As I was walking to my bike in the parking lot for some reason (possibly the red Brembos on the first car) I noticed that some calipers were mounted on the front whereas others in the rear of the disc. it was consistently either front-front or rear-rear and one SUV had rear-front placement. Which lead me to wonder as to why and what might be the ideal position or placement for effective braking? On the bikes it's back and front possibly due to mount point constraints..
Just wondering and thought I'd share..
BTW, agree with you all and love riding in this cold weather.
I've wondered the same thing in the past, taking notice that while viewing the passenger side of most high-performance sports cars (911 & S2000 for example, and many many others), the front calipers are mounted at 9 o'clock, while the rears are at 3. The reasons for doing so may vary, but it may be something as simple as the mass-centralization engineers gone mad.
For a motorcycle, it just seems logical that the caliper mounting points would be to the rear of the fork tubes, especially on radially-mounted types. That way, it's direct metal-on-metal contact points, rather than having stretching tension put on the bolts.
Hi Guys, brake caliper placement on the front axle is determined whether the car is Front wheel drive (East / West or side to side engine orientation) or rear wheel drive (North / South engine orientation. Front wheel drive calipers are at the front of the disc because the steering rack is behind the engine and so the tie rods connect to the steering knuckles at the rear, where-as rear wheel drive cars typically have the steering rack towards or at the front of the engine so the tie-rods connect to the steering knuckles at the front which means of course the calipers are positioned at the rear of the front discs. Rear brake caliper placement is more about suspension / rear axle design and where they fit best.. Hope this helps.
(10-29-2013, 04:54 PM)Kiwikevin_imp Wrote: [ -> ]Hi Guys, brake caliper placement on the front axle is determined whether the car is Front wheel drive (East / West or side to side engine orientation) or rear wheel drive (North / South engine orientation. Front wheel drive calipers are at the front of the disc because the steering rack is behind the engine and so the tie rods connect to the steering knuckles at the rear, where-as rear wheel drive cars typically have the steering rack towards or at the front of the engine so the tie-rods connect to the steering knuckles at the front which means of course the calipers are positioned at the rear of the front discs. Rear brake caliper placement is more about suspension / rear axle design and where they fit best.. Hope this helps.
Thanks Kevin. Makes a lot of functional sense.
Not sure if there's a rule of thumb for bikes. Just about a week ago a friend of mine pointed out an old CB and noted that he could tell what year it was by the caliper placement. Apparently, Honda just up and decided to move it from behind the fork to the front from one year to the next.