I have found a rig that I may be riding home this week and I have only a couple of lingering questions about the set up of the outfit. One of which is the subject here.I had been told that the car's brake should be linked to the front brake of the motorcycle and this set up has the car brake linked to the rear... Is this OK...?Thanks much,Rob
I can't think that it would hurt. I believe the Ural and Dneprs all link the brake to the rear.
Sidecar brakes can be linked front or rear or not at all. Depending on mgfrs. recommendations and sometimes on the capacity of the bikes master cylinders. Some do not have the cubic capacity to support another slave cylinder without running out of fluid volume.
Some owners/shops will convert a single disc front end to a dual caliper master cylinder to get enough volume to efficiently use a (linked) hydraulic sidecar brake.
If the bike has a rear hydraulic drum brake, linking it with a sidecar disc brake can cause severe handling problems.
If linking is to be done it usually will work better disc to disc or drum to drum for the best braking efficiency. Most sidecar disc brakes use a smaller diameter rotor than the bike has. This keeps the sidecar brake from over whelming the bikes brakes during a panic stop.
On mechanical drum setups like the URAL/Dnepr and such the sidecar brake has the same swept volume as the bikes front and rear brake. So you still have a two to one braking effort on the "Push and Pray" brake systems.
If linking a mechanical sidecar brake to the rear pedal of a hydraulic system, the sidecar brake should be adjusted for use as a drag brake or helper brake. These brakes actually work better as an independent pedal operated brake off-road. They can be set up so that both the rear bike pedal and the sidecar pedal are side by side, thus the brakes can be finessed by the pilot if desired (after much practice).
Lonnie
Lonnie
