RGM Lockheed Racing/AP racing caliper and disc kit

Mart UK said:

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I am used to modern bikes, so I find it lacks feeling and requires a strong pull. The rear is surprisingly good. So I nearly always use both together. With the front on it's own, I'm sure I'm wide eyed, as I pray for them to stop in time. I've replaced the fluid. However, the pads are those that came with it in 2014. I have plenty on them, so I gave them a thorough clean. No improvement. But I've got in some EBC replacements, which I'll swap in next service, that might improve things.
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Brakes are pretty important! Why am I waiting til next service? Put new front pads in this afternoon and went for a spin.

Braking is transformed, night and day difference. Can't explain why. The old ones had plenty left on them. They had a slight chamfer in one corner of each of them, but don't look dirty/contaminated, nor shiny. Anyhow, I apologise to RGM, the performance is quite acceptable. Not braked really hard on them yet, but very clear improvement. The disc and calliper were a little hot when I got back, but I've no idea if that's unusual. Never checked it before. The wheel is as easy to rotate on the centrestand as before and it coasted fine. Will keep an eye on that.

Just thought I'd correct my previous misgivings on the RGM set up.

Some pads are like bits of hard wood ,

Shelby-Right said:

My caliper has never wandered , here's a pic for hard line .View attachment 98670

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Thanks for the picture of this. It was the info I was looking for. It looks great. The hardline setup is perfect. And the lower fender brace looks great

I bought the Norvill single 13" kit (one of several on offer) looks good with nice fit an d finish and its performance is fine even with the un-sleeved stock MC. The look of the disc is quite imposing when you're accustomed to looking at the stock setup. A few things I did not like about the installation: Nuts and bolts fixing the adapter to the fork and the caliper to the adapter are tedious to assemble; the bleed screw does not end up at the high point when assembled; the supplied braided tube sort of waves in the breeze and looks sloppy; on the MKIII installation the wheel assembly cannot be removed without removing the caliper, even with the bike on the center stand on a 2X4. This latter issue is all the more annoying because I re-bent the factory hard line from the fork leg to the caliper for a neater look, not realizing till I was done that if I remove the caliper to drop out the front wheel, I would have to bleed the system. That is in itself a chore I'd rather not do. It would be easier to remove the front fender, provided you don't break off one of the fixing bolts in the fork leg.

I have an RGM rotor on my friends bike and am having a problem with the rivets hitting the slider.Has anyone encountered this.All spacers are correct and cannot figure what is wrong.He put in a.040 washer to get the clearance but there must be a better cure.The only way I can think of is to have the disc surface ground where it bolts to the hub.Any help would be appreciated. I would wonder if ground would there be enough material to keep the integrity of the disc
Thanks, Mike

YING said:

I have an RGM rotor on my friends bike and am having a problem with the rivets hitting the slider.Has anyone encountered this.All spacers are correct and cannot figure what is wrong.He put in a.040 washer to get the clearance but there must be a better cure.The only way I can think of is to have the disc surface ground where it bolts to the hub.Any help would be appreciated. I would wonder if ground would there be enough material to keep the integrity of the disc
Thanks, Mike

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I have removed marterial from the inside face of the fork leg before when I had a similar issue with a PR / Norvil set up.

Thanks Nigel,
How did you remove the material from the lower fork ?
Mike

Shelby-Right said:

Hi Ying, the previous owner , fitted the , RGM I think , kit ,and andover master , works fantastic, I don't know if that came with the stainless bundy bit , if you need small tight bends like that Sykes pickavent make a nice two piece little bender. Lower fender stay was just modified localy easy enough .Cheers. .

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Do you have link of said bender?

I will go to shed and get the part number, here's a pic makes tight little bends .

Fast Eddie said:

I have removed marterial from the inside face of the fork leg before when I had a similar issue with a PR / Norvil set up.

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The original fork leg on the PRs had a flat machined on it to clear the disk carrier. It also came with a different front hub (Campagnolo) without the offset lacing of the standard Commando front disk assembly. To clear the spokes without the offset lacing, there was a bevel on the inside of the caliper. If you fit the Norvil/PR disk and caliper to a standard Commando front fork and wheel setup, using a caliper bracket instead of the Norvil slider, you may have to machine a similar flat on the slider. Even if you use a repro Norvil slider, you might still have to machine the clearance flat. Some of the repro sliders did not have the flat as delivered.

FWIW, when I briefly converted my PR to dual disks back in the late '70s using a repro Norvil for the second side, I had to machine the same flat on the slide to clear the disk carrier.

These are pictures of the Norvil conversion I did on my grandsons MK3 a few years ago, using a repro slider, original disk, and repro carrier with standard Commando 5-bolt pattern (The orignal PR carriers were 4-bolt to fit the Campy hub). The machined flat is just barely visible in the close-up shot. The caliper was a period Spondon replacement for the Lockheed.







Ken

YING said:

Thanks Nigel,
How did you remove the material from the lower fork ?
Mike

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Flapwheel disc in an angle grinder

When I bought my 850 Commando it already had the Lockheed racing caliper and 13mm master cylinder conversion but found it lacking in both bite or 'feel'. After trying various different pads I upgraded to a 300mm floating disc from RGM which made it a bit better but still lacking in 'feel'. Luckily on my bike the bobbins cleared the fork leg by around 10 thou but I have heard of some people having to machine some off the disc carrier or fit a washer on the spindle.
Eventually I decided to junk the RGM adaptor plate as I never liked the look of those crappy slotted holes on such an important structural part, so I hand crafted my own, out of a piece of aircraft quality 1/2" alloy plate. I also junked the Lockheed caliper in favour of a 4 pot Brembo usually fitted to Aprilias and Ducatis. This has transformed the braking experience to modern standards.



In order to re-use my existing stainless lower stay I drilled and tapped an additional hole in the new plate and bent and shortened the stay.