Anyhow, it was a combined brake-line torque-arm. A solid tube with two flex lines at either end. The fluid was carried down the length of a hollow Aluminum rod!

So I’ve got this old IKEA floor-lamp from the ’80s or early ’90s – I’ll have to dig up some old IKEA catalogues and get ya’ll the name of the lamp – “IVAR” rings some bells. And yeah, they’re sorta like the usual hollow “lamp rod” but beefier and a larger thread size, female ends and it’s a seam-welded steel pipe. They’re about the right length for the CB900F swinger (or the original CAL-FAB arm on my “CB900K0 Bol Bomber”) I’ve just gotta figure out the right FITTINGS for the things. Each lamp comes with nine rods in the kit. Gotta find some clevises and ideally “T” fittings so the crush-washers on the banjo fittings don’t have to deal with the compression/release cycles of the torque-arm.

Imagine how rigid a brake line like THAT would be! Heck, even just a rigid automotive style brake line run clamped to the swinger, with a flexible line on each end where it’s required only for assembly & maintenance plus the movement of the rear suspension.

It’s been a dream for some time now, to put this type of torque-rod on the bike. I suppose it might be just as sensible to find some type of machined Aluminum rod to convert, rather than dig up the exotic fittings suitable for the IKEA lamp. But then again, there’s a perverse pleasure to be found in using “found object” parts to fix an old motorcycle. Especially if they’re period-correct!

I’ve gotta dig up that old magazine – the two bikes were on the cover, something about “Italian Flair” or some such – I’ve gotta dig it up so I can scan the image of what I’m talking about here. It’s a really awesome mod. Everybody’s gonna forget about stainless brake lines as soon as THIS type of stuff catches on!

-Sigh.

I’ve got “a few” rims for my CB900K0 Bol Bomber wire-spoke conversion, some drilled for the Honda rear hub and others drilled for the HARLEY rear hub – for which I intend to do the “Front Hub Trick” with a bolt-up cush-drive and a spacer for a rotor adapter etc. Now THAT’S gonna have a smaller disc on it alright. Maybe the 260mm front rotor from CB350F/CB400F, ’cause I’m shooting for a whole “period-correct” look for this bike, a “retro-fried” style in keeping with the theme, that of a tribute to the ’65 CB450K0 Black Bomber – (hence the name)

ANYWAY – for the version of the rear wheel that I’m whipping up with the CB750F1 rear hub, I’m looking at various rear calipers but an obvious first choice would be the 276mm size from the CBR1000F Hurricane etc, just a couple of years later and done up in the same style right down to the holes in the caliper-hanger etc. So the rotor could either be cut down to the new diameter, OR – there are replacement rotor kits from “Metalgear Australia” where they treat your old carrier to a powder-coat and fit a replacement outer disc. They’ve got options for all of these 9-rivet carriers in both 296mm and 276mm, cross-drilled in all sorts of interesting patterns. So yeah, I suppose one could use a GL1000/CB550 front rotor bolted to the rear disc’s carrier. If you were to find one in good shape. It’s not a HUGE change, but it should shave some un-sprung mass & rolling inertia, yet keep the original aesthetics – ‘Cause that’s how Honda SHOULD have done it in the first place – dual 296mm rotors up FRONT, and 276mm as the absolute outside max diameter on the rear brake.

THIS is the type of thing to look at first, when dealing with ’75-’85 Honda rear disc brakes.

Now – as for the LINES – My front brakes came with two full-length stainless-braided hoses, with a double banjo bolt at the master-cylinder. Seems like an alright upgrade, until you consider it’s just a stainless SLEEVE over another rubber hose. Possibly the best feature of hoses like this would be the inner tube of polyethylene – for those which have it. I’d rather have a braided hose which has the reinforcing material IMPREGNATED into the hose itself. Not a fancy sleeve on the outside. Functionally, that’s only gonna grab & restrict the inner hose once it’s already ballooned all out of shape! The sleeves would have to be pulled really tight and stretched into the clamp fittings at the ends.

But I’m more concerned with the idea of two full-length hoses rather than the T or Y fitting. Sure, it’s probably a lot easier to bleed, though if you’re using good technique you shouldn’t have a problem with bleeding the hoses anyhow. (Seriously!)

Look at it this way – The two full-length hoses are how a good 7-8 feet long in total. The flex in the lines is now going to be the flex factor times that length. So you’ve gotta ask – What’s the factor of greater stiffness in the new stainless braided line, as compared to the original rubber lines? Given that the two full length lines are now 1.3 times LONGER than the original set-up, it’s gotta be at least that much better just to be EQUAL.

And that’s not even the original line either, that’s another aftermarket line. ‘Cause the original lines had a good length of STEEL brake tubing down at the caliper ends!

So let’s consider the original METAL brake hoses – The stretch factor on those things is what? ZILCH.

MY ideal dream set-up brake lines would incorporate those metal tubes down at the calipers, doesn’t matter whether it’s my current CB900F 39mm fork with CBX pro-link caliper hangers for the two-pot sliding calipers, or the GL1500 41mm TRAC fork with 20mm axle that i’m swapping it out for as soon as I can make the 200km round trip to pick it up – with the late ’80s style sliding twin-pot calipers – or anything else heck even with some crappy looking USD fork off of some fugly plastic modern crotch-rocket, I’d wanna use a line like this on those brakes too!

How about a short flex-line from the master-cylinder to the top yoke, then a rigid line down to the bottom yoke, then either an additional flex line from the bottom yoke to the fork brace or two of ’em if you want to put the splitter at the top – it’s either at the top or the bottom of the suspension travel, either the extra span of flex-line in the mix OR you’re adding that splitter to the un-sprung mass and it’ll travel with the wheel as it bounces – then I’d want the hard line down at the bottom connecting to the caliper as well.

Even with the OEM rubber hose up your nose, the total length of flex line in this system could be about a foot and a half long, max. More like a foot or even less.

THEN you’d be able to feel the “caliper flex” etc and get a full feed-back sensation, or at least you’d benefit from the full travel of your brake lever!

-Sigh.

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