Front brake arms

[spyfoxy]

I'm thinking of doing the front brakes a little differently. Instead of having the brake arms point backwards, I'm going to have them point forwards. I'll have to leave a little portion of the rear-pointing brake arm, just enough for the tie-rod attachment point. The way I see it, having the brake arm forward has a couple of advantages. One, all the crap that the tires pull up (water, dirt, leaves, etc.) stays clear of the brakes. And two, it would allow for easier attachment of fenders, particularly ducktail fenders. Any thoughts?

Spyfoxy

[AtomicZombie]

The one issue will be that you will not have any place for the control arms. You will have to redesign the steering using a forward crossover system to get the Ackermann correct.

Brad

[TheKid]

I did that on my quad, and the brakes didn't hold well. According to my LWB owner, the brake should be mounted so that they grab at a point rearward of the vertical point. It has something to do with gravity, inertia, and centrifugal forces. I remounted the brakes, and sure enough, they held to the point that the quad would skid with only the front brakes applied.