler and I waste a pile of time watching him 'work' on stuff... Learning is cool IMHO, and any time that I may get to watch a master work at his art... I appreciate for sure. :yes:

I hope some of this nonsence helped you out friend, as that is what this thread was about for me... :scooter:



IamCornholio

gijoe1313
1st July 2007, 19:55
Very useful thread. I've just put a China bike through it's paces today and it was scary silly fun! Brakes? What brakes? :lol:

I'll be doing the bizzo on them and hopefully get them working as they are meant to. Slow you down when you been a plonker by going too fast! :whistle:

IamCornholio
2nd July 2007, 01:15
Very useful thread. I've just put a China bike through it's paces today and it was scary silly fun! Brakes? What brakes? :lol:

I'll be doing the bizzo on them and hopefully get them working as they are meant to. Slow you down when you been a plonker by going too fast! :whistle:

VERY cool you got one gijoe1313... :yes:

Very addictive entertainment for sure! :rockon:

You CAN make them more reliable with just a slight bit of effort IMO...

gijoe1313
2nd July 2007, 22:58
VERY cool you got one gijoe1313... :yes:

Very addictive entertainment for sure! :rockon:

You CAN make them more reliable with just a slight bit of effort IMO...

Actually I got two of the little buggers! One red...one yellow to match my other real life sized bikes :lol:

I'm still running the red one in (with the help of a few hapless mates who don't know what damage these things can do to you! :innocent:)

I'll have to get some detailed piccies to show what set-up it's running. Especially in regards to the (non)exsistant brakes. Complete noob when it comes to these wee little fellas...but damn...the terror and joy they can wring from you! :sweatdrop

newmanz
1st August 2007, 23:55
There are several different brake systems used by the factories, basicaly we get what we pay for, luckily for us even the low tier quality brakes can be upgraded. Lets face it, if your paying under $700 for a Pocket bike, be prepared to get your hands dirty.. Mind you with all that said, its not a bad thing to learn what makes your bike tick. After all, with the new water cooled engines coming in, getting to 110km/h + will be common. Even the most expensive GP3 race bikes gets pulled down before and after a race.
Thank god for the Chinese providing us with such affordable fun eh...
"Aint brakes those 2 things we walk on?"

gijoe1313
2nd August 2007, 23:24
:lol: Yep, one of my mates got tinkering with the front brake and fark me if'n it's a tad too efficient now!

Just as well, since I'm starting to get a little braver with mine - even did my first wheel stand on it :shit: Oh well, thanks to Newmanz, looks like I won't be having my yellow pocket bike and... getting an upgrade on the pocket rocket I already have!? :eek5:

Must go over the brakes first before using when received! :lol:

McJim
2nd August 2007, 23:43
Are these brakes not very similar to modern Mountain Bke disc brake calipers?

In which case you could probably get a reputable set of Shimano calipers fitted should you feel the need.

gijoe1313
4th August 2007, 00:29
Are these brakes not very similar to modern Mountain Bke disc brake calipers?

In which case you could probably get a reputable set of Shimano calipers fitted should you feel the need.

You offering your brakes to be road tested in my minimoto then? :eek: :lol:

IamCornholio
4th August 2007, 12:16
:lol: Yep, one of my mates got tinkering with the front brake and fark me if'n it's a tad too efficient now!

Just as well, since I'm starting to get a little braver with mine - even did my first wheel stand on it :shit: Oh well, thanks to Newmanz, looks like I won't be having my yellow pocket bike and... getting an upgrade on the pocket rocket I already have!? :eek5:

Must go over the brakes first before using when received! :lol:

Sounds to me like you have your front brakes adjusted properly then! :yes:

Look forward to seeing your upgrades Gijoe! :rockon:

Aeon2
9th October 2007, 15:06
Hey these brakes look alot like mine ;)

newmanz
14th October 2007, 10:25
Just got the hydraulic brake systems in, wow looking quite nice quality also.
They use same standard pad sizes and mounting kit as the Air cooled pocketbikes and early model water cooled bikes like the BLATA reps etc..

Throw those cable brake systems away, I got both left or right side handle kits for front and rears. @ $65 a kit, very cheap considering. Comes with race hose, master cylinder,lever,caliper and pads.