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Ok. About to throw my hands in the air in disgust. My trusted and well worn 76 860 GTS back brakes are terrible and always have been. I`ve replaced the brake shoes with the softest compound I could get. Had them machined to suit the drum and they`re useless. Always have been despite my best efforts. So I`m on the verge of putting a disc on the back (yowch!!!! .......expensive). Alternativly I`ve noticed on many a Jap bike they like to use a rod rather than a cable. When I depress my brake pedal I can see it flex the cable) and am wondering if a combination of flex on the loooooong brake pedal, possible torsional twist on the cross over shaft and straightening of the cable is just absorbing all the force. Bear in mind on my Honda XR500 dinosaur chaser the rear wheel can be locked up from 100 kph + no problem and the drum is minature compared to the 860.
A good friend with another 860 complains of the same thing.

So.........my question to all you out there in Bevel land is:
If you have an 860 GTS how would you rate your back brakes??
If they`re good how did you make them good?
Could you, if enough force was applied, lock up the back wheel? Obviously I`m aware locking of back wheels is a dangerous and undesirable thing to do but what I`m trying to find out is do your drum brakes have that sort of gusto.
When I say they`re bad I mean these things won`t pull it up from 20 kph. They are that bad, use of them is purely a reflex action.

Jeez Lumpy,

I thought you would have had a dozen replies to this so far ???

I wish I could help, but my GTS is still a project in progress , so maybe in another 12 months I could at least give a comparitive answer.

Not sure if they operate the same as a 750 GT, but I sure as hell locked up my Brothers 73 back wheel, Just couldn't adjust to the reverse pedals.

Funny, he hasn't given me a ride since then ???

Just to ask the obvious, is the inner drum and cable OK ??

Surely somebody out there has a GTS/GT, even just for an opinion?

Cheers Rick.

Gidday Rick, yeah sure is quite out there on this one. Inner drum is good, cable good and the linnings I replaced the old ones with are soft as sh*t and make no more difference than the old hard linings. I`m thinking of throwing rear sets on the old girl so need to get the brakes sorted before so debating if to go to a disc to solve the issue. Jap bikes I`ve owned do the job with a drum so don`t see why this ones so lame. Was wondering if I took all the spring out of this system with a shorter pedal on the rear sets and set up a rod rather than the cable as per our oriental built friends if it would help. Would hate to go to all the effort and still have accelerator brakes.

Its been a long time since I sold my 860GT but I don't remember even the slightest problem with the back brake, even after converting it to left side operation.

Bruce

Well I guess that might settle it. I`m thinking the drum itself is not the issue, rather the flex in the long pedal, which I can see as I depress it and the cable. The cable makes a sort of "S" shape going to the lever and when I press on the pedal I can see it trying to straighten and I`m guessing this may absorb braking pressure. Maybe thats the reason the rod is used on other bikes. I`ve been thinking of fitting rear sets and running a cross over shaft and then a rod in place of the cable.