EBC Discs

[Nasher]

Picked up some lightly used EBC front discs off Ebay recently at a really good price and fitted them today.

It was a rare vanity thing for me really as I prefer the look of them, but I was slightly surprised at the weight difference.
The Stock ones weighed in at @1.9Kgs each and the EBC ones at @1.3Kgs each.
So a respectable 1.2Kgs off the unsprung weight at the front end.

And I do prefer the look of them.

Stock


EBC

[Jez900ie]

Very nice!

[Luddite]

They look good, Nasher. A nice way to start the riding season!

My Serie Oro discs weigh 1500g so 1300g is a good saving even over those. You can see where the weight has been saved - those EBC carriers show a lot more daylight than your originals.

[utopia]

That's 1.2kg of ROTATING unsprung weight.
Which more than excuses the vanity.
Not that there's anything wrong with making them look nice too .. but I agree, its kinda secondary to function.

Tbh, one thing that I wasn't expecting when I fitted lightweight wheels was the effect that their reduced rotating mass/inertia had on the bike's acceleration.
It stands to reason really, but still I was surprised to actually be able to notice the difference in straight line acceleration.
In fact as a result, I've decided to drop another tooth from the rear sprocket.
I guess the same must apply to braking performance but I confess that I can't discern the difference myself.
But anyway, it aint just about the cornering.

[Mr Gazza]

Very nice Nasher. EBC make some good kit, I've been using their Greenstuff and organic pads for many years.

[Bitza]

Thanks for that Nasher, come the time/money I'll be looking for some EBS's myself. Bitza

[Darren69]

Those original Brembos have steel carriers iirc and are heavy maybe the EBC ones are ally like the later Brembo ones. In any case that's a fair chunk of weight off the front wheel, so I suspect it will make a noticeable difference.

[Nasher]

I forgot to update this thread.

Yes these EBC Discs look good

Yes they are much lighter, and would most probably make difference in that respect.

Yes they were cheap for hardly used items off Ebay.

But none of that matters when the bloddy things are warped enough to make pulling up to a junctilon impossible without juddering to a halt!! - Bu99er.

Nasher.

[utopia]

Bugger indeed.
Double bugger if its likely that the vendor knew of the issue and sold them on regardless.
I'm sure it does happen.

But are you sure they're warped ?
I'm of the opinion that in many cases of supposedly "warped" discs, the pulsing and juddering is down to localised degradation of the surfaces rather than warping.
My own std discs had 3 or 4 consecutive advisories for pulsing and this was very noticeable at slow speeds (walking pace) but was fine at higher speeds.
A dti check revealed no warping whatsoever.
I did the usual bobbin cleaning (to no avail).
I then cleaned up the braking surfaces using first scotchbrite and eventually ending up with 400 grade wet 'n dry paper wrapped around a flat block.
This reduced the pulsing a little but it was still present.
A couple of days later came the ukmoc trackday at Mallory and the brakes had a right good workout, after which I noticed that the pulsing had reduced significantly.
Further hard use of the brakes resulted in further improvement and after a few weeks the pulsing had totally disappeared.
Since then I've done 20k miles or so on these discs and they still show no sign of pulsing (and the mot advisories have ceased).
The general theory seems to be that new discs require a certain surface conditioning (sometimes referred to as "tempering") during which there is an interaction between pads and disc (possibly involving deposition of pad material on the braking surfaces).
My reasoning is that either...
1) This initial surface conditioning is improperly carried out in the first place, due to the brakes not being used hard enough to get them consistently hot enough.
2) The surface conditioning becomes degraded somehow .. possibly due to either holding the brakes on hard when they're hot after braking to a standstill or perhaps due to localised corrosive effects from standing with wet pads after a rainy outing.
Either way I would suggest cleaning them up (carefully and evenly) using fine wet 'n dry (might as well clean the bobbins too while you're at it) and then going out and giving them a damn good workout with repeated hard braking, to recondition the surfaces (making sure not to hold the brakes on after coming to a halt, to avoid localised hot spots).
That assumes, of course, that there is no significant measureable warping ... which I would be prepared to wager on.
Its not guaranteed to work but it certainly worked for me.
And it was an educational process too.

[Nasher]

Utopia

Hi.

They deffo look like they’ve got a warp in them, well one does, I can see it, I’m just annoyed I didn’t find it when I first put them on.

Although I hadn’t thought about cleaning the bobbins, perhaps one is stuck over one side.

Thanks

Nasher.

[utopia]

Tbh, I wouldn't be very hopeful that bobbin cleaning will have much if any effect.
But still worth a try.
I have found that just sticking a screwdriver through the hole in the bobbin as a lever and wiggling it around while spraying with brake cleaner is quick and effective.
No need to spin the bobbins in my experience.

A warp that is visible to the naked eye must be on the large side ..!!!!!

[Darren69]

Could you put your old rotors on the new EBC carriers?

[Nasher]

Originally Posted by Darren69

Could you put your old rotors on the new EBC carriers?

The thought had occured to me, but nfortunately the whole 'going to work thing' gets in the way of life during the week, and it will be the weekend before I can measure them up or even look more closely at them.

Originally Posted by utopia

A warp that is visible to the naked eye must be on the large side ..!!!!!

Unfortunately its big enough to see a slight movement of the pads as the bent bit passes through the caliper!



Nasher

[Darren69]

I had a similar experience with a pair of Showa Tin forks which I thought were an ebay bargain. Only 1 was completely straight! Unfortunately it was quite a while before I stripped them down to replace seals ready to fit that I found out.

[Luddite]

Originally Posted by Darren69

Could you put your old rotors on the new EBC carriers?

I may be wrong but doesn't the EBC disc have one fewer bobbin than the Ducati version?