harleyKmodel

Hi George,

In my 35 years or riding KK, KHK and Iron Head Sportsters, it has been my experience that the 52/61 1/2 hub brake works better than the full 63/72 width drum that work better than any H-D later disc brake set ups...

Given the choice, I shall always use the 1/2 hub set up...

Still, if you want to try it to confirm my experience, there're no mods to be carried out, same cable, same anchor...

The later one just fit nicely where the older one has departed...

Patrick

Hi George. Hi Patrick, I agree, just saw your reply, From my experience the K front Pancake has nice feel and power. Two up and etc...I have heard it may be better than the full width Hamburger. I have no experience with that yet. The axle/spacer may be slightly larger, so lower legs need hole sized. I think thats the difference. Or, I have lower legs someone has sized for bigger Chopper Axle. Not sure...Erik

No Erik,

same axle, same nut...

Patrick

Ok, yeah these were chopped oversize then. Thank you. I have Hamburger Brakes complete sets if anyone wants such. Erik

Any of these old brakes can be made better with the use of the new materials. Correct setup will do wonders for them. Over time the shoes wear unevenly. The 'open" (right) side of the drum when hot expands more than the "closed" (left) side of the drum. This allows more pressure on the "closed". That in turn means the shoes wear more on the left side. This will eventually lead to a loss of braking force over the entire shoe. It's equivalent to a loss of brake surface area.
For normal street riding this is no big deal. Well, until it gets very worn. The concerns I always had were that with repeated high(er) speed stops you got so much heat into the brakes that they started fading. The more surface area you have the more you can resists that fade.
Almost any drum front brake can be set up to lock up the front wheel under full pressure. We try hard not to do that as that leads to some loss of directional control. I generally just fall off. I hate that bit.
But I found another problem when setting up the early conical hub brakes. If you make them function "Too Well" they twist the front forks. Those puny 33mm forks just aren't up to the task.
This becomes a problem when riding in today's traffic. With cars now running 4 wheel 9 inch 4 piston calipers and ABS inboard of 8 or 9 inch wide sticky tires we can no longer out brake them They out brake us.
This can lead to a sudden loss of forward momentum as you smash their tail lights with your nose.