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[Rattlebattle]

Personally I prefer rear disc brakes, which I find much easier to maintain. On my Honda I barely use the rear brake apart from trail braking occasionally and on wet and greasy roads. But the front brake on the C5 is barely adequate even solo at speed and needs assistance from the rear brake. Admittedly some designs of rear brake are poor eg the underslung monstrosity fitted to Triumph T140v bikes but apart from that I’ve never had any issues with them. On the C5 the rear brake design is terrible; it has been known to cause the rear wheel to lock when the torque arm stud shears off, wrecking the swinging arm and possibly causing a bad accident. Not sure about ABS being the reason for introducing a disc on the C5; my 2018 car has ABS, traction control and loads of other “safety” features and that has rear drum brakes. Usually by 3,000 miles the engine smoothes out.

[windmill john]

I suppose I first got frustrated with Disk brakes was when I stripped some ZZR calipers and the fluid stripped the paint off very quickly.
With hind sight, maybe the callipers had been badly painted before I got the bike.

[Rattlebattle]

Maybe it’s just me, but I’ve never had a bike with a rear disc brake that has been sharp, as in capable of skidding on a good surface. Back in the day it was usually the case that the rear drum brake was more effective than the front one, often half-width and not very big. Weight transference and contact patch enlargement doesn’t work if the front brake can barely compress the fork springs...
As for the C5 the rear drum brake is a bad design. There’s too much sideways play in the pedal pívot, it’s supposed to be floating but they fasten the pívot plate with star washers and the drum is tiny. With the standard silencer it’s impossible to use a torque wrench on the axle nuts etc that should be loosened and re-torqued and there is a design weakness than can cause the torque arm to come adrift. IIRC they did improve it on later models, same as the frame weakness re the centre stand. Like I said earlier, the later the better....

[windmill john]

Just a heads up, Yesterday on my Classic, I did a test on a hill and found the rear brake to be more effective than the front! Disk as you say. Don’t recall having a rear brake more effective than a front in the past. Not an issue, just a slight increase in % to the rear brake.

But on the flip side... fantastic engine compression on this thing; long strokes eh, who needs brakes

[windmill john]

Just an update on Ari, my Classic 500. Very pleased overall, but... the vibes through pegs!! Blimey!! I think it is bad enough that I wouldn't consider a BIG journey until I resolved it.

I've fitted Grip Puppies to the bars and this helps the hands. I've got an idea what I might try, but that's down the line.
Rode Gupta, my 350 Bullet, to work this morning making a note to feel vibes. It is incredibly smooth, smoother than my 700 Transalp.

I've watched a lot of stuff about the vibes, am trying to use different rev ranges, but I don't know how the first 2000 miles was ran. It's only got 2000 odd miles on it. Read about Carberry etc. I'll see if my riding style will improve the vibes over the next 1000 miles.
I tried loosening some engine mounts and tightening, but will do it properly and loosen all, then tighten whilst running.


John

[Rattlebattle]

Yes, you have to loosen all the engine bolts, including the head steady. Yours is still too new to have smoothed out fully, but is not that far off. You should rev it out. Some owners stick to 50mph and never properly run the engine in.
In my opinion the Carberry plate won’t cure a shaker. It seems to make an already smooth ( for one of these ) engines a bit smoother and to shift where in the rev range the worst vibration occurs. I’m removing mine when I do the first service since the engine rebuild.
On another point, I recently replaced my aftermarket exhaust with the original. Apart from it actually looking better because it’s matt black, in keeping with the camouflage paint on my LE despatch, I was pleasantly surprised how well the bike went and sounded. The vibration is less too. My theory is that the double mounts on the original lends rigidity to the frame and the exhaust doesn’t vibrate like both aftermarket ones I’ve tried. Performance-wise the fact that the header pipe inner diameter is less than the od assists gas flow by speeding it up. The best combination is probably to retain the original header and fit a less restricted exhaust pipe. For me though, I like the mellow tone of the original exhaust and that it is in keeping with the army-style colour scheme and black engine. Shame they chromed the side stand though....Another benefit is that it no longer fires in the exhaust like the aftermarket one did when closing the throttle at higher engine speeds. One of the exhaust studs had become loose in the head, which explains this.... It was rather fun as I could make it bang on demand.

[windmill john]

Its strange staying away from the bike to start it, i.e. just press the starter and it starts very quietly. I can see why some fit after market jobbies. As a rider who started in the 70s, I'm use to a bit of hand input! when starting. Saying that, the Honda does not want you to touch the throttle. I do have to a little bit around zero degrees.
But as mentioned before, the stock exhaust is in perfect condition and I will only replace when worn out.
I rode to work yesterday trying that approach of taking 2nd, 3rd and 4th gears to the rev limiter. I'll do it again , but keep beneath the limiter.