My wife is thinking about replacing her Sportster with either a Softtail Deluxe or a Heritage Classic. I ride a Dyna with dual front brakes and really like the extra stopping power. I was wondering if you can convert the Softtails to dual front brakes. I looked in the Harley book but did not see any kits for this upgrade. I also looked in the J&P catalog and did not see anything.

If you have upgraded to dual front disc; did you use a kit or did you have to piece together parts? If so, where did you get the parts?

thanks,

 

I would also like to hear about this.

I had a V-ROD and one of the things I really liked was the dual brakes.

Phil

 

I asked the dealer about that, and why the RK had dual brakes in front and not my classic, and he said, Oh, that's cus the RK is heavier bike. Well, he looked it up, and it isn't, it's 10 or so pounds lighter, like you, I would like the dual disc's in front...

 

Im almost certain that the SE models come w/duals, I know for sure the SE Deuce did.

IMHO, HD are lacking braking power.

 

Dual brake front end usually carry a fatter front tire, Dual front on skinny *** front tire may lead to front end slide + crash.

 

HUH [:-] ???

Dual fronts do not lead to front end slide. Grabbing too much brake at once and locking it up leads to front end slide. It is all based on that traction circle they teach you in motorcycle safety. you have so much tracktion. having dual disc in front just let you use all the traction you have up front where 70% of your braking occurs.

 

I believe that what he means is that its a lot easier to lock up a skinny front tire with dualdisks than it is to do it to a wider tire that hasmore surface contact area and greater traction. The factory Dunlop's are fairly hard compound tires and even with just one disk itsnot all that hard to lock one up in a panic stop. I did it,once, and nearly scared the crap out of myself keeping things upright.
If anyone wants to put dual disks on a Nightrain, Standard,Custom or Wideglide. The first thing I would suggest is to get rid of the factory Dunlop for something a LOT stickier. Otherwise you' may not be ableto safely take advantage ofthe extra stopping power.

 

Good post & all true.

I have never put 2X brakes on a narrow glide stock front fork (35 &/or 39mm), however, if you have a 41mm forktube, it is very easy. If you have a wideglide, it is even cheeper and easy. In the case of a narrow glide, start with a hub that will allow for a skinny tire (not recomended by me in any case) I did it when I was young in 1975 (link) http://motorcyclemetal.com/catalog1.html That is a narrow glide gurder with 2X disks on a 21". Yes, I still have the bike for reference.

I do recomend a wider tire and I like a wideglide front fork measurement between calipers. Cheeper and more plentyfull choices for options.

You must have a 2X hub. You can get either spoked or Mag type wheel or build your own. If spoked, try lacing a FL 2X hub (I have not tried this). Next (in the case of a wideglide front fork set up) get a FL set of sliders off of e-bay. The cost should be >$35.00 for brand new take-offs. Plentyful If you have a 2002 & above, you have a 1" axle, 2008 = 25 mm, under 2002 = 3/4" axle. At this point change to a 1" axle as it has a bearing surface 60% more than a 3/4" axle wheel bearing. The distance between the 2 caliperes center to center is 6.320" + 0.25" (rotor) = 6.57".

Chrome legs, take it to your local chromer and it should not cost over $70 each. California EPA does not allow its chromers to use elements necessary to do the great job they are capable of. ship out of state in this case. 2x front calipers, hell yes. You never need brakes until right before you hit something than it is too late.

Howard, motorcyclemetal.com




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Thanks for the feed back. However, I am not sure if my original question was answered. FastHarley, are you saying that motorcyclemetal.com has a kit for adding dual disc to the Softtail Deluxe or Heritage Classic? I did not fully understand your post because I got lost in the wideglide references.

By the way HD offers conversions for the Dynas and Sportsters and both have skinny tires. I have dual brakes on my Lowrider (skinny tire) and have not locked the front wheel (at least not yet).

Does anyone make a conversion kit for dual disc on the Deluxe or Heritage Classic?

Has anyone added dual disc on their Deluxe or Heritage Classic?

thanks,

 

My buddy has done several of these. You need a dual disc hub, FLH, etc. Then respoke it to a 21" rim. Then get some new take off lowers from a 2000+ Flh, etc with dual disc. Put it all together, and then you have to make some spacers to get the fender to fit right. It can be done.

Or get some after market chrome lowers that are set up for single/dual disc. Still have to put the dual disc hub in your rim, but the fender should fit better.