Lockheed brakes

Hey guys and gals, I am just going through the lockheed brake thing, and here is the latest deal. I have been working with Michael "Mercury" Morse at Vintage Brake in California, and he sez that he has persuaded Ferodo to re-introduce an exceptional Norton pad which they haven't made in some time. This pad, according to Mike, is extremely effective by itself, and becomes fantastic with his master cylinder ratio changing bore and sleeve job. These brake pads are not available yet, and he was thinking September, maybe. Hey, they are coming from Italy! Right now he has sent me some EBC super sticky pads to get me by, and along with bead blasting of the original disc, and cleaning with acetone, they are better than stock, right from the get-go, but not really that much better until they break in. Time will tell. Have fun!

Your Lockheed brake posts

funhog said:

Hey guys and gals, I am just going through the lockheed brake thing, and here is the latest deal. I have been working with Michael "Mercury" Morse at Vintage Brake in California, and he sez that he has persuaded Ferodo to re-introduce an exceptional Norton pad which they haven't made in some time. This pad, according to Mike, is extremely effective by itself, and becomes fantastic with his master cylinder ratio changing bore and sleeve job. These brake pads are not available yet, and he was thinking September, maybe. Hey, they are coming from Italy! Right now he has sent me some EBC super sticky pads to get me by, and along with bead blasting of the original disc, and cleaning with acetone, they are better than stock, right from the get-go, but not really that much better until they break in. Time will tell. Have fun!

Click to expand...

Hi. How did this all go? I'm keen to follow up on what you hva talked about. Can I get this in Australia? Cheers, Snagger

Some time back .. pardon my loss of recollection as to who.. recommended replacing brake pads with Ferodo pads as a good beginner.


I found newbies on or via E-bay.

The concept of replacing the brake line is a new one to me.. some what of a revelation in fact.

I too considered different 'newer' variants of the brake lever.. but have not gotten to that stage as yet ~

But I beleive my Commando front brake fits into the classic description of "woody" ..

But despite all conscious considerations; I for one am not a big user of the brake/s ! ~ my useage sesm to be confined to short 'taps' !

I will say though that does not suggest that I beleive it is not necessary to improve the goods ~ and I will continue to improve the buggers!

As a skinflint I have standard disc with standard master cylinder, braided hoses but lockeed racing caliper plus adaptor plate from Norvil in UK they supply all sorts of upgrade kits. If you get similar kit from RGM in Cumbria UK, the kit will fit first time unlike Noirvil!!

on mine being the basic set up the brake was still crap until I fitted EBC HH rated pads (gold colour) This doubled braking power straight away

At least you guys have a front disk brake. The prototypes and the first couple of years' production had this screwball Italian twin leading shoe drum brake. When you reached a certain lever force, any additional force input had no effect.

I did some tests using brittle lacquer to find structural distortions and we found that the brake back pate was folding itself up if the braking force exceeded a certain amount.

The top brass at NV decided to try a disk brake, but wouldn't permit any major change to the front wheel. As a result, we couldn't offset the wheel far enough to get a floating caliper design in there. The caliper was fixed and one friction pad was fixed.

We struggled with alternatives. The first was a floating disk, sliding on splines down at the hub. This was a steel disk and the splines were in aluminium. The disk was about 11" diameter with the pads near the outside. The splines were about 3.5" diameter. Needless to say, when the brake was applied, the disk tipped slightly and jammed on the splines.

The boffins then decided the aluminium splines were too soft and substituted a ring of steel dowel pins for the disk to slide on. These were still down around the hub, maybe on a 4" diameter pitch circle. More testing, more jamming, more distorted disks.

Finally, the development of a front disk brake was abandoned and the 2LS drum continued in production, though it did get a stiffer backplate as a result of my brittle lacquer evaluation.

I guess about the 71 model year, after I'd left and so had a bunch of the N-V "old guard" someone got a brake manufacturer to come up with a workable floating caliper design with an offset rim/spoke wheel.

Stopping the prototypes from a decent speed was always an adventure. Remember, we were testing before the UK introduced a blanket 70 mph limit. Back then it was 30 mph wherever there were street lights and no limit anywhere else. People routinely did 130 mph or more on the motorways, if their vehicle could get up that high. We routinely did 85+ on winding rural roads. Seems a bit greedy that we were actually being paid to do it!

Frank,

Excellent bit of history on the development of the Norton front brake!

Thank you for sharing that with us. I enjoyed it and hope to read more pieces like that from you.

Jason

Ditto

I couldn't under stand the complaints on stock disc brake
on my first Combat. Only thing I found different was the
restrictor hole in end of the rubber valve at end of
master cylinder bore. I actually could pull a Cdo stoppie
with it, which means you ether are fighting to fly over
bars or fighting rear swaping ends.

I brought home another Combat and then understood the
so so slow down complaints. A deer knoced the front end
skewy so on going thru m/c, I took a big red hot nail
and made this hole WAY bigger and got the brake Norton
should have sold from the start. Its more than a safe
modification it should be common knoweldge and done
to all stock master cyliinders. It made as much improvement
as the RGM resleeve kit did in first bike, which kit has NO
restrictor at all. I only did a resleeve d/t bad bore corrrison.

I rate my signifcance to shorter stopoing mods best to least
BIG hole in valve rubber, [only retained to space spring]
resleeve to 22-ish ratio via 11mm/1/2" bore.
RGM racing lever [good less effort surprise item]
good brake pads
SS braided hose
soft tire compound
less spun mass, over ~1.5 lb can be removed off disc
by drilling and slooting out big areas and if done right
its a no risk long proven method by expert Nortoneers.

BTW you don't have to be in hot heavy traffic to
have a disc brake lock up form heat, its totally an
issue with the plunger length/piston retraction position
and just parking in summer sun can be enough bike won't
move till plunger rubbed shorter over a few trys, but
just enough never to bind again. I've pondered at
the rusted spokes on disc side and how i've neve been
able to brake hard/often enough to get very hot out to
the hub but if this heat expansion cassed a mild drag
it wouldn't be felt but could heat up over a mild ride.

I like the action and look of the scuptured caliper so
much I'm keeping it to grip a big wave rotor, not for any
more stop, got that beyond tire capasity, just want
less mass and better looks on a special.

hobot

I changed the master on my 74, as the original was pretty messed up looks and function-wise. I fitted a 13mm Grimeca, made a SS/Teflon hose, stripped the chrome off the stock disc and drilled it with lots of 3/16 holes (but never to within a 1/4" of the outer edge) and fitted SBS brake pads....ok...fitted EBC pads and was very happy. Able to lock up the front with an Avon Roadrunner on it, and much better feel. All I needed.
I suspect that a sleeved down stock master should work as well, but can't say for sure.

suspect that a sleeved down stock master should work as well, but can't say for sure.

Click to expand...

Kim
Someone herein suggested that these sleeve kits are available form RGM in Cumbria.. and yep they have a web site.

As i mentioned the Ferodo brake pads were the simpliest and best boon I have added to mine to date..

Never used the new Ferodo pads (green?), but if they are sintered, most likely they are waaaaaay better than the stock ones.

There are thousands of good 13mm/14mm Jap M/C's out there waiting to be used for very little money. I foune=d a 89 750 katana 14mmm MC for 15 bucks on the net it hase adlustable lever nice brake switch built in.
I used it with a kill switch from a 99 955 Daytona triumph, and a ner dual cable throttle twistgrip. Made a new bike out of my 75 850 Norton.

Bill Edwards Simi Valley CA