| Author | Message | ||
     Phelan |
I've been thinking about a concept that I question whether or not it could make a significant temperature difference in the front brake. Has anyone thought about welding aluminum fins onto the caliper to make a heatsink? | ||
| Gunut75 |
I would stray from the idea, only because the caliper is a casting, and welding may distort the piston cylinders, or the shape of the caliper itself. It would probably help cooling though. | ||
| Reepicheep |
Interesting question! The pads likely represent a major thermal barrier... Heat flow can be modeled like current flow (resistors = insulators). So most of the heat is probably in the rotor, as is most of the surface area. You could probably gain more by forced air cooling of the rotor and caliper then adding fins. I did a test with my XB9 where I was proving a street rider can't overheat an XB rotor... and promptly proved a street rider can overheat an XB rotor, if they are determined enough. :/ But I digress. It was the rotor that was overheated, it picked up nasty deposits from the overheated pad and pulsed like an SOB until I cleaned it. At no point did the caliper overheat... the lever stayed nice and firm the whole time. I keep them bled and keep the fluid clean, that probably helped. | ||
| Greg_e |
Ummm... they have already done that... It's called a ventilated rotor and is basically a centrifugal fan blade mounted between two flat plates. Draws air in from the center and spits it out at the edges. Race cars (and other high performance machines) often have a duct from the front bumper to the inside of the rotor to feed it extra fresh air. The problem with cooling just the outer edge would be heat differential and warping. Also to a small amount the rotor has an additional sink in the wheel that it is bolted too, but it isn't a significant amount. | ||
| Phelan |
I see. Just curious. The new fender I'm getting has a scoop to force air to the rotor already, just curious if a heatsink on the caliper would make any positive difference. I've got XB forks on the way for my S2 to get rid of the bracket I built to hold the ZTL caliper, so I have to get a new fender to fit to them. http://www.flexi-glass.com/buell.cfm | ||
| Ourdee |
They use water spray to cool the brakes on large racing trucks. | ||
| Glitch |
http://www.trojan-horse.co.uk/prods/128.html | ||
| Phelan |
I plan on getting one of those too, Glitch, as well as a ZTL2 caliper. | ||
| Sloppy |
Phelan - are you having problems with the brake fluid getting too hot??? Just not sure what problem is trying to be solved... I don't understand how a cooler caliper is going to help out your brakes. | ||
| Phelan |
I don't really have any problems, just trying to overthink the wheel really. I'm always looking for something that I can do to be different. A few tubers have XB wheels and forks. How many have you seen with a ZTL2 caliper, wave rotor, and competition fender?  | ||
| Jos51700 |
I modified the front fender on our XBRR, and it helped our brake fade issues considerably. I was pleased to notice a couple years later that McWilliams RR had the same mod. | ||
| Nobuell |
I was able to see the front rotor on a Buell Daytona race bikes recently. Their discs have grooves machined around the outer and internal edge to provide more surface. The most interesting concept is the elimination of the flexible mount to the rim. They use a solid connection to utilize the rim as a large heat sink. Makes sense and is a very simple concept that is backwards compatible to the street bike if desired. |
