Swap front / rear brake shoes?

[philrock]

I have the brakes apart on my CB77 - sending some of the parts out for plating. The rear shoes have worn a lot more than the fronts - I understand this is common. According to the parts book, front and rear shoes are the same. Would it be reasonable to swap the front shoes to the rear and vice-versa?

Phil

[DJM]

If the rear shoes are worn 'a lot' why would you want to re-use them at all?

Since the front wheel is normally responsible for around 80% of the braking I can't see why it would be 'normal' for the rears to wear more quickly.

Unless you know the long term history of the bike I would suspect that the front brake has had new linings fitted previously and the rear hasn't.

You could perhaps put new linings on the front and use the lesser worn front shoes on the rear but, hey, it's the brakes we're talking about here. If there were ANY doubt about the condition of the brake shoes I would fit new ones on BOTH wheels.

Although the shoes are physically identical lining material may be different.

Originally Honda specified different shoes for each wheel (the difference could only have been lining material) but later deleted the rear brake shoe and specified the same (front) shoe for both wheels.

Whatever you decide, even just swapping front to rear remember the new (or just relocated) brake shoes will take a while to 'bed in' before they work well.

[LOUD MOUSE]

<Originally Honda specified different shoes for each wheel (the difference could only have been lining material)>
The shoes (front/rear) for the first issue bikes up to (CB77-10280) were different as that issue had the single braking front shoes followed by the duel braking shoes after that bike.
The rears were never changed as to size which was the same after 10280 as the front...............lm

If the rear shoes are worn 'a lot' why would you want to re-use them at all?

Since the front wheel is normally responsible for around 80% of the braking I can't see why it would be 'normal' for the rears to wear more quickly.

Unless you know the long term history of the bike I would suspect that the front brake has had new linings fitted previously and the rear hasn't.

You could perhaps put new linings on the front and use the lesser worn front shoes on the rear but, hey, it's the brakes we're talking about here. If there were ANY doubt about the condition of the brake shoes I would fit new ones on BOTH wheels.

Although the shoes are physically identical lining material may be different.

Originally Honda specified different shoes for each wheel (the difference could only have been lining material) but later deleted the rear brake shoe and specified the same (front) shoe for both wheels.

Whatever you decide, even just swapping front to rear remember the new (or just relocated) brake shoes will take a while to 'bed in' before they work well.