5 reasons why Brembo's brakes are chosen by the best motorcycle brands in the world.

10/12/2018

From Aprilia to Suzuki, from Ducati to Harley-Davidson, from Ktm to Triumph, from Mv Agusta to Bmw Motorrad, they all use on more than one model, Brembo's braking components.

For many, Brembo's brand is inextricably tied to the two-wheel racing world. In fact, it's years that the teams equipped with Brembo's brake systems dominate the legendary circuits of the Motogp and Superbike World Championships.

However, Brembo's greatest satisfaction is when it's able to transfer part of those technologies and innovations that were devised for the track, over to the bikes that are ridden on the streets every day.

This is the reason why Brembo offers a complete range of original equipment braking systems for all the main types of bikes and for many of the most prestigious European, American and Japanese manufacturers.

The technological innovations developed and applied in the greatest motorcycle racing championships in the world are constantly transferred into Brembo's products that are fitted on the most widespread road bikes that are ridden by millions of motorcyclists.

Here are the reasons for the Italian brand's leadership in technology and experience that makes Brembo's brake system brand preferred worldwide both by the manufacturers as well as by the riders.

1. FIRST WITH ALUMINUM

It all starts with aluminum, a material with extraordinary properties that is able to combine lightness and stiffness.

Brembo has been one of the first braking system manufacturers in the world to produce brake calipers (for cars and motorcycles) in aluminum.

Already in 1972, at the dawn of the disc braking systems for motorcycles, Brembo was among the first to offer a disc braking system that stood out for its innovative aluminum brake caliper. Brembo's system was first chosen by Moto Guzzi, then by Laverda and later gradually also by Ducati.

At that time Italy was the main European motorcycle producer and Brembo in a few years was able to achieve an almost exclusive foothold. Although this was achieved at the cost of enormous efforts both from a technical as well as from a productive point of view.

Since then Brembo's aluminum brake calipers have come a long way both in competitions as well as for street bikes. They have changed shape, number of pistons, surface finish, coloring, design approach.

In short, they have evolved but always without setting aside this material. Aluminum in fact ensures a perfect mix of lightness and stiffness, without neglecting the advantage of achieving fine and eye-catching surface finishings. Lighter weight means better performance, both in braking as well as in acceleration, better agility in changing direction and less fuel consumption.

Riders know this very well. The changes, for an object of this size may seem minimal, but we must not forget that the calipers are unsprung weights: even a few hundred grams more increase the braking distances, reduce the acceleration and make changing direction less smooth.

BREMBO CELEBRATES 40 YEARS OF WINNING IN MOTOGP

August 20, 1978 marked the first victory in the 500CC Class of the two-wheeled World Championship with Brembo brakes. Today, after 40 years, Brembo counts 474 victories in 500/MotoGP and is the choice of 100% of the riders.

2. A LONG HISTORY OF RADICAL INNOVATIONS

One of the hallmarks in the history of Brembo's brakes in the motorcycling field is the ability to develop an exemplary innovation ( that sometimes was so ahead of times that it wasn't fully understood ), that is literally capable of revolutionizing the braking systems for motorcycles.

Brembo was the first to conceive and to produce the axially mounted brake caliper, the first to imagine to produce a “machined from solid” aluminum caliper compared to the traditional cast products, and even the first to produce aluminum monobloc calipers as well as the first to design radial brake master cylinders.

The first of these innovations saw the light in the late 80's within Brembo's racing department as a challenge between the product engineers on one side and the process engineers on the other.

Thanks to its DNA, made of drive for innovation and search for new challenges, Brembo is the first company ever to produce a brake caliper body that is machined from solid.

The year was 1983 and, after a hard work of fine-tuning, the first F1 two-piece brake caliper that is machined from solid finally sees the light. Just 4 years later, and in 1987 the special "machined from solid" process lands also in the two-wheel world to equip the bikes of the 500cc class teams.

Nowadays machining from solid is widely used for manufacturing Brembo's calipers, both for the two-piece version as well as for the monobloc one.

This to make the same production technology used for the parts intended for the Moto GP available to all bike enthusiasts. Brembo's monobloc calipers, instead, represent the highest performance level that can be achieved by a motorbike caliper.

Towards the end of 1992, after the first monobloc caliper was introduced in Formula 1 in 1988, Brembo unveils, once again ahead of everyone else, the first monobloc brake caliper for motorbikes.

It was the Hondas of Mick Doohan and Darril Beattie and Doug Chandler's Cagiva that brought the first motorbike monobloc caliper in history to its track debut at Eastern Creek in Australia on the 28th march 1993.

Once again a solution that Brembo had introduced for the first time thanks to its extraordinary innovation capacity. It's a new brake caliper concept capable of revolutionizing, over the years, first the cars' braking systems and then motorcycles'. The story of the radial mount caliper began back in the early 90s.

Like all revolutionary ideas destined to overturn the traditional way of thinking, it was lined with difficulties, mistrust and minor defeats. It would have taken several years to convince the customers in regard to the quality of this solution that is now adopted for all the large capacity bikes.

In the same way Brembo has a leading role in introducing what we know today as the radial brake master cylinder. This is a new solution that reduces the bulk and improves the rider's ergonomics and this makes operating the lever even more effective.

The history of the radial brake master cylinder begins in 1985, when Brembo filed the first patent for an idea bound to revolutionize the braking systems.

The Brembo 19 RCS was the first brake master cylinder with variable ratio to be introduced. And this is a story that has now been taken further by the recent marketing of the “Corsa Corta”, the first master cylinder that allows adjusting the lever's free play.

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3. RESEARCH CONTINUES

But here at Brembo innovations are never enough and looking ahead never stops.

The drive for innovation and the excellent results achieved are not due to insights happened by chance or by luck.

They are the offspring of an attitude, dedication and passion that everyday pushes Brembo's people to challenge the limit, explore possibilities that others do not take into account, to find the solutions that nobody has ever dared to think of.

There is a secret in Brembo's skill in creating evermore advanced braking systems that each time are able to become a reference standard: each year, the company invests a significant share of its turnover - 5% - in Research and Development, an area that involves 10% of its employees.

Brembo's talent to come up with new ideas and new solutions stands on these basis and this is a frame of mind that is embedded in the company's DNA.

This results in a tight synergistic exchange of knowledge between the Group's different business areas.

Brembo's all-round research is focused on pushing the limit further and further ahead. This ongoing research is not limited to the development and fine-tuning of braking systems with increasingly higher performance levels.

It also includes the testing of breakthrough solutions that can improve the comfort or the implementation of a design that is able to combine functionality and beauty.

Ten, twenty, one hundred filed patents? We are in a different league: since it was founded just over fifty years ago, Brembo has filed more than 400 patent families, these are essential for defending the technological leadership that has been gained over the years.

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4. LEADERS IN DESIGN, MASTERS OF COLOR

The Italian creativity is appreciated throughout the world for its high quality standard, care for detail and, last but not least, the beauty of the products that it can create. It's therefore natural that an Italian company such as Brembo has been the first in its industry to believe in the importance of the braking systems' aesthetics.

Brembo provides a shape and a meaning to products driven by design and constant innovation. Because beauty comes by itself, when the right materials and the appropriate forms are used. The most important recognition has come after years of daily commitment spent reconciling in its products performance with design.

In fact in 2004 Brembo wins the Compasso d'oro (Golden Compass), the world's oldest and most prestigious award for industrial design. This thanks to the carbon ceramic braking system for road cars.

The search for the best performance and for continuous innovation are immovable points in Brembo's philosophy, but there has to be a treat for the eyes too. However Brembo knows that when the use of the right materials is combined with a particular sensitivity for design and a good dose of intuition, beauty will come by itself. Especially if design is not seen as an end in itself but it has to contribute to functionality and performance.

Another distinguishing feature of Brembo's braking systems is the use of color. A nice color pleases the eye and delights the mind. Brembo was the first company in the mid-Eighties to produce colored car calipers. A worldwide success, which made Brembo's red brake calipers a real trademark, synonymous with sportiness, performance and distinctiveness.

This practice later spread also to bikes. Brembo's brake calipers are made of cast aluminum that is oxidized in different colors (black, gold, aluminum, titanium).

Special care is also paid to the design that helps them give all the motorcycles a look that is always very appealing.

5. A MILLION MILES FOR THE PERFECT BRAKING.

One of the secrets to the success of Brembo's braking systems, and one of the reasons why we are the favorite even of the best motorcycle manufacturers, is the long and meticulous testing process they undergo.

A braking system, in order to be perfect, must pass the most severe tests, carried out in all the conditions of use, even the most extreme. These are tests designed to define the products' quality, performance and efficiency. They are carried out in perfectly equipped laboratories, but also on the road and on the track.

In fact every year Brembo spends approximately 350,000 man-hours for bench testing and approximately 200,000 man-hours for road testing.

Brembo follows a severe test sequence that includes tests static test benches, test cycles on dynamic test benches, and then the on-road tests: these are three steps that are required to test the braking systems in conditions of use that are similar to the real ones.

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For all these reasons that we have just listed, Brembo not only is the brand of car braking systems that is most loved by bikers, as Brembo's first place among the preferred braking systems in the last twelve editions of the survey by Motorrad magazine, but it's also the brand that the most prestigious European, American and Japanese manufacturers prefer.

From Aprilia to Suzuki, from Ducati to Harley-Davidson, from Ktm to Triumph, from Mv Agusta to Bmw Motorrad, they all use on more than one model, Brembo's braking components.

Even the Japanese manufacturers such as Kawasaki or Honda, that have always been loyal to the brakes produced in Japan, have decided to use Brembo's systems for their top performing models such as the Honda CBR 1000 RR or the Kawasaki Ninja H2RR. Each type of motorcycle requires a braking system with specific and unique characteristics.

Brembo designs and manufactures original equipment brake systems that are specific for the main types of bike. They always offer the best performance according to the conditions of use.

The mechanical features, the conditions of use, the performance and, last but not least, the design make each motorcycle model unique and addresses a specific type of rider.

The braking system must also fully satisfy the specific requirements both of the vehicle and of who rides it. Brembo designs and manufactures each component in order to always offer the best performance, with the highest reliability and durability.

Brembo's brake discs are a reference point for innovation and quality in the category, the calipers are at the cutting edge of design and performance, the master cylinders put technology at the service of comfort and reliability.

For this reason, the world's most prestigious motorcycles are equipped with Brembo's systems.