Rear Brake Drum to Hydraulic Conversion 1997 VZ800

Hello All

In conjunction of heavy traffic riding and our hot weather I keep having to rely heavily on My front brake as the rear brake drum gets hot and breaking ability gets reduced and starts slipping.

I am playing with the idea of changing the rear brake drum to hydraulic disk brake.

Has anybody done this or have any information were I can start.

No but would definitely be an interesting idea to pursue, maybe even combination/linked brakes!! would make the heavy old bikes much better at stopping. hmmmmm

Interesting Idea, I've never seen it done though? You'd have to start by finding a doner wheel with a disc already fitted then look into having a caliper mount welded to the swing arm, then you'd have to look into master cylinder mounting points and how to connect it to your brake pedal, hopefully you'd be able to source all the parts from the same bike so as they match up pressure wise and made for each other, big job I'd have thought? but doable if you have any engineering friends to keep the costs down.

Hello Fingers,
The conversion can be done,, mostly as Sim has said. I`ve ridden a vz800 with twin front disc conversion but not a rear disc conversion but as I`ve said it can be done,, it was done fairly recently by a guy from Bulgaria.
"The rear wheel is from (1999–2002) Suzuki SV650.
The sprocket carrier is stock all the rest on the rear spindle is form the SV650 and you will need simple 4mm spacer between the brake caliper carrier and the swing arm".
"The rest is to find the place of the brake master cylinder but this depend of what kind of controls you use"
It would not be difficult to get the rear brake master cylinder e.t.c from the sv650 as well.

P.S ( Hello Hawkthe slayer) just as a point of reference the vz800 is not a heavy bike,, it was initially marketed as the sporty bike in the early intruder range ( intruder, volusia, boulevard, and marauder ) it only weighs 207kg,, vl800 2013 I believe 277kg and my 2007 m800 is 245Kg so the vz800 marauder isn't that heavy really.

Hope this is of some help mate.

Thanks Chaps

Many Thanks John. Much appreciated. I now have a starting point.

I will investigate and if the pocket allows I will do the conversion and post the project.

Has anyone else successfully done this conversion? Curious to give it a try