Maico Front Brake

[2 shocks]

Does anyone have any information about adapting Yamaha front drum brake to a 81 490 

Mr Maico #54

[Hoony]

G'day Mr Maico,

hope all is well. this topic came up some time back on the forum, and if i remember correctly Firko had some info, perhaps a PM to him will help you.

Regards

Hoony

[paul]

i bought this bike ages ago and traded some off it to dave mac (includeing the reed barrell)  hind sight is a wonderfull thing 
im not sure if it had a yamaha or ktm front wheel but it also had a square alloy lug welded up the inside of the fork to hold the backing plate in place .the wheel seemed to fit in there nicely

[evo550]

I replaced a complete front end with a yamaha unit, but had to have triple clamps reamed out 1/2 mm to allow 43mm forks.
Pauls way looks cheaper and easier.....you just have to work out how to do it

[JohnnyO]

I did the same and fitted the yamaha forks and wheel by machining out the triple clamps. Was very easy but i'd probably have preferred to keep the maico forks if i did it again.

[holeshot buddy]

i thought maicos were good
do they have a shite front brake

[JohnnyO]

i thought maicos were good
do they have a shite front brake

Only to even things up a little cos they are so much better than the rest of the field.

[maicomc490t]

YZ465 TLS from '80 or '81 will do the trick but a slightly complex looking plate has to be fabricated with a lug to engage the brake plate and extend up the fork leg to be secured by he usual front brake stay mounting lug. Not too hard at all.

The front end I got from Paul included a lug welded to the LH slider a la most Jap bikes to mate up with the KTM? (from memory) TLS - all very neat and destined for a bike I want to build for my young bloke but he will have to settle for the superb? Maico stopper first (he figures cornering speed will be sensational, lol!

Les Richters can also supply on exchange brake shoes lined with some sort of fiction material usually reserved for the brakes on roller-coasters or some such thing.

Boring out the triples is no big deal if required just a bit of a fiddle required although the amount removed from the bores will be on my measurement be 1.3mm as the Maico staunchions are 41.7mm.

In the next week or so I'll try and remember to dig out the bits of both the 465 option along with the other I mentioned and make more sense of it plus take some pics.

Work in progress

Dave Mac

[JohnnyO]

Dave did welding a lug on the lower fork leg distort the leg in any way? Does the fork staunchion still slide in and out freely? I've often wondered if this is the best way for the yamaha wheel conversion opposed to making a bracket with a lug attatched to it like they did back then.

[maicomc490t]

Johnny O - I'll check it all out and report back but from memory all seemed pretty good but care and a good welder would have to be applied that's for sure !

Dave Mac

[evo550]

Dave,
The clamps only require a bit over 1/2 a mill taken out to get the required 43mm dia.

[JohnnyO]

Yeah .65mm on either side or 1.3 in total. You can hardly notice the difference once it's done.

[LWC82PE]

what sort of front rim is that on those photos Paul?

Here is a KTM plate

[frostype400]

Hey i reckon your spot on there Leith it looks to say the same on Pauls plate 

[JohnnyO]

That ktm backing plate looks like it has 2 locating slots for the lug on the fork leg. It does look the same as the one on pauls bike.