do any of you forum members have a tlr 200 and found the brakes to be rubbish, not stopping you quickly enough even after new shoes?

i also have an xl 185 based special, using xl wheels, (same age) and found those brakes to be much better at stopping you quicker, i know that the tlr has smaller shoes, but the difference is quite noticable, i may have found the reason, please let me know what yours are like.

I've got a TL 125 and the brakes are bad.

Hi,

I have a TLR200 ( UK spec not reflex ) and the brakes are extremely good. How often are you taking off the wheels and roughing up the brake shoe's and braking surface with (dry) wet and dry ?

the problem seems to lie in the brake cam, the ones on the tlr are a 'D' shape where the flat part of the shoe is forced apart to activate the brake shoes outwards, so only one shoe actualy moves outwards, on the xl/xr brakes the cam is 'l' shaped, so both of the shoes move outwards. i thought that the drum was worn, but no more than my xl/xr drums, they are the same age after all, and they work much better!

i thought my cam was worn so after buying a new one i compared it to the old one and it was the same, so as i have a few old back plates from my xl185 i noticed the difference in cam profile, i have since fitted the xl cam into the tlr back plate (whilst changing sprockets) and it does seem to be a bit more of a bite, i will be fitting the xl cam in the front brake, when my new tyre arrives, and i will be doing a trial soon to see if the brakes are better.

i also noticed that the xl 185 front wheel will fit straight into the tlr forks, as the brake stop is the same fitting, same cable and same spindle size. but bigger drums size, could be another option, but a cheaper one is the xl 185 cam (front & rear is the same) which is available separately at about

Ah rite thats why my brakes are so good , my brake cam is "I" shaped( some one must of modified it ?) , they are so good that on concrete(using the front brake) I can get the back wheel off the ground , only about a foot but non the less they are extremely good brakes.

Thanks for clearing up why all the other TLR owners keep moaning to me that the TLR brakes are kak ,they keep asking how the hell I can stop going down the same stuff that they go flying down :S, So now I know.

I will still tell them that its because I'm a better rider than them though.

Edited July 13, 200719 yr by honda_tlr