PR: Proprietary Items Godet Egli brake switch

[TouringGodet]

I had a bit of difficulty getting my brake switch adjusted, but I think it is working for now.

My Touring Egli has the brake switch mounted on the torque stay to the rear brake, with a clamp on the cable to anchor a spring that pulls a switch, similar to the setup used on standard Vincents. I would like to adjust my rear brake so that there is little movement of the pedal/cable, until the brake shoes contact the drum, but the less movement there is in the cable, the harder it is to get the switch to close and open, it seems to want to either stay closed so the light is on all the time, or stay open, no brake light.

Where is the brake switch on the Godet Cafe Racer? Looking at pictures of both sides, I don't see where the switch is. Mine would appear in the first photo, above the speedo drive cable, on the torque arm for the rear brake.

I remember seeing micro-switches with a long, thin, metal strip to actuate the switch. I was thinking of finding a way to mount the switch near the brake pedal itself, so that as soon as the pedal moves, the switch is activated, and the rest position of the pedal is more constant, not affected by moving the rear wheel to adjust the chain, or by adjusting the brakes with the wing nut, and I can make sure the metal strip for the switch has a small gap in relation to the pedal.

But depending on what the cafe racer model has, that might work better than my setup.

 

[vibrac]

I use a twin pull Suzuki front brake lever with a integrated switch

 

[Bill Cannon]

Hi Steve,

Can't vouch for a Godet, but my Egli is fitted with a small microswitch fitted inside the front lever pivot. I nearly always use front brake rather than rear so makes a lot of sense to me.

Bill

 

[Pete Appleton]

Thats a pretty bike Steve.

The spring is actually just to prevent you pulling the end out of the switch in the event of over travel. Any 'mainstream' manufactured bike will have a spring that is stiff enough not to stretch at all during the initial operation of the brake light. It should remain coil bound. That way you are not trying to balance the action of the return spring inside the switch against the extension of the linking spring.

 

[Paul Coene]

On the Café Racer model, the switch is behind the left aluminium footrest plate. Personally, I only use the rear brake to warn the traffic behind me (the brake itself works very poorly) and there's no switch activated by the front brake (which fortunately works much better).

 

[TouringGodet]

Peter, the pictures are not my bike, but yes, that is a gorgeous bike, those pictures prompted me to think about Godet Egli's in the first place, but I wimped out and bought the Touring model. And I figured out the part about the one spring being stiff, and only expanding once the range of motion in the switch is exhausted. Part of my problem is the spring inside the brake drum does not pull the works back to the rest position very well.

VfG, thanks for the info. Since I don't have rear sets, that explains why the different switch arrangement. And yes, I'm like you, mostly just tapping the rear for the benefit of those behind. Once in a while I actually want the (little) braking effect as well.

Bill, yes, switches on the front brake are much more practical, and I do have a cable splitter box just like the one pictured above for the front cable, I'll look inside that box and see if there is room to fit a switch, although on rare occasions, it is nice to be able to quickly slow up using the front brake without having the rear brake light going on, like when the authorities are behind you.

 

[bmetcalf]

You would have to de-solder an end, but this could be used on the front cable: http://www.venhillusa.com/venhill-t-0462-p-inline-cable-actuated-brake-light-switch.html

 

[TouringGodet]

Very interesting, thanks Bruce.

 

[TouringGodet]

Taking a closer look, the spring that pulls the switch is definitely weaker than the spring inside the switch, or the switch has too much friction. For the short term solution, I'll see about getting a different spring between the switch and the brake cable.

 

[Paul Coene]

TouringComet, I had a closer look at my Egli's brake switch and the spring looks exactly the same. Moreover, the number of the non-binding part of the spring is also the same: 5-6 turns, so I suppose the pretension is about the same. I don't have similar problems with the switch as you though. Did you check if the switch works smoothly if operated by hand ?