Looking to beef up my brakes.

Kerrmit1992

Hi guys,

I found some nice looking and aparently good performing 203mm brake rotors,

However,

I see a lot of people talking about adapters to move your caliper to fit the 203's but this won't improve braking at all!

I was wondering if there are any bigger calipers that will fit the 203's and Improve my braking?

Thanks
Craig

bluechair84

The larger the rotor, the greater effect the brakes have. They convert more kinetic energy to heat. You will need adaptors to position the caliper where the braking surface is and these are readily available. Better calipers will provide better braking so you can use smaller rotors, but increasing rotor size is the cheapest way of increasing brake efficiency (at a small weight penalty).

The Rookie

Making sure your fork is warrantied for the extra load the 203mm discs will impose upon it....

I can do stoppies with 160mm discs and I'm 12stone....do you really need more?

Simon

davewalsh

Kerrmit1992 wrote:

I see a lot of people talking about adapters to move your caliper to fit the 203's but this won't improve braking at all!

I've never read that anywhere and it is BS. Increasing the disk size by 20mm will give approx. 10% stronger braking with the same caliper.

If you tell us what brakes, disk size and forks you're running at the moment you'll get much better advice !

Kerrmit1992

I have a talon 3, I believe it has shimano M445? and the have 160mm rotors.

And I don't see how increasing the rotor size but not increasing the caliper size will Improve braking because the pads are the same size and will not have any extra surface area to cause more friction to slow down quicker?

I know cars are different, but I worked on rally cars for a few years and when we wanted bigger brakes we had to instal bigger discs and calipers.

May just go with the adapters if its easier.

cooldad

Kerrmit1992 wrote:

I have a talon 3, I believe it has shimano M445? and the have 160mm rotors.

And I don't see how increasing the rotor size but not increasing the caliper size will Improve braking because the pads are the same size and will not have any extra surface area to cause more friction to slow down quicker?

I know cars are different, but I worked on rally cars for a few years and when we wanted bigger brakes we had to instal bigger discs and calipers.

May just go with the adapters if its easier.

Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world. Archimedes

Think about it.



Read more: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quote ... z1kI1wLLdC

bluechair84

It's not the amount of force that the caliper exerts (to a certain extent) - it's the efficiency with which the caliper and rotor convert kinetic energy into heat and dispers it. A larger roter increases the ability to convert and dispers.

cooldad

bluechair84 wrote:

It's not the amount of force that the caliper exerts (to a certain extent) - it's the efficiency with which the caliper and rotor convert kinetic energy into heat and dispers it. A larger roter increases the ability to convert and dispers.

No it isn't. That might be a byproduct of larger rotors, but it's basically leverage.

cooldad

Although it may help stop your fluid boiling.

supersonic

Leverage means nothing if is no friction. A larger rotor, all else being equal, converts more kinetic energy into heat for a given lever force.

Kerrmit1992

I'm quite new to tinkering with bikes lol

Ill probably just go with the adapter if it gives me some improvement ... plus they only cost about £5 ... I would imagine a new caliber would probably be about 50x that lol

Thanks
Craig

Kerrmit1992

Or I may just keep them the same size and just get the same rotor in 160mm format

davewalsh

Kerrmit1992 wrote:

And I don't see how increasing the rotor size but not increasing the caliper size will Improve braking because the pads are the same size and will not have any extra surface area to cause more friction to slow down quicker?

Torque = Force x Distance. Increasing the rotor gives you more distance, hence more stopping power !

davewalsh

The performance difference between different rotors of the same diameter is negligable. Just swapping rotors from one type to another won't 'beef up your brakes'.

Get a bigger disk and the appropriate adaptor.