So the B-King Galespeed forged alloy wheel fits and drives perfectly......pity the same can't be said for the brake rotor side. The line up is spot on but the Suzuki brake rotor is 260mm diameter vs 749/999 240mm, the bolt pattern and PCD is all wrong, the billet brake hanger is all out of wack with the caliper/pads, the speed sensor is misaligned....basically the rotor carrier is beautiful junk.
The good news is the rotor carrier is easily replaced....
...if I can find a replacement:
So an enquiry/prayer was fired off to Galespeed, hoping that a similar carrier to suit a 749/999 rotor was available. If not, the limits of my lil' lathe and it's idjit operator were about to be severely tested....
(insert sound of drumming fingers...waiting...waiting...waiting...)
No, actually the nice folks at Galespeed (Japan) were super-prompt in getting back to me, we conversed 3 times in 2 days and I absolutely cannot fault their great customer service. They were extremely apologetic in not being able to supply a 749/999 brake rotor carrier, they simply don’t make them.
So I grabbed a couple of beers, one for me one for my lil' mate (lathe), and sat down for a heart to heart chat with the lil' fella. It was a big ask, but we agreed we’d have a crack at manufacturing our own carrier.
So a lump of 150mm diameter 6061 was sourced and we proceeded to turn most of it into swarf:
With the critical rim and rotor ID’s roughed out it's time for a trial fit:
Hmmm, this might actually be do-able! But some accurate drilling was required for the bolts...which is where I slipped on a banana skin: the 5 hole rotor mount spacing does not want to play nice with the 6 hole carrier mount spacing:
But I'm not big on rear brake usage. As Nicky Hayden once said "As far as I'm concerned it should be in a glass box with 'In case of emergency!' written on it" or words to that effect, so I wasn't too worried.
Unfortunately this was the very first job I attempted with the milling machine and I had bugger all tooling so this was about the best I could do to take some bulk out of it:
Well bugger me...it fits:
The caliper, something I had no spare of, is a lovely lil' HEL CNC unit:
Not only was it great value and fantastic quality, it has a clever little feature: a small spring clip that keeps the pads separated: no more wishing you had 3 hands during wheel changes as you try to fit the rim and fiddle with the pads so the brake rotor can slot in. You can see the spring here, held in place by the pin:
With a now underslung caliper hanger and the pad/spring setup the wheel literally just falls into place.
WOOT! Time to celebrate with a beer and the glory job of removing those bloody "B-King" stickers!
I managed to source some more tooling for the mill and a lightweight Galfer rotor showed up; I'm not big on wavey rotors, but for the quality, price and weight reduction it was too good to pass up:
FYI, Ti bolts are securing the carrier but the rotor bolts need to be steel for the speed sensor.
And with that the rear wheel is done like a dog's dinner.
