front disc brake for Spree/Elite

[mookie]

there is PLENTY of chatter about speed/acceleration.
let's have a dialogue discussing stopping power.

[TURN1]

That is the most common mod for all the souped up mopeds in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Elite S = very expensive and lots of work
Spree = very expensive and lots of work

Worth every penny when you really have to stop. But are you willing to spend upwards of $700 or more for a OEM front end or go the cheap route and drop in a Taiwan front end. Either way you will have to source parts, then cut and weld.

The Elite S will have a steeper rake than stock b/c the wheel is now closer = rougher ride and a little twitchy in the turns. The Spree with a disked front is just badass!!!

DO IT!!!

[turtle13]

i was thinking about this just the other day as a matter of fact. front would be easy, well easier than the rear atleast. machine a block to go exactly in the spot the brake pads currently go and drill 3-4 holes in the wheel to mount said block to wheel. drill and tap the other side of said block to match the rotor you are using, and weld up a bracket for the caliper. of course there are clearance and fitment and plumbing of a master cylinder and balancing of the wheel and proper bracing of the capliper and this and that to take into consideration. yet i have seen many a moped tuner do it this way and have great results with it as long as its fabbed properly. on an aero or elite it may be harder due to the suspension on the front forks...

[TURN1]

i was thinking about this just the other day as a matter of fact. front would be easy, well easier than the rear atleast. machine a block to go exactly in the spot the brake pads currently go and drill 3-4 holes in the wheel to mount said block to wheel. drill and tap the other side of said block to match the rotor you are using, and weld up a bracket for the caliper. of course there are clearance and fitment and plumbing of a master cylinder and balancing of the wheel and proper bracing of the capliper and this and that to take into consideration. yet i have seen many a moped tuner do it this way and have great results with it as long as its fabbed properly. on an aero or elite it may be harder due to the suspension on the front forks...

Sounds like you suggest to reuse the stock crappy fork by fabbing up mounts, and mod the stock rim to accept a disk. No one does it that way here in Honolulu. I am not sure where you "have seen many a moped tuner do it this way".

The most welding I've seen on a stock SPREE fork is for the tab stopper for an Elite S hub brake conversion for the SPREE. *Warning, when this tab breaks, the hub will spin and lock up, causing you to crash.

Everyone does the full front end conversion: Honda G-Dash/Live DIO ZX stem n triple on down. This way you know everything is square and solid. You are risking your life when you mess with brakes. Best to keep it stock with new pads, if you are not going to do it RIGHT the 1st time.

Just speaking from experience...

[devenex]

Is fitting an Aero any more difficult? I know it won't be any cheaper obviously, but are there any additional obstacles?

[mookie]

i was thinking about this just the other day as a matter of fact. front would be easy, well easier than the rear atleast. machine a block to go exactly in the spot the brake pads currently go and drill 3-4 holes in the wheel to mount said block to wheel. drill and tap the other side of said block to match the rotor you are using, and weld up a bracket for the caliper. of course there are clearance and fitment and plumbing of a master cylinder and balancing of the wheel and proper bracing of the capliper and this and that to take into consideration. yet i have seen many a moped tuner do it this way and have great results with it as long as its fabbed properly. on an aero or elite it may be harder due to the suspension on the front forks...

Sounds like you suggest to reuse the stock crappy fork by fabbing up mounts, and mod the stock rim to accept a disk. No one does it that way here in Honolulu. I am not sure where you "have seen many a moped tuner do it this way".

The most welding I've seen on a stock SPREE fork is for the tab stopper for an Elite S hub brake conversion for the SPREE. *Warning, when this tab breaks, the hub will spin and lock up, causing you to crash.

Everyone does the full front end conversion: Honda G-Dash/Live DIO ZX stem n triple on down. This way you know everything is square and solid. You are risking your life when you mess with brakes. Best to keep it stock with new pads, if you are not going to do it RIGHT the 1st time.

Just speaking from experience...

i tend to agree but i have thought of at least trying the SPree fork in some fashion but in the end the correct way will be the less expensive/ sefe way to do it. the idea is to have a GOOD front brake not some (no offense to anyone),cobbled together hodgepodge.

[turtle13]

no offense taken, and in my head i was thinking way more in the lines of precision cnc'd hub and mounting brackets. what i explained sounded way more pieced together than what was going on in my head... just in theory it would be simple, as long as you posses the knowledge and proper tools to do the proper job. but now that i think about it, if you were to do such a conversion, it would be better to swap the front wheel with one that has the proper mounting points for a disc like ruckus riders will do on their conversions.
a new front end that is made for such a conversion would be the preferred way to do it vs. using the stock forks. however with the new front end you may or may not be able to use your existing front fender or front fairing. since unfortunately we actually have body panels unlike the guys who ride a ruckus this is something to consider as well. and Turn1 is right, brakes are nothing to play around with... your life does depend on them.
i never said these moped guys were smart, or safe, or that it looked good on their bike, just that i have seen it done...
long and short of it, its possible, but is it worth it financially? a triple tree is not cheep on its own. cost would add up really fast.

[mookie]

just spoke with Keoni at VT Cycles- a great guy by the way. always willing to impart info without a sale attached to it.

he stated that the most direct, though not "bolt on" was the DD50 front fork. but yeah i agree- a properly fitted Spree conversion woud be the shizate. stealth and innocuous.the one hurdle that strikes me is where to fit a disc/ and caliper in the narrow space of the Spree fork.
as far as the Elite/Aero with trailing link structured forks- mis spoke by mentioning them in sofar as a point of construction anyway.

wish i owned and had the smarts to use a lathe..

[turtle13]

he stated that the most direct, though not "bolt on" was the DD50 front fork. but yeah i agree- a properly fitted Spree conversion woud be the shizate. stealth and innocuous.the one hurdle that strikes me is where to fit a disc/ and caliper in the narrow space of the Spree fork.


wish i owned and had the smarts to use a lathe..

it would have to basically fit inside the wheel, which would pretty much require getting a diferent wheel that has some back spacing to do such, and a small enough rotor/caliper combo to fit within the inside wheel diam.
kinda like this...

[Wheelman-111]

Greetings:

There's another way, maybe well-suited to these tiny rims:

http://www.buell.com/en_us/bikes/street ... atures.asp

Think inside-out. Turn that frown upside-down.

[TURN1]

The pic of the Ruk above is kinda misleading since the width of the triple and the stock SPREE is completely different. On the Ruk there is so much space that you can fit anything on there. With the SPREE, you will no longer be able to reuse the front fender and you will need to fit a MONKEY R fender or something similar from Japan. Taiwan DD50 is the way to go on the cheap.

Basically it's a common mod. Just search on the hawaii forums for advice. Problem will be the willingness to spend $$$

Good luck everyone.

[bakaracer]

the easiest way to disc any bike is to take the whole frontend assembly from a bike that has all the disc brake parts you need.(sym dd50 example).since the stem from a dd50 doesn't fit in a spree frame,you weld the spree stem into the dd50 triple.same goes for the elite s except the elite s you have to tilt the triple tree foward to get the correct rake.here is an example of a swap.



Live dio zx frontend on a 87 elite 50(expensive swap)

[TURN1]

the easiest way to disc any bike is to take the whole frontend assembly from a bike that has all the disc brake parts you need.(sym dd50 example).since the stem from a dd50 doesn't fit in a spree frame,you weld the spree stem into the dd50 triple.same goes for the elite s except the elite s you have to tilt the triple tree foward to get the correct rake.here is an example of a swap.



Live dio zx frontend on a 87 elite 50(expensive swap)

This is the pimp way to do it! As for performance, you won't understand how excellent this setup is until you get into a situation where you need to stop NOW, and it does exactly that.

In addition to the additional stopping power is the better suspension. Worth every penny, if you decide to go that route.

[mookie]

the imparting of the knowledge is the issue.
there are several builder types on the islands that could show us, if not step by step, at least the details of the operation.
hey bakaracer-
how about a peek behind that front cowl !

[bakaracer]

the live dio zx,dio zx af28,dio sr or any of the dio's that have disc brake are plug and play on the 87 elite 50.the stem is the same size as the US elites.the only thing is the spree has a shorter stem so its easier to just weld in the spree stem.the elite s you have to tilt the triple a little to get the rake correct if not the wheel will be to close to the under part of the body and it will look like you ran into a wall.



Here is a pic of the dio sp frontend drum style.