front brake caliper position

my kz650 has the one caliper mounted on the left side behind the fork leg but I've seen some bikes that have the caliper mounted in front of the fork leg. I believe I could mount the caliper either way if I switched the forks around but what are the pros/cons of having it one way vs. the other? I thought it might help keep the brake cleaner and with a shorter line, it might have better lever feel. Just wondering if it makes any difference.

The '77 model 650s had the caliper mounted to the front of the fork leg.
They were then moved to the rear side in '78, something to do with giving better feel or braking force overall.
To mount yours to the front you would need to swap the lower fork legs, or flip them around keeping them on their original side, but in doing so the fender stay mount would end up towards the front if you swapped sides, or if you flipped the legs around you'd end up with the drain screw facing to the wheel, making fork oil changes more difficult.

rstnick wrote:

if you flipped the legs around you'd end up with the drain screw facing to the wheel, making fork oil changes more difficult.

Not if he places the left fork assembly on the right side and vice-versa. The drains should still remain pointed out.

Later, Doug

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H1Vindicator wrote:
Gee. just keep it the way it is.

Where's the fun in that?

You just have to swap the forks, no fancy wheel stuff.

Ok so I could do it but would there be any benefit?

I read somewhere that Kawasaki switched it to the back as, when it was on the front, braking forced the caliper away from it's mounting tabs on the fork leg. It was pulling only against the tabs. When switched to the back, the caliper now is forced against the whole fork leg. Supposed to be stronger. I don't know if any of that is true, but it seems to make sense.

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When you move the caliper to the rear of the forks, you lower the center of gravity of the front wheel by having the calipers positioned lower on the fork legs.

For example,
With top(front) mounted calipers, when you are in a turn, the high mounted weight will tend to "fall" to the inside of the turn.
With the lower (rear) mounted calipers, there will be less of a tendency for the forks to "fall" because the weight is mounted lower on the fork legs(closer to the ground).

If you have a spare front end laying around, you can feel the differences between the mounting. Slightly lean the front end a bit and with the top mounted calipers, it will have more "fall" than the rear mounted calipers.

Changing to the rear mounted caliper is as easy as switching the forks (side to side) with the calipers. The wheel and speedo drive stay the same. You may have to turn the axle around (I don't remember)and you may need different brake lines.