Look what somebody did to this poor daytona

[Yamanatic]

The 260mm DTLS was Yamaha's answer (at the time) to the TD2/TD3/TZ250 performance; what they had on production racers back in the late was OK for the TD1 series, but inadequate for the improved handling and speed of the 1970ish racers.

Yamaha had been playing with disk brakes back in the early 1960's, but they were inadequate. I had 2 sets of TD1 forks that were modified by Yamaha for Tony Murphy (I think the caliper was mechanical, the fork legs are all I had), and saw several photos of these early attempts on the track, but they needed something that worked on the newer racers, so they made the 260/DTLS.

No thanks to Japanese manufacturing, the OEM 260 brakes were prone to fade, spongy feel, and a lot of lever pressure due to very poor domestic shoe material back then. They were undoubtably superior to the TD1 DLS, but disk brake development and evolving technology prompted the move to putting disks on their race bikes by the mid 1970's.

Turn the clock up 30 years into the reproduction era, and with modern manufacturing techniques and vastly superior brake shoe compounds, the 260/DTLS works great! Yamaha had a sound design since reproductions match the original inside and out, and the 260 works great on the track - better than the Suzuki GT750 drum that ends up on many drum-brake class racers because of availability and being more affordable.

The brake I have is a 'Pender' Mfg. from the Philippines - Pender was the first and IMO the best, and he made and sold hundreds of these brakes over the 10 or so years he made them. The first one I bought worked so well on the track that I bought a 2nd knowing eventually it would go on another of my bikes. I don't race anymore, so a street bike it is!

Here is the Pender on a WERA raced TD3 - it worked great:


I swear by them, not at them!     
Warren

[teazer]

Same genuine Yamaha brake on a TZ250A that I restored a few years back.

[Todd Horton]

Ruined a rare bike