Hyde Fork Brace

Hello-

I was recently lucky enough to purchase my old MKIII that I sold back in the ‘90s.

The bike is equipped with a Norman Hyde fork brace. I have heard that some fork braces, like a couple for BMW airheads, actually make fork action worse due to added stiction. Anyone have experience or comments regarding this item?

Thanks!

Tom

The Hyde fork brace has eccentrics that you rotate to adjust the fit so binding does not occur.

I just refitted mine over the weekend (Mk3) and am having a beggar of a time to stop it adding a small amount of stiction.

Leonc said:

I just refitted mine over the weekend (Mk3) and am having a beggar of a time to stop it adding a small amount of stiction.

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they are pain to set up, I found one of the lower fork legs had a microscopic bend( never was quite sure) causing it to stick, after fooling around with the fork for hours. I got the fork to work only after I replaced that leg. It was years ago and I do not remember the specifics, your results may vary

I opted to fabricate a secondary "bridge" style support mounted via plates extending behind the stock fender bridge, similar to the style pictured below, combined with the stock fender bridge it has helped to limit fork twisting

I remember years ago putting one on my Ducati 900ss. It was a pain to set up and made no noticeable difference. On a road bike it might just be one gimmick to far. However whenever did that ever stop us! I think the standard mudguard probably provides enough bracing, (and possible stiction if not careful). But if you have it why not.

I had one on my Norton for years and could never get it adjusted to remove excess stiction and I finally removed it. For any riding I've done on my Commando, I haven't seen where the brace did anything useful though perhaps the stiction caused the non-improvement. But I tend to agree that it's an "upgrade" that isn't.

Make sure the holes are staight to start with, assemble sliders up and see if the axle slides through, and if you can check to see how the tubes line up, and then bend by hand they are only made off cheese, wait untill you try and fit gaiters very frustrating

I had a Hyde brace on a Triumph once, John Anderson (well known triple specialist RIP) said to me:

“They’re crap they are”

“Why”? Enquires I

“Watch” says he

He proceeded to grab the front wheel between his knees and yank the handle bars from side to side with ease. The whole front end clearly twisting just as it would even without the brace.

“Oh” says I.

The demonstration probably explained why I never noticed any difference when riding with or without the brace!

well I like mine anyways

Fast Eddie said:

I had a Hyde brace on a Triumph once, John Anderson (well known triple specialist RIP) said to me:

“They’re crap they are”

“Why”? Enquires I

“Watch” says he

He proceeded to grab the front wheel between his knees and yank the handle bars from side to side with ease. The whole front end clearly twisting just as it would even without the brace.

“Oh” says I.

The demonstration probably explained why I never noticed any difference when riding with or without the brace!

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I'm not a well known specialist, but the only force that can be applied to your wheel is applied to it on it's contact patch area which is in contact with the ground at about the 6 O'clock position. You could sit on your bike holding your handlebars, and I could grab your rim at 3 O'clock and 9 O'clock and probably break every spoke on your bike... So why doesn't your wheel break off when you ride it??

A: Because your wheel is not stuck between some guy's knees....

I've found from personal experience if it's got "HYDE" on it it will be crap.

I have two braces made by someone in CA. I think the name was PCC or something like that. made out of tubing, very large, and worked quite well. It took hours to set up requiring careful shimming and many fittings. I pulled the front wheel off then the fork caps so the forks would slide up and down easily. Install the axle. Pull up a chair and work till it's done.

I had assumed that a fork brace also helped with flex under hard braking if you only had one disc up the front?
Does the brace not help here either?

o0norton0o said:

I could grab your rim at 3 O'clock and 9 O'clock and probably break every spoke on your bike

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You're either a lot stronger than anyone I know - or on the turps.
I wonder which?

robs ss said:

You're either a lot stronger than anyone I know - or on the turps.
I wonder which?

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OR,... you don't grasp the idea I've proposed... which is that you can easily exert much greater twisting force by "pinching your knees on the wheel at a position horizontal to the hub of the wheel than you can at the contact point which aligns with the length of the fork tubes.... In fact, NO force is ever applied anywhere but the 6 O'clock position where the leverage is minuscule compared force applied to the 3 and 9 O'clock positions... That's just a function of leverage and distance from the point of rotational axis of the yoke..

It's worth noting there are two different styles of bracing, the between the stanchions (Hyde, norvil etc.), and secondary bridges (BMW etc.).

o0norton0o said:

OR,... you don't grasp the idea I've proposed... which is that you can easily exert much greater twisting force by "pinching your knees on the wheel at a position horizontal to the hub of the wheel than you can at the contact point which aligns with the length of the fork tubes.... In fact, NO force is ever applied anywhere but the 6 O'clock position where the leverage is minuscule compared force applied to the 3 and 9 O'clock positions... That's just a function of leverage and distance from the point of rotational axis of the yoke..

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Exaggerations of spoke breaking aside, I kinda agree with you.

But that then begs the question (the answer to which I do believe is beyond me) ... exactly what forces is such a brace designed to combat? And
how? And... the $64m question... how relevant is it??

I know that it is rare for someone to actually grasp my wheel twixt their knees, especially whilst I’m riding!

But, it does serve to raise the question as to what movement a brace is intended to prevent, and why, and how, and does that movement actually occur without one ??

I can say that I, personally, cannot detect the difference when riding with, or without, a brace.

My point was only that the expert's test wasn't relative to how forces are actually applied to the wheel. As far as the difference being undetectable when riding, it may be a case similar to knowing how hard a cam lobe is by feeling it with your hand. Can you feel a difference in surface hardness with your hand because there is no difference in hardness or just that it's beyond your ability to feel it with a hand. As far as the hyde fork brace goes, I don't own one, so I don't know if it makes any perceptable difference, I just know that the expert test is not valid...


As a point of fact, I hate when so called experts get their physics is wrong. It shows me that they have climbed to their position of authority without ever understanding the concepts they are deemed to be knowledgeable in. I see this all the time with racer types who know what a properly set up bike (or car) feels like by the seat of their pants sensations, but don't understand the math or physics involved, so their theoretical explanations are always wrong inspite of their vast experience... In many cases their general comment may in fact be true. Fork braces may indeed be useless and redundant, but the "between the knees" test isn't a fair test to demonstrate why...

As I said, with a LOT of time spent fooling with a Hyde fork brace, ensuring it was aligned/set up as best as I could set it up, its only effect that I could discern was a negative one - increasing stiction and making the front suspension less capable than it is without the brace. My Norton came with the brace installed and the only improvement I found was by (eventually) removing it.