Cleaning Up Ballabio Bars

[Greg Field]

This all may seem a pointless exercise in aesthetics, but it didn’t start that way.

 

I’ve been trying to find time to swap back onto the Eldo the 13-mm front brake master cylinder it used to have. Last spring, I had swapped the 13 for a 15-mm master cylinder, on the advice of others, who said it would improve the braking. It took but one ride to know I did not like the change. Sure, lever travel was shorter, but the brake felt less powerful and less controllable. Unfortunately, I just never seemed to find time to put back on the 13.

 

This week, I vowed to find some time for this and a bunch of other projects by spending less time on the internet. That initiative seems to be working because I actually, finally got the master-cylinder swap done. And after that, I had time left over to do something I’d long wanted to do on Billy Bob, as well.

 

 

The photo above shows the stock brake master cylinder on my Billy Bob, with its stalk-mounted remote reservoir. This style of master cylinder looks great mounted on the clip-ons of a fully-faired sports bike, but I never really liked the looks when mounted on the Billy Bob’s normal handlebars. The look didn’t bother me enough to do anything just about that, but after the swap of master cylinders on the Eldo, I had a perfectly good 15-mm integral-reservoir master cylinder just sitting on the bench, so why not? Its piston was 1 mm smaller than that of the stock Ballabio master cylinder, but that might be a good thing, making the Billy’s brakes a little more powerful. Luckily, I also had a 13-mm clutch master cylinder in the parts bin from another planned project, so I could clean up the left bar, too.

 

 

Unfortunately, as shown above, the clutch master cylinder was not drilled for the clutch cut-out switch. That seemed easy enough, so I measured, marked, and started drilling.

 

 

The first hole was for the switch actuating plunger, as shown in the blurry photo above.

 

 

Then, I drilled and counterbored for the screws to fasten the switch, as shown in another blurry photo above, bolted up the switch, mounted the master cylinder, and bled it. It looked good and worked perfectly, too.

 

Fortunately, the brake master cylinder already had a brake switch, so I didn’t have to fit one. It bolted right up. After bleeding, it worked and looked great. Since I was there, messing with controls, I played some more with rotating the handlebars fore and aft to get the best feel. Rotating them backward shifted weight on my hands more onto the web between my thumb and hand. Rotating them forward shifted weight further onto the meat of my hand. When I got them in the position that felt best, I locked them down and rotated the clutch lever to the most comfortable position and locked it down, too.

 

Unfortunately, when I rotated the brake lever to the angle that I liked, the back of the brake lever fouled on of the mounting screws for the kill-switch housing. To get the brake-lever angle I wanted, I’d have to rotate the switch housing.

 

 

The housing is held in position by a brass dowel that mates with a hole in the underside of the bar, as shown in the photo above. To allow the housing to rotate, I’d have to lengthen the hole in the bars to a slot. I did that with a Dremel tool and bolted everything back up, rotating the switch just enough to get the lever clearance needed.

 

 

The result of all that is shown above, from the back.

 

 

And from the front in the photo above. I think the cleaner look was worth the effort, but I doubt I would have done it if I had to buy two new master cylinders.

[Guest ratchethack]

Very nice, Greg. Normally, I'm not big on cosmetic obsessions, but I gotta admit this one is sorta a "anti-bling sleeper" that really cleans up some stuff that I always thought looked way too cheesy.

 

However, now that it looks so clean, it points out the 2 vacant button-head allen screw holes on y'er flyscreen.

[Rusty Bucket]

That looks fantastic; much, much better than it was. If I find myself with the parts to get a decent start at this project, I will certainly take advantage, as the aesthetic payoff looks well worth it, though I guess my lower bars might present more problems with space and angularity. I wish the stock parts looked like this. Thanks for blazing trail on this!

[dhansen]

This all may seem a pointless exercise in aesthetics, but it didn’t start that way.

 

 

Naw, well worth the effort! Looks super. Looks like you swapped levers too.

 

Dennis.

[Josh]

Clean setup Greg! If you wan't to sell your gold mc's let me know, I would like to purchase them.

[slug]

 

Jeebus Greg, that looks like blood! You drill in to yer finger there?

[g.forrest]

nice job greg...looks good [wouldn't you know ratchet would find something to pick]

[guzziownr]

nice job greg...looks good [wouldn't you know ratchet would find something to pick]

 

Nice job Greg, aesthetics are why we ride Guzzis after all. When I first saw the Coppa paint scheme I thought it has sooo over the top. Now I think it will be one of those niche bikes you see at Guzzi rallys "Oohh, a Coppa!"

 

DW

[Dan M]

 

 

And from the front in the photo above. I think the cleaner look was worth the effort, but I doubt I would have done it if I had to buy two new master cylinders.

 

That looks great Greg, I've always leaned toward the monochromatic look. Tell me, are those new levers black or grey? It's hard to tell from this shot, at least on my screen.

[Greg Field]

Composite reply:

 

Thanks, all. Slug: Not blood. This was one of the few projects that didn't leave scars. Dan: The levers are silver gray CRGs.

[kaput]

Greg, all of your modifications are a nice blend of aesthetics and performance improvements. I'm into that.

 

Kaput