Vintage BMW Motorcycle Owners

Actually I'm very pleased with my R69S front brakes. Make sure they're adjusted correctly. Duane Ausherman has some info on this at:

http://www.w6rec.com/duane/bmw/brake/index.htm

One thing is that the levers on the side of the brake drum should be close to 90 degrees to the cable when they are being actuated...that gives you the best mechanical advantage. Try adjusting them and I think you'll see some improvement.

I think you do have to dial back your expectations and increase your awareness when riding the /2...I know I do.

Kurt in S.A.

my R50, when i first got it, had surprisingly good brakes, i thought. despite being neglected in a garage since about when i was born.

People who get on a /2 from a modern bike often joke about how they are the original ABS brakes -- there's no way to lock 'em up. I agree with Kurt that you're not going to get the kind of "stop on a dime and give change" performance that modern disk brakes are capable of. In town, you will definitely want to lengthen your following distances and be more vigilant about the traffic.

(Still, if you come at it from the other direction, and go from a half width hub /3 to a /2, you will understand that they were a great improvement in their era. And if you remember the traffic of that time, you know that even in LA the speeds were down a lot from today.)

I have found that the brake lining material that Vech sells is much better than the stock materials others are selling. I don't know what the longevity will be for my brake drum, but it really does work better.

Your statement about Black Kat's (a shop in LA) "upgraded shoes" is interesting because these bikes were designed to keep the original shoes and have only the linings, which were rivetted to the shoes, replaced. Even in the era, many people instead had linings bonded to the shoes. This is fine, but the shoes are expensive if you have to replace them. On the /5 series, BMW themselves bonded the linings and the shoes were much less expensive to replace.

Thanks guys. Rick's (BLack Kat) shoes are stock - with the more modern linings bonded on.

I am going to try carrying those lever alignment/lube operations out.

Did all the alignment of levers stuff...smarter operation, but still weakorama. I'm going to take the hub apart and see what I find in there.

I just took my R69 for the first real ride since I got her, and the brakes scare me stiff. Even had Black Kat's upgraded shoes installed, and she still hardly slows down when I grab a handful. If someone turns left, I'm dead.

Any way to improve the brakes (mainly the front)?