CA77 Brakes: How bad is bad?

[stepper]

After a year of tinkering and a busy schedule I finally got my Dream roadworthy and legal.
Everything seems to be sorted out engine wise thanks to Loudmouse and a few others here and she is running real nice.

The only real concern now is my weak front brake.

I know the CA77 has been notorious for weak brakes but how bad is bad?

At the moment, my front brakes are so weak that I really can't stop without using the back brake along with the front. And in fact, the rear brake feels like it might be stronger than the front!

So is this something I'm just going to have to live with as "character" to the bike?
How weak are your front brakes? Can you stop your bike reasonably with your front brake alone or is it like mine ?

Thanks,
JV

[Geoff Hastings]

After a year of tinkering and a busy schedule I finally got my Dream roadworthy and legal.
Everything seems to be sorted out engine wise thanks to Loudmouse and a few others here and she is running real nice.

The only real concern now is my weak front brake.

I know the CA77 has been notorious for weak brakes but how bad is bad?

At the moment, my front brakes are so weak that I really can't stop without using the back brake along with the front. And in fact, the rear brake feels like it might be stronger than the front!

So is this something I'm just going to have to live with as "character" to the bike?
How weak are your front brakes? Can you stop your bike reasonably with your front brake alone or is it like mine ?

Thanks,
JV

Like you, I've just managed to get my CA77 back together after a rebuild. The front brake does indeed seem pretty poor but I've only done less than a mile so I'm hoping that it will improve with use. If it does not improve I'll look at getting a longer brake arm to give more leverage.