Well, I just bought my first "real" pocket bike. It's a Blata Elite 13S.
I've not even seen it yet as it's in CA. Money was O.N. this afternoon.
Never one to waste time, the cable operated brakes are just going to bug the snot out of me.
Anyone taken the time to upgrade this kind of bike to a hydraulic setup? I'm thinking Brembo or at least a Nissin setup.
Also considering a bigger master cylinder at the lever along with a front/rear differential valve so I only have to pull one lever. Just dial in how much rear I want and roll! (I like lazy simple stuff)
If anyone's done anything like this, I'd be happy listen to ideas.
Dont need to go that fancy really, pro max mechanic two piston calipers are more then enough for even a blata. I just put one on my Cag quad, very responsive. Hayes HFX Mag hydraulic brakes would be the best..
What's the center line of your caliper mounting holes, if there 48mm you might be able to use the Cag/X bike hydraulic bike front and rear sets. PBParts in Florida, w/my 10% off the set was $50. Fits right on the Cag and X7s too.
If you spend $100 on parts you get free shipping and a card for 10% off my next purchase,lol. I have been dealing with PBParts in Florida for over 3 years. If your nort sure they have an order phone and they will help you get the right parts so you don't have to ship them bacl,lol. I shop around, bought stuff from here and everywhere else on the planet. The Sad News for me was they don't fit my C1, which has like 51mm centers I believe,lol.
Chad, you should get some used bike brake calipers with 2 pistons. the mechanicals offer almost as much seize grip than the hydraulic brakes, but require more adjustment. I put a 35 dollar twin piston Pro Max from walmart, and the difference is night and day compared to the stock brakes, I can now lock up the rear tires at 30-40mph and stop in 10 feet.
If you guys just need a lightweight power supply for whatever, consider taking a trip down to the local RC hobby shop.
I am pretty serious with my RC planes. Giant Scale 150cc+ gasoline powered 3D aerobatic and pylon race planes. I prolly have close to 20K invested in them-if not more.
A power source used for the onboard electronics is lithium/polymer batteries. Super powerful, lightweight, and with huge miliamp capacities. (10,000+ on some of my models)
Just know you can't hook these up to a conventional charger. It takes a special one otherwise they'll catch on fire and burn your house down. (no kidding, they'll explode)
I'm going to stick with a hydraulic setup. I'll buy the right stuff, that's not an issue. What I really want to do is setup the braking system with a proportioning valve. (Summit Racing Equipment sells them for around $50 bucks)
This way I can adjust the bias (meaning differential between front/rear brakes) on the fly. Doing it this way would allow me to use one brake lever only. Very cool as I'd be able to have only one job per hand.
I think it'll also aid in diving deep into a corner as it'll provide controllable stopping power to both wheels. On a big bike the rear brake is almost useless on the track for real stopping power. I always intentionally bled a little air into the rear brake so that it wouldn't lock up. This way I could just use the peddle to basically keep the bike tracking as I hammered the front when coming off a straightaway into a corner. Half the time my rear tire was about 3" off the ground anyways when doing this.
-None of this happened overnight. It took a long time to get comfortable with it.
My idea is essentially the same here only now it's consolidated to one brake lever only.
We'll see. It'll be fun setting this up. Thankfully I own a machine shop so building the parts to hang it all won't be a big deal.
I'm going to stick with a hydraulic setup. I'll buy the right stuff, that's not an issue. What I really want to do is setup the braking system with a proportioning valve. (Summit Racing Equipment sells them for around $50 bucks)
This way I can adjust the bias (meaning differential between front/rear brakes) on the fly. Doing it this way would allow me to use one brake lever only. Very cool as I'd be able to have only one job per hand.
I think it'll also aid in diving deep into a corner as it'll provide controllable stopping power to both wheels. On a big bike the rear brake is almost useless on the track for real stopping power. I always intentionally bled a little air into the rear brake so that it wouldn't lock up. This way I could just use the peddle to basically keep the bike tracking as I hammered the front when coming off a straightaway into a corner. Half the time my rear tire was about 3" off the ground anyways when doing this.
-None of this happened overnight. It took a long time to get comfortable with it.
My idea is essentially the same here only now it's consolidated to one brake lever only.
We'll see. It'll be fun setting this up. Thankfully I own a machine shop so building the parts to hang it all won't be a big deal.
As this moves along I'll post up photos.
C.
I Cant wait to see the photos.. On my polini the front wheel has 2 brake discs on the front wheel and the one Domino Lever pulls both the brakes.. I kind of wanted to get one of these for the other blata and use it so I would only have one Brake lever for the front and back.. But now you have me thinking... I might just have to follow your lead and go hydrolic! Make extra parts... Wink..
my Elite 13 had 1 lever for both... I used Hayes HFX mag calipers and discs(High end mountain bike brakes), and they have the hardware available to make it possible available for those brake systems. They are bolt on to the stock brackets, and easy to use. Probably the best you could buy for that bike. Not cheap though.
