A very interesting brake failure story

[kaidemarco]

So my buddy is having some problems with his CL350, but we decided to ride around a little anyway. We have been having some problems with idling, however we did not expect this.

He was braking at a stop sign, heard a click, and looked down to se his rear brake rod and arm had wrapped around his wheel.
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Our working theory is that the black control arm at the bottom became unfastened due to a lack of a cotter pin. Previous owners fault for not properly reinstalling the brakes, even more our fault for not properly checking them.

Amazingly, we were able to unravel it with only pliers and a screwdriver, and walked his bike to a friends house that had an old little honda he was parting out. I think it was a ct90.

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Now he's got a baby brake arm! Works good enough until we can get a new one.

[KenCM450]

I totally understand the urge to take a spin, and applaud the ingenuity of the fix, but those Dunlop Qualifiers... just how old are they?

[ancientdad]

I've seen it many times, and the damage that can occur can be a lot worse. I once had a worn out set of rear shoes allow the brake cam to open fully flat between the shoes, ending in total lock-up and a broken backing plate at the torque strap bolt and the same wrapped-around-the-axle situation. It can be scary if you're going fast enough, glad this one happened at low speed. That said, did you have another shouldered bolt for the torque strap to backing plate attachment point? Or were you able to find it? Oh, and BTW, his braking force will be reduced with the shorter arm as well.

[kaidemarco]

I totally understand the urge to take a spin, and applaud the ingenuity of the fix, but those Dunlop Qualifiers... just how old are they?

Very old. And its a harley wheel on the back. It's all on the list to be replaced!

[kaidemarco]

I've seen it many times, and the damage that can occur can be a lot worse. I once had a worn out set of rear shoes allow the brake cam to open fully flat between the shoes, ending in total lock-up and a broken backing plate at the torque strap bolt and the same wrapped-around-the-axle situation. It can be scary if you're going fast enough, glad this one happened at low speed. That said, did you have another shouldered bolt for the torque strap to backing plate attachment point? Or were you able to find it? Oh, and BTW, his braking force will be reduced with the shorter arm as well.

We were able to find the bolt, luckily. It looks new because the nut was MIA. And I thought his braking power might be reduced because of the arm, good thing we are just taking it on short rides right now. Honestly, before we found the CT90 part-out, we weren't that far from his house and I told him just to run it just with only the front brake. Maybe my the confidence in my CB350G's disc brake was getting to my head! Probably better we found the arm.

[ancientdad]

Maybe my the confidence in my CB350G's disc brake was getting to my head! Probably better we found the arm.

I've ridden many, many miles with a less than 100% effective rear brake before, the front brake does 70% to 80% of the stopping effort so a short ride without the rear brake would have been fine as long as he is well-versed in front brake usage. Glad you found the shouldered bolt, going with a standard bolt is just inviting that to happen again later. As for reduced leverage with the shorter arm, as long as he is aware and can compensate properly with more foot pressure he should be fine, but he should also avoid any high speed activity between that and those old tires.