Home › Forums › General Discussion › Front brakes in TaG
- This topic has 6 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated 19 years ago by
Rodney Ebersole.
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- February 1, 2006 at 6:27 am #41294
Joe Rosse
ParticipantSo are we following TAGUSA rules that prohibit front wheel braking systems?
February 1, 2006 at 1:53 pm #52656Doug Welch
ParticipantKinda sucks that Rotax is allowing front brakes. It just adds $700 cost to the kart when its not really needed. Tag USA is not allowing them. On the other hand, I put front brakes on one of our karts for it is advantage. Or at least, not a disadvantage.
February 1, 2006 at 6:31 pm #52657Curt Kistler
ParticipantYou would want all or nothing in a momentum class like TAG for front brakes IMO. The driving line and braking points are too different to not have inadvertant crashing like we had in the 80 shifter class. Especially at the end of long straights like IMI & GJ.
I would think the $700.00 adder would be the deal breaker. And not having ever raced in TAG or ICA, do front brakes limit the amount of trail braking you can do to keep the momentum up? I always thought that was the fast way around the track in TAG.
February 1, 2006 at 7:59 pm #52658Doug Welch
ParticipantCurt
In Florida, we ran front brakes as they run per RMax rules. Most racers did not but most of the front guys did. The way I look at it, they can’t be a disadvantage. After all, you can always dial out the fronts if you want to trail brake more. You even have the option of changing the bias while running.
We were having trouble getting our kart off the slow corners. So we geared it down a bit to give us a bit more snap. The gearing hurt us on the straights. However, underbraking, we could get most of it back. Nobody was able to out brake Greg going in to a corner. Given a choice, I would run FWB.
February 2, 2006 at 4:25 am #52659Joe Rosse
ParticipantDoug,
As I recall, Greg is very fond of trail braking, no? Yet what I’ve heard from those who tried FWB (out at Willow Springs), is that they’re much better for threshold braking than trail braking. Did Greg have a hard time adjusting?
February 2, 2006 at 1:28 pm #52660Doug Welch
ParticipantJoe
When he first got into a FWB kart several years ago, it was hard for him. It is for most drivers. And yes, Greg is good at trail braking. However, if you dial the fronts out a bit wth the bias, you can still have good straight line braking and also trail brake. I’ve seen him adjust it on the fly, remembering how many clicks in each direction so that he can have strong front in one corner and trail brake another.
Most young drivers who first try front brakes are actually slower with them. The reason, they over brake. You stop so quickly, its easy to stop too much. Just like turn in for a corner, you can easily over shoot it. Just having good brakes can also hurt for a bit. We recently put the Wilwood system on a kid who had been use to SKM brakes. The Wilwoods stop so much better, the kid was actually 2 seconds slower! The kid was acustomed to a mushy pedal.
It will take time to adjust and unless the driver has lots of experience, they will find it difficult going back and forth between the two setups. So like in your postion, if you plan on running RMax races, front brakes wil most likely be an advantage. But the CSC will mostly likely follow TagUSA rules and not allow them. On my karts, I will just change out the system to fit who ever rules we are following. A Brembo 4 wheel system for RMax, a Wilwood system for rears only.
February 2, 2006 at 4:36 pm #52661Rodney Ebersole
ParticipantNice discription Doug. As a briggs racer trying out the shifter stuff last year I found myself even with out a streering wheel in my hands a few times while I was trying to “go faster” threw the corners. I’ve had them Briggs karts on two tires plenty of times, but I didn’t really like being on one front tire when my rookie left foot late breaking would knock the wheel out of my hand while down shifting.
At one time I thought the talk of front brakes for Tags was more directed towards heavy only classes?
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