Brembo caliper adapters

discussion about the 750 Sport and '89/'90 900SS, which share many mechanicals with the Paso series
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Danielmc
Posts: 75
Joined: Wed Sep 19, 2012 11:33 am
model: 750 Sport
year: 1990
Location: Taunton, England

Brembo caliper adapters

Post by Danielmc »

Latest news...

Many thanks to Phil, Gerhard and Loudbike Steve Munro for information and advice freely given. My bike has now had new belts fitted, a new starter sprag clutch, new tyres (opted for Metzelers) and new oil, filter and plugs.

The only real concern I had with my beautiful new (to me) 1990 750 Sport was how the front disc setup looked:

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Solid 280mm rotors on alloy carriers were fitted to the 17" wheels, and a pair of Tokico calipers had been adapted to fit the forklegs. It looked like I should be able to fit bigger discs, and Brembo calipers, but things were not quite as straightforward as I'd hoped - fitting 4 pot Brembo calipers to forklegs originally designed to hold Brembo P8s with 108mm centres would require adapters, and there seemed some confusion (in my brain certainly) about what size discs I could mount. I found a pic of what appeared to be adapters that would allow 300 or 320mm discs to be fitted, and set about acquiring some:

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I managed to track down a perfect NOS pair of Menani adapters from Steve in Canada which would allow me to mount 40mm mounting centre Brembo P4s to my forks:

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Unfortunately once I got around to dry assembling everything it became clear that the 40mm Brembo caliper adapters I got wouldn't work with the 320mm discs I wanted to fit. It seems that they will allow you to go up 20mm in diameter over what was originally originally fitted by turning them upside down and swapping them side to side (if you get my meaning) but they are unable to span a larger discrepancy. My bike came with solid 280mm rotors and so the biggest discs I could have fitted would be 300mm ones. A look around ebay for second hand 300mm discs left me a bit saddened, as the only used ones I saw were very used indeed, whereas I had already been offered a like-new pair of 320s. New 300mm discs looked unavoidable, but cost was a factor with Brembos coming in at around £400 and EBC still expensive at £300.

I was facing up to spending big money on new 300mm discs when another look on the download section on here brought renewed hope. I found a drawing for a set of caliper adapters that were designed to fit newer 65mm mounting Brembo 4 pot calipers on to M1R forks with 320mm discs:

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Local Ducati guru Rich Llewellin of Louigi Moto had some made and put the bike together with 320mm discs and 65mm calipers sourced from his spare parts bin over the next few days. The bigger discs and newer calipers promise even better braking performance, and look the business:

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Rich is planning to get extra sets of the caliper adapter brackets made for anyone else looking to fit 65mm calipers and 320mm discs to 750 Sport, 750 Paso or 906 Paso forks running with 17" wheels. Anyone interested in getting a pair from him should drop him an email at rich@louigimoto.com
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ducinthebay
paso grand pooh-bah
Posts: 1323
Joined: Sat Sep 03, 2005 12:00 am
model: 750 Sport
year: 1990
Location: SF Bay Area

Re: Brembo caliper adapters

Post by ducinthebay »

Looks good. New brakes are a wonderful thing. Which pads did you go with? Looks to be stock Brembo Rotors, which should last the lifetime of the bike.
You may want to put some powder coat, or anodize those to keep them looking beautiful.
Duc in the Bay
1990 750 Sport x2-Rosso Blanko (900ss copy) & Nuovo Nudo (Scrambler project)
1991 907 -mostly stock
2002 ST4s - Lots of mods.
User avatar
Danielmc
Posts: 75
Joined: Wed Sep 19, 2012 11:33 am
model: 750 Sport
year: 1990
Location: Taunton, England

Re: Brembo caliper adapters

Post by Danielmc »

Thanks Phil. No idea what the pads are as they just got fitted along with the calipers but they work well, and have plenty of wear left.

I do think I'll need to fit a bigger master cylinder though - the brake lever comes back a bit too far with the current 15mm, so I think I'll find a later style 16mm Brembo unit with the little remote fluid tank and get a clutch master cylinder to match.

I quite like the bare alloy look of the adapters, and at the moment it matches the fork lowers too, but you're right about a protective coating.

Love the bike!
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micklm
Posts: 103
Joined: Fri Jun 05, 2009 8:53 pm
model: 906 Paso
year: 1989
Location: Taranaki, New Zealand

Re: Brembo caliper adapters

Post by micklm »

Hi,

I can confirm these adaptors are great. I've the exact same design, from the same drawing, from this forum, for a couple of years now and several thousands of kms. The new brake setup is outstanding in comparison to the old.

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Enjoy,

Mick
906 Paso 1989 w/ 17in wheels :)
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