Of course you know, Ben, that this disc brake was used on Citroen GS for eons... If it was good enough for a car, it should be enough for your Honda?
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@prmurat1 yep. It just needed to be deglazed after 36,000 miles or so.
Hack wheel doesn't contribute a lot towards braking force, really just enough to keep things stopping straight.
Might look cool to drill the rotor, sometime, it i get an excuse to pull it off again, but wouldn't be necessary or even noticeable in any performance metric that I could imagine.

There is a Citroen running in the Classic class of the Dakar this year! That thing is like a French Jeep. 🤩
Hold my keyboard and watch this! 🙃

Well Friends,
It was a pleasant enough day in Skunk Hollow, so I decided to finish up a drip irrigation system in the back yard, that involved digging 150 feet or so of trench to lightly bury some feed line for the mini-orchard that I put in. Got it done, then attacked a few items on Black Betty (that sweet girl) that I have been contemplating.
They are/were in no particular order:
1. Add some triangulation/gussets the the newly fabricated Z bracket that provides a top mount for the newly added center top strut.
2. Shorten up the long female rod ends on the center strut to reduce leverage on the brackets and upper frame rail.
3. Shorten up (more so) front top mount to reduce the lever arm for twisting on the front top mount.
4. Raise the nose of the tub up an inch or so, after riding a couple thousand miles with it nose down by 1.4 degrees. (failed experiment, decided I didn't like it.) This involved cutting and rewelding the front A arm brace I installed a few weeks ago.
So here are a few pics:
Simulated rider weight: 160 lbs (72.5kg), allowing for some gear.
Front top mount before 2nd shortening operation:
After shortening:
Claude pointed out that it could be shortened further, if I would acquire a thread tap for 3/4" 16 and cut threads deeper, past the weld. I passed on that, this time, but have it on the back burner for a possibility when I change out the rest of the struts for turnbuckle style.
It doesn't move, now, so am considering it maybe "good enough" for a while.
Ground clearance for hack frame tube was about 7 3/4" (19.7 cm).
Cut the triangulated support brace off the A arm with an angle grinder/cut off wheel. Loosened up A arm clamps, and leveled out the chair, front to back/side to side, re-clamped.
Picked up a little over an inch (2.5cm) of ground clearance, then rewelded the A arm braces.
I was kind of pleased with the amount of effort it took to cut the braces off. Welds held pretty well.
Rewelded bracket with the angle changed to accommodate more ground clearance in front.
Z bracket at the beginning of the activity:
Claude had suggested a little more triangulation on this thing, as well as shortening up the rod end that points forward for the top center strut to attach to. It is usually a good idea to listen to Claude.
Removed about an inch (2.5 cm) from each of the female rod ends to reduce twisting leverage on the the Z bracket and the top sidecar frame tube.
Z bracket now has some triangles:
C't'd

c't'd
The welding is what it is... guess it is plenty strong:
Checked toe-in and lean out, again, just to be sure. When I had the struts undone, I set it for now a full 1" (25.4mm) of toe in, up from 13/16" before. Lean out is "a little."
We must have a moment of silence for my dearly departed magnetic digital angle finder... As magnetic things will do, it seems to have gone on walk about, likely riding on a frame tube, from the last go around, and was nowhere to be found in the shop.
I had to resort to grand daddy's analog angle finder:
Once things were buttoned up and checked over, I decided to take a little rip around skunk hollow. Can't say as I noticed any difference, but at least I felt better about the extra inch of ground clearance returning, and knowing that the Z bracket won't be accounting for much flex.
The rig is handling about the best it ever has, and I am looking forward to seeing if it is a little more robust, off-road, than it was.
Incremental improvements, compounding on each other.

Well Friends,
I was exceedingly slothful today, but worked up the enthusiasm to head out to a big box store and replace the digital angle finder that went on walkabout sometime in the past couple of weeks.
This of course, got me into the garage, where it seemed like a good time to reattach the winch to Black Betty (that sweet girl), before departing.
I decided that I wanted the winch as close to the A arm as possible, to reduce the lever arm that the "creative" winch mount puts on it, upon hitting bumps at speed.
I found that angling (not to be confused with fishing) it at about the same angle as the strut let me push it about 3 inches closer to the A arm. We will see...
Looks a little goofy, but I can live with it.
It was about 65F (18C) as I headed out to Home Depot. It seemed that they had the best price on a digital angle finder ($22 or so) for a Klein brand.
As I motored along the boulevard, it just felt like a good time to take a left turn and see how the mods would perform on some heavily wash-boarded roads out on the Res...
Abandoned the suburbials for a little wilder country, just at dusk... not much breeze, so the dust hung heavy on my back trail.
The canal roads were calling....
It pays to stay just a little bit alert on these infrequently travelled roads...
There was quite a lot of wild life out and about; one of many coyotes skulking about. Everyone had their winter coats on, so were looking fairly robust.
Plenty 'o cows... they were having trouble reaching consensus about whether I might have some feed, or be a predator. Ultimately the predator faction won the debate and they took off in a rush.
There were also numerous quail, a couple of well fed Javelinas, and this red-tailed hawk:
He was not terribly bothered by me stopping and shooting a picture.
c't'd

Blue Heron took off from some sort of irrigation holding tank... quite a few other, unidentified water fowl, as well:
Dust trail...
It was getting dark, so decided to head back to civilization and finish my errand...
Someone hauled a truck load of snow in for the kids to play in at the local park... they seemed amused.
Success at the store...
Decided to put a tail on it, to see if it might choose to hang around the shop a little better than the last one. I am hoping that by buying a replacement, the old one will now choose to turn up. There would be worse things than having two of the these things stuck to a tool box.
All in all, it was a very pleasant day, more so for the "stolen" ride that was completely spontaneous.
Things were just swell, at 70+ on the washboards. Nothing broke or fell off, no bolts loosened up. The "feel" of the rig is the best it has ever been.

It's been 2 hours since you posted this. Has the old angle gauge shown up yet?

I'm digging the spare tire cover. 🤩
Just finished binge watching the '25 Dakar NBC highlights on YouTube over the past couple of evenings. Another pretty epic year, but no Audi this year?
Hold my keyboard and watch this! 🙃

Posted by: @scott-hI'm digging the spare tire cover. 🤩
Just finished binge watching the '25 Dakar NBC highlights on YouTube over the past couple of evenings. Another pretty epic year, but no Audi this year?
Whoa, Whoa, Whoa....binge watching Dakar highlights over the past couple evenings...are you sick or something ? Did you not get the message that all the planets are in alignment, and won't happen again for another 400 years ?
Shocked...I am. You being the astronomer that you are, and always looking up in the night sky......whassamattayu ???
But yes, I too am digging the spare tire cover on Dane's Black Betty...that sweet girl...sidecar rig.
Two Million Mile Rider...All 7 Continents
Exploring the World in Comfort

Posted by: @miles-laduePosted by: @scott-hI'm digging the spare tire cover. 🤩
Just finished binge watching the '25 Dakar NBC highlights on YouTube over the past couple of evenings. Another pretty epic year, but no Audi this year?
Whoa, Whoa, Whoa....binge watching Dakar highlights over the past couple evenings...are you sick or something ? Did you not get the message that all the planets are in alignment, and won't happen again for another 400 years ?
Shocked...I am. You being the astronomer that you are, and always looking up in the night sky......whassamattayu ???
But yes, I too am digging the spare tire cover on Dane's Black Betty...that sweet girl...sidecar rig.
Clouds got in the way. More importantly I'm waiting for all the stars to align. Meantime I thank my lucky stars to be able to fog a mirror. 😉
Has been pretty cool to see the planetary alignment through the clouds. At first I thought it was Starlink satellites. lol
The night sky in the desert must be epic! 🤩
Hold my keyboard and watch this! 🙃

@ned Well, 24 hours later, and the little bugger still hasn't returned! Something with Murphy's law is out of kilter! 🤣

Well Friends, have been out on a number of short, local rides the past few days. Nothing much to write about that hasn't been covered in earlier posts, but a fine time was had by all.
Couple pics from when a friend flew out for the Barret-Jackson shindig, and he rented an Africa Twin to ride with me. His future son-in-law also came out, and rented an Aprilla Toureg to accompany us.
Took them up the Apache Trail, then over and across Lake Roosevelt, about halfway up to Young, AZ for a fun afternoon of a mix of dirt roads and twisty pavement.
It was a nippy high forties low fifties sort of day... the lad with no socks might have gotten a little cold, but he didn't mention it. Sport bike rider from NYC in his normal environment.
I think a couple of east coast guys enjoyed the different scenery quite a bit...
It was fun showing them around a little bit of AZ...
Also got to take a nice ride with Greg and David, just out and about around Picachio...
So, overall, some pretty nice riding, in fine weather with interesting people.
c't'd

c't'd
Today was more of a shop day..
Got to check the valves on Greg's R1200GS twin cam, then spent a little time sorting out a brake rotor noise on Black Betty (that sweet girl) that has gotten progressively louder, over time.
The Woody's front wheel came with a set of Galfors floating discs installed, about 38,000 miles ago.
It would seem that they don't like the beating that they have gotten on the dirt roads for the past couple of years.
The front rotors have gotten a little loud, with all the slop slowly appearing in the disc center hubs, where the buttons contact the hub.
Yep, it appears it is getting to be time for new rotors.
I don't think the Galfors center hubs like the general beating they get over wash boards. Not sure thaere is any maintenance that would prevent this hammering from deforming the hubs...
Decided to order a new set, but loaded these up with JB Weld, with the discs friction surfaces as far "back" i.e. like they are when the brakes are applied, to quiet them down for awhile, until the new units get here.
Not terribly sure I want to buy Galfors, again, but did find a set on Ebay, new for $179 for the pair. So probably will. Sad to replace them, since the wear surfaces still have plenty of metal left for many more miles.

That rotor has at least 5 more feet of brake life left. 😉
Would be interesting to see what Galfer has to say, if you send them those pictures. Might want to let them know Dakar is an easy day ride for you. 😆
Hold my keyboard and watch this! 🙃
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