Front Brakes Doing My Head In - Please Help :-(

Ok clever blokes, the front brakes are doing my crust in. The bike came with two calipers with Triumph embossed on them, it was fitted with 296mm diameter discs. All good so far except the pads, which are almost square in shape overhung the edge of the discs and didn't seem to me to go far enough in to the center. The curvature of the pad seemed to match the curvature of the disc. Now then, bear with me here, The Haynes manual says my bike (1992 Trident) should have what it calls type b calipers, which mount with a bracket and a couple of spacers. I acquired a pair at great expense, bought some new pads and went to fit them. The pads look like they are for a smaller diameter disc, they are curved but basically too curved. So my question is this - did the early bikes have smaller discs on the front? What are the right calipers for my bike? Is the earth still flat? Why am I chewing the carpet? Sorry, I digress, this really is driving me mad. I now have 2 pairs of calipers with new pads that have cost a packet and nothing seems to fit. I really am starting to think I got sold a pup with this lot :-( Any guidance gratefully accepted. Cheers.

 

Thanks Oldyam, I'm sure you are correct. What really puzzles me is that the pads for the rear are the same as the left front yet the rerar disc is 255mm - the pads look right in there. But on the front they look wrong. From what you have said they are correct but I have never seen an installation before where the curvature of the outside of the disc does not match the curvature of the pads. The other thing I am struggling with is that if the type b calipers are correct - and I think they are - I don't know what size the spacers need to be. I have measured them as 6mm top and 8mm bottom - any idea how I can verify that?

 

That's brilliant, thank you so much. I will knock some up either this evening ot tomorrow. I realise now when I tried to measure it earlier it was what we experts call " on the cock". Oh well, at least now I know I can press on with the right bits, still seems weird that a 255mm diameter disc and a 296mm diameter disc would use the same pads. Hey ho, thanks again, I really appreciate you taking the time to help me.

 

Thanks again. I did a bit more research and realised that the rear caliper is very similar to the fronts. it takes the same pads as the front left. I have just run up some spacers on my lathe, I trial fitted them, it does all look pretty much right now. The paint can dry overnight and I will fit them properly in the morning. All the best Dave.

 

Mine is a rather ancient but lightly used Henry Milnes screw cutter. It's got built in lever operated gear box, power feed and power cross slide, you can have power in both directions. When we moved I had a Korean machine which I didn't want to move so I sold it and put the money to one side. I found this one just a couple of miles down the road from the new house. I got it for half what I got for my Korean machine so I was well pleased. It had a ton of tooling with it too I also have a Peatol micro lathe for doing tiny bits on, I used to make steam engines as a hobby but don't have time for it now. Here's one I made earlier - a 2 1/2 inch gauge Flying Scotsman.

 

Brings back memories of my apprenticeship, we had half a dozen of the old Boxfords in what we used to call the Trog Shop. Happy days