XS650 enduro project

I found a twin leading shoe front brake at the recent swap meet to use on the '75 XS650. Here it is with the SC500 brake I was going to use. There are two different Yamaha TLS brake plates for the small front drums. This one has the fork notch near the top actuator, and the other has it in the middle of the two. This is the one you want to use on the older non-leading axle forks, as the other would have the brake cable coming out forward instead of going up. These usually go for silly high prices on ebay, so I was lucky to get one at the swap meet at a decent price.


The TLS lifts the leading edge of both shoes, which causes the shoe to be dragged into the drum for increased braking force. The single leading shoe brake lifts the trailing edge of one shoe, making it much less effective. Proper linkage adjustment is critical on the TLS brake, or it might be worse than the SLS.


The center part of the TLS plate protrudes about 10mm farther than the SLS, since it was used on the later and wider forks.


I'm using '78 XT500 forks, and will remove the 10mm from the fork. The TLS brake plate is magnesium, which is flammable, so I'd rather cut the aluminum fork. On older more narrow 34mm forks you'd need to remove the 10mm from the plate.


Here it is ready for the new TLS brake plate.


I sand blasted the TLS plate, and painted it with Dupli-Color self etching primer and aluminum caliper paint. Magnesium can be very prone to corrosion, so I painted the back side also. I then cleaned up the linkage and installed new EBC shoes.


Here it is on the bike.