Though I’m separating this next bit and the exhaust page out, the two processes happened during the same time couple/three weeks so you might see some continuity weirdness in the photos – I mean as long as I was working in the same area, it allowed me to keep going while waiting on parts.
The rear brakes on the Savage normally are triggered by the forward brake pedal (clearly) via a long brake cable that snakes through a series of rubber and steel tubing. There is a small stop-tube welded at the front end of the swing arm that the cable slips through and a pair of nuts lock it into place, then it’s a straight run to the brake lever on the rear hub.
The Ryca bikes, and several other cafe conversions I’ve seen for the Savage often use a steel rod in a gentle sort-of “Z” bend to go straight back from the rearset connector, bends in to get around the muffler, then again straight back to the hub lever. One drawback of this method is apparently a lot more vibration at the pedal when braking. I kind of wanted to avoid that, but more to the point, I didn’t really see why I couldn’t modify the existing cable. It pretty much was in the exact spot I needed it to be at the front of the swing arm – it just needed to stop there instead of going all the way to the front of the engine.
First thing I did was measure the length the cable actually needed to be, pulled the whole assembly off the bike and cut it.
Once I had the length right, I started messing about with how I could attach it to the rearset. You can see that where the cable ended was almost perfectly in the center of the rearset mounting hole.
I needed to get the cable over to that upper hole on the rearset, but it was just too much of a bend for comfort. Some brainstorming and an hour spent on the McMaster Carr website presented a solution. I ordered a couple different lengths of aluminum tubing and a 30mm M10 bolt along with some assorted nuts, then finally found a compression cable eye end. This got the connection right over to where it needed to be, and is surprisingly sturdy. I’ll be keeping my eye on it in case the leverage starts to loosen the system. Worst case I’ll take it somewhere and get that tube TIG welded directly to the rearset. As of this writing I’ve been pretty rigorously testing it all and it’s shown no signs of failure.
The existing cable mount on the swing arm was -almost- in a perfect position to use without any other mods.
Unfortunately, there’s a stock piece of the rubber/steel sleeving I need to use in order to lock the cable into that black mounting tube – and it’s too long to make things work as-is. In the first picture of the pair above you can see an aluminum tube clamped to the rearset. Here’s a better look:
I did a bunch of testing to see where the optimal point would be to allow the most gentle bend in the cable, still let me use the cable mounting tubing, and still avoid getting the cable munged up in the muffler.
Once a point was picked, it was another text to Mike to see when he had time to drag the welder over again. (I have GOT to get myself one…!!! ). I cut that black tube off ohhh so gently with my Dremel so I could simply relocate it backwards a few inches. While I was doing this, there was another part of the system that needed relocating – the rear brake light switch. It currently was mounted at the base of the frame just above the swing arm pivot. There was no way I could get that mounting point to work with the new setup, so I needed to improvise a new method. I ended up playing with washers.
First version – a mounting bracket. I got a big ol’ fender washer and bored out the center hole until it was big enough. The metal had to be pretty thin ’cause the switch mounts through this weird plastic expansion nut thing that allows the switch to be adjustable.
The next bit of playing with washers was I needed to create a piece that would connect this new brake lever to the brake switch (via a spring) as well as the brake cable. I noticed I had a washer that fit perfectly on my mounting bolt at the end of the aluminum spacer, so I drilled a little hole in the washer for the spring end and then ground off the top and bottom to give it a smaller profile.
Below is test placement of both pieces in context.
And welding commenceth!
There’s a lot of this bit that’s pretty inelegant, but the results are super solid, cost almost zero, and work like a charm. I did have to order a second switch, ’cause the only way to make absolutely certain the new switch-mounting bracket was in precisely the right place was to leave it installed with the spring attached and then hit the bracket with a tack-weld just to get the placement locked in. Even though it was barely a two-second hit with the MIG gun, it was enough to melt the plastic washer. I found a used one on Ebay for $3, which is nice ’cause I was going to need to extend the wires anyway to get up to the connector for the M Unit. I turned the two switches into one with a longer lead, and repurposed the old switch mount bracket into a wire management element with a grommet. Done and done. Well – almost…
As with almost every other moment on the build, there’s always friggin’ SOMETHING that goes into bizarro land. When I cut the leads to combine the switches, I made one lead a little too long, so once I put the bits in place to triple-check for lead length I realized I was a couple inches too long. So I cut the offending bit off, and it shot across the frame, bounced off the belt, hit the inside of the pulley cover and fell down, INTO the drive pulley. Jeezlouise. I had to pull the side cover off to get the stupid thing out.
ANYWAY…. Done, and done, and I’m really pleased with the mechanics of it.
So, I still need a seat, BUT everything seemed to be working enough that I could mount the tank, connect the carb, drop some gas in the thing and at LEAST start the curing process of the high-temp paint on the engine.
Before I could do that, though…
The bike had to finally come off the stand!