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'.

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.

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...

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...

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

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...

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

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

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...

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...

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...

**IamCornholio** · 21st June 2007, 12:03

One more pic friends...

(I got a bad low 'postcount and it's cool...

)
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...

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

**sugilite:Me** · 21st June 2007, 12:33

Nice work!

**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!

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

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

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)

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

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!!

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...

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.

**IamCornholio** · 22nd June 2007, 23:10

[QUOTE=SHELRACING;1105998]

Originally Posted by IamCornholio

One more pic friends...

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.

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...

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

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

IamCornholio

**mr_penguin** · 27th June 2007, 17:49

I like the work you did on that caliper very nice

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

Best regards
Ian

**IamCornholio** · 28th June 2007, 12:30

Originally Posted by mr_penguin

I like the work you did on that caliper very nice

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

Best regards
Ian

Thanks for the comment Ian.

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.

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

) 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!

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...

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.

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

IamCornholio