making salomon fat brakes from thin ones

[mntlion]

So with some ideas from Tom I have made fat brakes from skinny brakes.

Remove the arms from the brake housing

hold in a vise and bend them untill they are sticking straight out to the sides. (I've been using a bike seat post to get the leverage)

change the position of the brakes in the vise to the new width that you need, and bend them back on the same angle that you started with.

Reinstall them into the brake housing

Sure they are a bit shorter now, but only by about 1cm and Volia, fat brakes.


If anyone needs fat brakes I have them "in stock" again. New brakes that fit the newer spheric salomons, and home bending job, for $10 shipped.

[glademaster]

For those looking to do this with Look/Rossi brakes, it cannot be done easily. My dad is good friends with a guy who owns a metal fabricating and welding shop, and he is beding my Look (fat) brakes to fit my Spatulas. We dropped them off this morning, and he called us this afternoon with some news that might be useful to you all.

You can bend Look brakes very little without heating them. The fat ones are tempered steel and therefore are hardened to the point that they must be heated to truly work with without breaking the arms. So he's heating and bending them much in the same way mtnlion does with Salomon brakes. I'll try to take some pics of them to show the finished product.

Bottom Line: If you need more than 5mm give total, don't bend Look or Rossi brakes when they are cold, you'll just snap the brake arms.

[The Jackamo]

^i've been trying like hell to bend my rossi brakes. hope you get some pics up soon cause i need these things bent.

edit: mtnlion, do you think you might be able to get some pics up to show your process?

[gonzo]

gonna be trying this on my rossis i just got from mntlion. any other tips?

this is a great excuse to get a butane torch.

[ski_faster]

PM has been sent to Mntlion

[bossass]

Why don't you just buy some wide salomon brakes and save yourself the trouble. You can still get fat brakes for any salomon binding (747,957.997,etc.) from their current parts catalog, in various lengths too, even asymmetrical. They're like 10 or 15 dollars, not including what a shop might mark up. And for spatulas you can take two sets of asyms and take the long arm from each set to make one really fat set. And they actually fit.

[gonzo]

problem is with rossi brakes. not any wode brakes that fot the 185s that i know of. glademaster just PMed me and said his dad's buddy got them wicked hot and that worked. they are "high grade steel"...

[basom]

i tried heating the look 'hardened steel' on my zr's and it snapped with minimal force. look hooked up the new turntable, and then i went bendy with my awsome pipe bending machine. all cold, all the time. it was wayyyyyy easier than heating. slow leverage will work. slllloooooowwwwww.

[FNG]

Pfft, you guys and your fancy technology. I've been using a gas stove and vice grips.

[gonzo]

i tried heating the look 'hardened steel' on my zr's and it snapped with minimal force. look hooked up the new turntable, and then i went bendy with my awsome pipe bending machine. all cold, all the time. it was wayyyyyy easier than heating. slow leverage will work. slllloooooowwwwww.

aw fuck. so no heat, slow bend? i really don't want to fuck these mommas up.

[The Reverend Floater]

Yo Mtnlion...be aware that this method isn't quite wide enough for Gotamas. They'll break if you stretch them that far. At least mine did.

[basom]

aw fuck. so no heat, slow bend? i really don't want to fuck these mommas up.

for me, on ZR's, that was the ticket. for normal look brakes you are just trying to make wide, its less of a deal because you can always get extra brakes if you screw the pooch so to speak.

for ZR's i de plated the bottom. took out the brake and the spring. went to benchy the clamp. got my steel pipe (alum pole cut offs were ovalizing like a motherfucker) and through a combo of slow bends and strategic clamping got those bitches straight. then i went back in and re bent from the perviously measured spot for the specific width of the ski (ff9.1) and after uber carfull pressure aplication got the mintest of functional bends. then getting the brakes back in with the spring in place and the plate on the bottom took about five hands. watch the thumbs.

[mntlion]

Yo Mtnlion...be aware that this method isn't quite wide enough for Gotamas. They'll break if you stretch them that far. At least mine did.

Did you just try to bent them out, or first compleatly straighten them and then rebend wider on a new piont 1-3 cm lower then the first bend. I've had them on spats with no issue. and I've bent 20+ pairs and no snaps yet. not sure?

[CantDog]

for me, on ZR's, that was the ticket. for normal look brakes you are just trying to make wide, its less of a deal because you can always get extra brakes if you screw the pooch so to speak.

for ZR's i de plated the bottom. took out the brake and the spring. went to benchy the clamp. got my steel pipe (alum pole cut offs were ovalizing like a motherfucker) and through a combo of slow bends and strategic clamping got those bitches straight. then i went back in and re bent from the perviously measured spot for the specific width of the ski (ff9.1) and after uber carfull pressure aplication got the mintest of functional bends. then getting the brakes back in with the spring in place and the plate on the bottom took about five hands. watch the thumbs.

How about I bring my brakes and some beer to you and you do them?

[gonzo]

for me, on ZR's, that was the ticket.

this is for rossi 185s'...

whaddaya think?

[splat]

Tom has probably been mulling this over ever since we bent some Sollies for the Brototypes and then tried bending some Tyrolia brakes, without much luck, before realizing the fat ones were in a box on my porch.

[Darkside]

I vote for no heat, when I did my Rossi 180 Freerides (same heelpiece as Look ZR, P18), I used a vice and some steel bike handlebars to straighten them. Then I measured, figured the width of some vicegrips into the equation, and then put the brake in the vice, clamped to the vicegrips on the brake to keep it from moving, and used the handlebar again. No problems with breaking, and I was even able to go back and do a little straightening.

Oh, and Splat, always underestimate the obvious.

[basom]

this is for rossi 185s'...

whaddaya think?

same as ZR's. i say no heat. i also say take apart to do the bendy. its a bitch.

cantdog, maybe. depends on the beer.

[gonzo]

holy fuck i took the brake spring out on one and i have no clue how i am going to get that fucker back in there. i tried for anout and hour after i had no idea how to get the brake arms out.

help me basom. you are my only hope.

1. how do you get the brake arms out?

2. how do you get the brake spring back in?

[Foggy_Goggles]

do the bendy.

See, I told you to do the bendy. NEXT SONG!!!

[mntlion]

bump for the start of another winter

I'm sold out, I'll post IF i get more brakes in stock

[mntlion]

I have some in stock again

new brakes, home bend job
$15 shipped

[wicked_sick]

Cheers to you mntlion.

tech @ local shop told me to start a business when he saw my home bendies. I;'ll leave that to you

[mntlion]

thanks WS.

[vtdownhiller]

I need 110mm for my lab s916's for my spats tried heating and bending the 90mm but it didn't go as planned. I would be interested in getting a set