Front To Rear Brake Bias

[Ralphy]

Wondering what you guys think.

1. In regard to manual brakes. Does a rear brake proportioning valve reduce the amount of effective pressure from the pedal vs. a balance bar which uses 100%?

2. If you built a dual master cylinder setup with a bias valve. Would it make sense to put the pedal push point in favor of the front brakes. Which would reduce the amount of need to adjust bias into the rears. Which would give more useable pressure used? This would be asked if #1 were true.

Also this would be for street use.

[mickmate]

You're on it. The front should have about 65% of your braking force on tarmac. That is acheived by a balance bar on dual master systems but you should get close with your hydraulic sizes first and adjust from there. The brakes should be sized to favor the front more (say 70%) if there's a choice. Race cars dealing with changing track conditions, weights of fuel etc have variable adjustment built into the car. You can also shut down the rear brakes with a bias valve but why reduce the force when you can mechanically dial it really close and use all your braking force.

[Ralphy]

Thanks Mick, chuck the valve then it is. The only advantage I see is a non linear pressure curve at lower pressures with the proportioning valve.

[Bill Bess]

If you have Wilwood brakes with dual master cylinders , you can install their maunal adjuster and play with the balance bar until you get the desired balance.
The adjuster knob looks kind of cool too.
Bill