Hi Whats the benifit of a floating rear caliper mount,
outher than its easier to ajust the chain ?
As I dont have room between the S/A for one due to the width of the rear hub.
I can make one that floats but just wondered what the benifit is.
Thanks.

Brakes fixed to the swingarm have the effect of transferring the braking torque into the swingarm, thus lifting the rear suspension under braking. Floating calipers are generally fixed to the frame or engine by a torque arm, so no impact to suspension.

Here's an article by Tony Foale. At the end of it he discusses the braking forces on the rear suspension. Basically, the floating rear caliper helps to avoid wheel hop.
Bill
http://www.tonyfoale.com/Articles/Dive/DIVE.htm

Thanks guys food for thought there.

Exactly the other way around

Brakes fixed to the swingarm do not induce any effect on the suspension characteristics. Moreover it is the brake torque transferred from the tire contact patch via the swingarm geometrie into the chassis which is creating the rear rise effect. Depending on your wheel and swingarm weight, swingarm lengts, mounting points, bike weight ect. it can create those wheel hop issues , but not necessarely have to. Just ask your self would it make any difference where your support the brake caliper mount on your swingarm. No not at all. you could even do a floating caliper mount fixed to the swing arm, it all will be the same. Saying that a brake caliper fixed to the swingarm is transferring brake torques into the swingarm creating a lift effect, is just like saying you would be able to pull yourself out of a swamp on your own hairs.

On the other side a floating brake caliper mounted with a brace to the chassis is indeed transferring brake torques into the chassis and by thus is influencing the swingarm geometry behaviour under braking usually making it stiffer and depending on the mountig point of the strut inducing strong or soft antirise effects.

TOM

I know this is an old topic but by accident I noticed something strange.
Most of the floating carriers are linked to the lower engine bolt (or where that should be) or with a special piece fitted to the cases with 2 10mm bolts.
I've seen some beautiful machined examples here.
When the rear brake is applied, the carrier pulls on the connecting rod and lifts the bike.
Going through some pics I took at the 1982 Imola 24hr, I noticed that the factory Ducati (and the reserve Tbike) had the floating carrier connected to the UPPER engine bolt (actually a bit below that bolt) so it crosses the swingarm. When applying the rear brake, the bike tends to squat. Or maybe with that position, the rear supsension is less upset with the forces acting ?
Since I always took the easy (read : lightest, simpliest) way to avoid problems when changing a wheel on my own, I always had a fixed carrier. So I don't have any hands-on experience with the discussion "hop/anti-hop/squat/anti-squat".
Does anyone have experience (as in : fixed carrier changed to floating carrier) with this ?

I guess Ricci/Cussigh/La Ferla had to have a bit of agreement on this setup or was it a matter of : ride that bike as we built it ?

ciao
ducadini