Brake swap in desperate need of help!

Hello all I haven't been on this forum for a few years but I still own my little kz200. I need help with replacing the front brake.
I need to swap the front brake on my 1978 kawi kz200. The OEM brake is cable operated, which is... crap, but it stopped the little kz well enough. I was going to clean it and put it back on, but in the process I managed to BREAK my BRAKE.

I don't want to swap the entire front end because it has already been completely rebuilt and polished. I would really like to just get a new caliper on there.

So, I think these are my best option is:

The front brake off of a kawi 750 twin looks like it could be a direct swap. Does anyone know if it will bolt to the fork?

Here is the 750


Here is a 200

I believe you will find that the brake rotor on the KZ750 has a larger diameter than that of the KZ200. Consequently, I believe you will find that the caliper mount location of the front fork is a bit different. Ed

The rotor on the 750 is definitely larger in diameter. But would that matter if I bolted the 750 caliper to the kz200 fork? Or are you saying it won't bite the rotor.

lovenutz wrote: The rotor on the 750 is definitely larger in diameter. But would that matter if I bolted the 750 caliper to the kz200 fork? Or are you saying it won't bite the rotor.

It might not - you are going to have to gamble on this unless you have parts in front of you to measure, I think. It might be possible if you replace the rotor and caliper together with 750 parts. The Japanese big four basically used the same rotor bolt patterns throughout their model lines in a given model year up until the early '80's. So a 1976 CB550 rotor could bolt on to a 1976 Gold Wing hub for example....

I suspect a KZ 400 front end would be more compatible in this situation.
Steve

swest wrote: I suspect a KZ 400 front end would be more compatible in this situation.
Steve

The forks won't fit I know that. The entire front end might, but I really want to avoid that because the entire front end was redone. It's just the brake system.

The z200 system seems unusual so I'll try to upload some pics.

The 750 set up just looks so close. I may have to see if I can find one on eBay. A direct bolt on upgrade like that could be amazing.

My other idea would be using the front brake off of something like a ninja 250. It could maybe work with a custom made bracket. Anyone ever made something like that?

Kray-Z wrote:

lovenutz wrote: The rotor on the 750 is definitely larger in diameter. But would that matter if I bolted the 750 caliper to the kz200 fork? Or are you saying it won't bite the rotor.

It might not - you are going to have to gamble on this unless you have parts in front of you to measure, I think. It might be possible if you replace the rotor and caliper together with 750 parts. The Japanese big four basically used the same rotor bolt patterns throughout their model lines in a given model year up until the early '80's. So a 1976 CB550 rotor could bolt on to a 1976 Gold Wing hub for example....

Hmm that's interesting, so you think if I replace the rotor and caliper it might work? The 4 hole bolt pattern looks like it would fit. Then just use a smaller sizer master cylinder to bring the stopping power done a bit.

.

lovenutz wrote:

Kray-Z wrote:

lovenutz wrote: The rotor on the 750 is definitely larger in diameter. But would that matter if I bolted the 750 caliper to the kz200 fork? Or are you saying it won't bite the rotor.

It might not - you are going to have to gamble on this unless you have parts in front of you to measure, I think. It might be possible if you replace the rotor and caliper together with 750 parts. The Japanese big four basically used the same rotor bolt patterns throughout their model lines in a given model year up until the early '80's. So a 1976 CB550 rotor could bolt on to a 1976 Gold Wing hub for example....

Hmm that's interesting, so you think if I replace the rotor and caliper it might work? The 4 hole bolt pattern looks like it would fit. Then just use a smaller sizer master cylinder to bring the stopping power done a bit.

No,... don't change the master size or anything else. Don't worry about braking power - the system will work pretty much the same for a 750 or a 200 cc bike. You want parts meant to work together, though, to keep the hydraulic ratios the same or you could run into more serious compatibility issues.

Steve is correct - you might want to get a complete front brake system: rotor - caliper - master cylinder - brake light switch - hoses - lever assembly from a KZ400, although I suspect the 750 twin (and KZ650B's) all use the same front brake system and most of the parts are the same. I doubt the Ninja parts will bolt to your fork or wheel.

Yeah I would need a custom bracket made to use ninja brake. I was wondering if they might be an alternative to hoping parts from other bikes might fit.

Parts from old kz bikes show up on eBay pretty frequently on eBay though.

The Ninja caliper probably wouldn't take much to make an adapter bracket from plate aluminum, but getting the correct offset might not be that easy. The Ninja uses a wider fork / wheel / tire, and the newest ones use a semi floating front brake design, I think. The real problem , I figure, would be swapping the Ninja rotor onto an old style wire spoke hub.

You are probably better off with the KZ400 parts....

As already mentioned, this is probably going to take some trial & error. I would measure the caliper mounting bolt spacing, the disk diameter & disk bolt-hole spacing, then ask for some measurements on eebbaayy. then maybe get a decent cheap caliper to test fit. KZ305 or 440 parts may be more readily available than the other models.