Just Stopping By

If you've ever wondered what it's like to ride with the wind in your hair and bugs up your nose, just jump on one of the new ; it's a wild ride that's going to get wilder, so let us crank up the pedal power by installing a front wheel disc brake system at the world famous bike shop of Dennison Cyclery in East Los Angeles, California. Shop boss Bill Blake lives and works right in the heart of the lowrider mecca and (with a big cheese-eating grin) he agreed to offer up one of the last remaining unmodified choppers that he had been displaying on the sidewalk outside the 64-year-old business!

After careful study by the in-house mechanical crew, we removed the stock forks completely for a threadless aftermarket pair of chopper forks with more accurate side-mounted wheel drop-outs. The stock original front hub and wheel were toast, too, because we needed a bigger rim. A nice 26-inch hoop from his "wall-o-rims" and a 36-spoke-hole Shimano Deore disc brake hub (model HB-M525) with a Shimano caliper (model BR-M475) and 7-inch disc fit the job. However, we ran into problems right away.

The chopper forks that we used had no lower caliper mount so we shuttled the parts over to pro welder and super chopper specialist Fatty's Aggressive Machinery in Burbank, California. Miss Joanna took the call and hot steel expert Robert welded the brake tab on the lower left fork tube to precisely line up with the disc.

The project, after receiving the fork with the new disc brake tab, fit perfectly with the new set of forks and stopped moderately well after some technical adjustment from the mechanic. The entire job wasn't as easy as it looks and the shop also added a brake lever (to match the one that came with the brake system), a much cooler threadless BMX gooseneck clamp and a 26x1.50 smooth street tire.