Db30 needs brakes, none on bike missing.

#1
I bought a db30 and the brakes are missing, no rotor and the mechanical caliper is broken. It has the lever and cable.
So my main question is, should I put a stock style brake assembly back on it or upgrade to a hydraulic setup?
I know the stock stuff is cheaper in price and does the job on this bikes current setup.
I will make this bike go around 35 mph or more in the future or think I will.
It has a 196 tecumseh in it right now, and it runs and rides with it and I’ll keep the till I’m ired of it.
I’m sure I will put a predator 212 or a Honda gx160 into it one day.

Is there a better setup to buy in stock brake stuff from on one place or another or are they all the same stuff?
 
#2
If you want to go with original stock type parts including the rotor you might check with Doug ( FOMOGO ) on here . I think most all mini bike sites carry the hydraulic systems now , but they don't come with the rotor .
 
#3
Is the hydraulic swap a direct swap with no modifications needed?
The local guys say it isn’t a direct swap and needs a new mount to line up.
I don’t know if they had a bad experience with an eBay or some other setup.
 

Addicted 2 Minis

Well-Known Member
#5
I wouldn't go with the hydraulic brake system, I have installed one and even when adjusted properly, the caliper almost comes off the slide pin. The brake line is also not the easiest to work with, I found absolutely no benefit and went back to the stock setup. You can find all the parts you need at Monster Scooter parts or eBay but there are variances in calipers so make sure you have the right one per your model and VIN#. Also note that if the rotor is missing, the bolts may have broke off in the wheel hub and they are hard to get out if they did and may require a new wheel which are hard to find which is probably why they sold it.
 
#6
So the hydraulic setup really does suck huh?
I think I saw the hub had no bolts into it, I need to check again tho,
They put to wide of a rear tire on it and the brakes will not fit.
I need to pull it all apart
 

Addicted 2 Minis

Well-Known Member
#7
So the hydraulic setup really does suck huh?
I think I saw the hub had no bolts into it, I need to check again tho,
They put to wide of a rear tire on it and the brakes will not fit.
I need to pull it all apart
For some it may work well but after I applied full pressure on the lever, I noticed that the caliper was nearly off the slide pin. There was approximately 1/4" of pin still in the caliper but it slides in a rubber sleeve and I could just about pull the caliper off the slide pin without much effort. I don't like to mess around when it comes to brakes ( I would hate for it to pop off at 30 MPH ) so I went back to the stock mechanical setup and have been happy ever since. I have looked and looked for an alternative to the stock DB30S rear wheel and the closest one I found is the Motovox wheel. I have bought Coleman wheels and other mini bike/scooter wheels and they all have different hub spacings. I also noticed that the DB30S wheel is the only one that has a thick mounting flange where the sprocket and brake disc bolt to. The other wheels mounting flange was either half as thick or the first few threads were gone from the manufacture cleaning the burrs off by using a larger drill bit on the hole. Another thing to note is that the weld that holds the mounting flange to the hub prevents one from just drilling out the threads and putting nuts on the back side, it could be done but you would have to grind the weld at each nut location for a flush fit. I run some wide tires ( 6-1/2" ) and haven't run into any issues with the caliper hitting the tire, is there any chance the rear wheel is on backwards?, the hub offsets are different on each side, the valve stem goes on the brake disc side just for reference, I'm not saying it isn't possible for the tire to be too wide but if the brake disc was on the sprocket side and the sprocket was on the brake disc side, it would throw off the offsets and the caliper may hit the tire. I don't know for sure if this is the problem but I have overlooked the obvious many times.
 

dshot59

Active Member
#9
I have the hydraulic set up and it works great. I just put a small spacer between the caliper and the bracket to move it over a bit works fine and not near the end of the slide pins.
 
#10
I had a hydraulic setup on my old DB30 years ago and it worked great. I was about 300 lbs then and was topping out around 45mph on it. Never had any issues with it stopping.

I'm going to be running DB30 wheels on my Coleman and am planning on going with a hydraulic setup on it as well.
 

Addicted 2 Minis

Well-Known Member
#11
I'm going to be running DB30 wheels on my Coleman and am planning on going with a hydraulic setup on it as well.
IMG_0396.jpeg IMG_0397.jpeg

Like this?, This is my Coleman CT100U with 196cc clone, DB30S rear rim, OldMiniBikes sprocket adapter and a CT200 tank. This is just the mock up stage, I still need to make the wheel spacers, cut the chain and jet the carb. The rear tire is a 13x6.50-6 and the front is a 13x5.00-6, the rear tire is getting hard to find now, I got mine from AliExpress, cost me $50 a tire including the shipping. I like the DB30S rim better than the others, it's 1/4" wider than most, making it one of the widest rear rims that don't require a lot of work to make fit nearly any mini.
 

Addicted 2 Minis

Well-Known Member
#12
My bad, in this pic it has the Predator 212cc Hemi, I had a 196cc on it at first but found that the crankshaft was metric ( eBay seller lied! ) so I ran down to HF and got a Hemi!.
 
#13
I'll be doing something similar. Mine is a CT200U though and I'm running the Mega Moto front end on it. I have a non-Hemi Predator for it as well that's going to be getting modded. It sucks we can't get the Hemi version here in CA.

 
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