The other thing I did while the bike was at the workshop was sort out the brake caliper bracket... Yes, again...! I had become less happy with the alloy unit I made last time round over time as it still wasn’t quite right. Sounds crazy to have another go at this, but remember no one makes this bracket any more, even tho my old staple Talon in the UK who did make one became hard work to deal with when I asked them, saying they didn’t have the CNC plans anymore and forcing me to contact my local importer who was only interested in selling parts current in the catalogue, sigh I used to love the work the UK guys did and spent up big there over the years, their loss I guess, but disappointing all the same.
Anyway, the issue has always been that with these big forks and the small fat ‘motard wheel which means the spokes are right in the worst place, even on a big disk, there is very little room to package anything, especially a caliper with half of its piston count on the side next to the spokes. The initial bracket I made left the caliper close to the spokes but seemed to work, yet I screwed up one of the caliper mounting holes and it was steel, plus I made it by hand. The second version was alloy and done on a mill, but it brought the caliper a bit closer to the spokes and I could see it had been glanced by them in use as it had slightly marked the caliper back. Damn. We’re talking the difference of millimetres with this stuff as its so tight and very little gap can be the difference between a working brake and a death trap of course.
This meant I had to have yet another look online for a spacer for the front disk. You’d think I’d be able to find one of those... Remember, I’m using an OEM KTM parts here, including a genuine KTM ‘motard wheel with an OEM hub and these were part of the KTM range for many years, but no... After 2 years of searching every now and then I had given up and made up spacers for the disk with some alloy stock from the local hardware store which was about 3mm thick. I could see that what I really wanted was 5mm and online KTM parts guys listed a spacer for that, but it was always ‘sold out’. This time I decided I needed to make a final push to sort this out and located every listing online and I emailed all over the world, I really really had to sort this problem out and either find a spacer or make one. And.... Not one reply from anywhere... Not one! I appreciate if you’re in Iceland and you get an email in English that it might be confusing, but this could have been a sale, right? But, Nope, nothing, nada, nix, ekkert (that’s Icelandic by the way, see how easy google translates stuff online parts sellers?!). Then just as I was about to give up I found a place in Aus that listed them, it was on about google page 15 or something as it was not well referenced. I sent out another email without much hope of satisfaction... 10mins later I get a reply and they guy says ‘I have 3 in stock, just never bothered to update the website’. I ordered right away and was on cloud 9 all day, gotta love small businesses who find the internet a hassle! :)
Whats great about this unit is that the design follows the shape of the hub, pretty cool and not easy to make without a CNC of course.
So, using the new 5mm spacer the disk moves over circa 2mm and this means the caliper moves over too, taking it away from the spokes. Naturally I wanted to best to make use of the shop machinery while I was there, but also the assembled knowledge so I discussed the best plan with the guys and showed them what I had done, this issues and the plan. No one liked making the alloy bracket any thinner where it mounted the forks, so suggested I either use steel or remove material from the forks. Fair enough, but removing the forks seemed no fun, and of course I could never go back to using them on a KTM after, well not without spacers...however, while that is not a real concern but I always like to keep parts standard.
With this in mind, I decided to revist the old steel bracket and check the spacing with that. I worked out a mathematical equation and came up with how much I needed to take off a steel bracket. I was about to embark on making a whole new bracket when it was suggested that I just use the old steel bracket for now and prove the maths, it would be less work and if I liked the result I could leave the fork legs alone of course. I went with that plan and milled off a bunch of steel from the old bracket.
Fitting up went well and the workshop gave it a thumbs up and it was suggested that the hole I misdrilled might even helicoil, so next thing I’m learning how to do that and its back on the bike done after a lick of paint. Much simpler fix than I thought, and while its steel and not sexy alloy at least that means its strong.
So, that’s another job ticked off...