Dunlop's Pad

DUNLOP'S PAD

Wet weather motorcyplists learn to r cope with many discomforts and cope with many discomforts and inconveniences, not the least of which is the decrease of braking ability on motorcycles equipped with disc brakes.

Many solutions to the problem have been proposed and adopted by the world’s motorcycle manufacturers but the latest motorcycles, for the most part, still lose some of their braking ability when the brakes are wet. Suggested solutions hav^ been cast iron discs, drilled discs, slotted pucks and different puck material.

The latest assault on the problem has come from England. Dunlop (the tire people) engineers tested all available motorcycle disc brake systems and concluded that most of the supposed solutions weren’t effective. Finally Dunlop developed a sintered metallic pad, similar to the pads used on aircraft brakes, for test motorcycles and now has plans to market the new pads.

According to Dunlop figures, the new pads can reduce stopping distances in the wet to one sixth the distance of conventional brakes, all with the same lever pres-' sure. The new pads can be used with both stainless and cast iron rotors and should become available later this year.

Dunlop, however, isn’t the first or only company to develop brake pads which work in wet weather. Harley-Davidson has had a similar disc brake pad available on production bikes for the last year now. One of the CYCLE WORLD editors has used a Harley with the metallic pads and reports excellent results in wet weather but also an annoying squeak produced when the brakes aren’t being applied.

Sintered pads are made by combining various metallic dust particles and heating the elements enough for them to stick together but not enough for the particles to actually melt. Different pad characteristics, such as the resistance to squeaks or wet weather stopping power, can be designed into the pads by changing the elements.

The Dunlop pads, to be produced for a* wide range of bikes, will likely be introduced in England first and later exported to other countries.