Massive brake discs for the return to Motegi

9/20/2022

A huge Brembo brake system for the MotoGP championship in Japan with all the discs also available for your own motorbike

When fall arrives, MotoGP will be moving to the Far East where four GPs will be held this year, including the Australian one. According to the Brembo technicians who work closely with all 24 premium class riders, Twin Ring Motegi is a very demanding circuit on the brakes. On a scale of 1 to 6, it is rated 6 on the difficulty index.

The MotoGPs use the road circuit which has only a few fast corners and many slow ones, interspersed with medium length straight sections: 7 of the corners are taken on by the bikes at less than 100 km/h (62.1 mph). It is the number of corners taken in 2nd gear that make it one of the most demanding on the brakes due to the difficulty in cooling the discs between one braking episode and another.

The massive Brembo disc for MotoGP

To tackle the circuits that are the most demanding on the brake system, in 2022 Brembo introduced 355 mm (14") diameter carbon fiber ventilated discs to MotoGP alongside the 340 mm (133/8") ones. These discs have been used in the tests in Sepang, Jerez and Barcelona and on the track in Spielberg and have given the riders great satisfaction.

Regulations also state that, for safety reasons, riders will have to choose from 355 mm or 340 mm discs on the Motegi, Spielberg and Buriram circuits, with 320 mm (125/8") discs not allowed, although they can be used in all the other GPs. These restrictions do not obviously apply when a race is declared wet because braking intensity is reduced.

Record-breaking Brembo discs for road bikes 

Although the 355 mm diameter discs set a record in the history of MotoGP, the maximum limit for mass-produced bikes is much lower. The largest Brembo floating disc with regard to the diameter is the 330 mm (13") one used on the Ducati Panigale.

Find out more about Brembo’s range of brake discs for motorcycles.

The ultimate test 

Brakes are needed on no fewer than 10 of the 14 turns on the Motegi Twin Ring, and on 5 of these they are used for more than 4 seconds. On the first corner, braking lasts 5 seconds, the time needed to reduce the speed by 228 km/h (141.7 mph). Due to this and subsequent braking episodes, the MotoGP riders use their brakes for 34 seconds per lap which amounts to one third of the Japanese GP.

There is also considerable braking on turn 5 where the load on the brake lever is 5.6 kg (12.3 lb) whereas the Brembo HTC 64T brake fluid reaches a pressure of 12 bar. Summing up all of the forces applied by a rider on the Brembo brake lever from the starting line to the checkered flag, the result comes to nearly 950 kg (1.05 t).

Five hard braking sections 

Of the circuit’s 10 braking sections, 5 are considered very challenging on the brakes, while 2 are of medium difficulty and 3 are light.

The 90-degree turn 11 puts the most stress on the brake system: the MotoGPs come onto it at 311 km/h (193.3 mph) and brake for the 5.3 seconds needed to reduce their speed to 81 km/h (50.3 mph). In this period of time, the riders apply 6.2 kg (13.7 lb) of pressure to the brake lever as the bikes cover a distance of 230 meters (251.5 yards) and the pressure of the brake fluid increases to 13.3 bar.

And what about the video games?

Tackling the Japanese GP’s turn 11 in the MotoGP videogame is not that easy because nothing surrounding the tarmac track has distinctive features. Braking should be started just before you reach the blue and white curb on the left-hand side once you have gone past the house with the wooden roof on the side of the track. Move down into 2nd gear and once you have gone past the last billboard for a well known energy drink, lean into the corner. As you move into 1st gear, you can move onto the curb on the right-hand side and immediately open up the throttle again.