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Re: [Fot] brake bias / balance

To: mikee@ragtops.com
Subject: Re: [Fot] brake bias / balance
From: Bill Babcock <billb@bnj.com>
Date: Wed, 4 Apr 2007 10:55:31 -1000
The scientific approach requires a lot of instrumentation. You can  
put pressure gauges on both lines and see where the hydraulic  
pressure is. While that doesn't necessarily translate to braking  
force it gives you relative numbers that have something to do with  
braking force that you can easily track. Or you can do it the way you  
do it on a race car--get on the brakes really hard a few times and  
see what the back end is doing. You want enough braking on the rear  
to keep it back there someplace, but no more. The more front bias you  
can get away with, the faster the car will haul down. For a road car  
you want to err on the side of safety and keep that rear end where it  
belongs under heavy braking.

Most of your braking force will come from the front wheels unless you  
set the bias so strongly to the rear that the front wheels don't get  
any juice. Look at it this way, under hard braking the front wheels  
are being forced down against the pavement, and the rear wheels up.  
You can demonstrate that easily with a motorcycle. In fact just a few  
days ago I perfected doing "stoppies" on my dual purpose Honda 650.  
The cops in Paia were unimpressed. Or perhaps I should say  
unfavorably impressed, though I didn't get a ticket, just a little  
dressing down.

Bill Babcock
billb@bnj.com
bnj  Website for Babcock & Jenkins, a direct and interactive agency

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On Apr 4, 2007, at 3:13 AM, Mike wrote:

> FOT;
>    We're doing some brake mods to a street car and questions  
> started to
> arise about brake balance / bias.
>    While it seems the optimum situation calls for a slight (5%-10%)
> front bias, how do we determine where it is now? Temp readings on the
> discs seems to give numbers all over the place, but seem to settle
> around 450F in the front and 250F in the rear. Does this mean we  
> have a
> 60/40 split? Is this an effective way to measure bias? When setting  
> up a
> street or race car how do you determine how much to adjust the  
> balance?
> Seat of the pants and what works best? Or is there a 'scientific'  
> approach?
>
> Mike Engard
> _______________________________________________
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> Fot@autox.team.net
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