How Much Do You Know About the Motorcycle Caliper?

For motorcycle riders, being able to brake is more important than running fast. Safety should always come first for motorcycles, and the braking performance of a motorcycle is a crucial aspect of safe riding. Guaranteeing good braking performance can contribute to greater safety. In this article, we will briefly discuss issues related to calipers. After reading this article, you may have a better understanding of calipers.

Will upgrading motorcycle caliper makes the ride safer?

Actually, upgrading motorcycle caliper may bring better braking power and increase the braking force. However, simply upgrading one caliper is not safe. It also requires synchronous improvements and upgrades of other performance components such as brake pumps and brake discs. If we only change the calipers, it might bring hidden dangers. If the brakes are too strong to adapt, it can also cause danger. Do you know about the common types of calipers, such as single-way calipers and double-way calipers? From their literal meanings, we can understand that single-way calipers have only one piston design on one side, while the other side has a fixed braking pad.

To ensure that the braking pad can bite into the disc well, single-direction calipers are equipped with floating pins. This design allows the caliper to move left and right, which promotes stable biting. Double-way calipers have piston designs on both sides of the caliper, with different numbers of pistons, ranging from two to three. It mainly uses hydraulic pressure to squeeze and push the brake pads to clamp the disc. In terms of braking performance, double-way motorcycle caliper is obviously much more efficient than single-directional calipers, and they can effectively avoid self-bending. Many modification parts are also double-way calipers.

Now, let's talk about radial calipers: sometimes referred to as axial calipers. The biggest difference of radial calipers is that the screws on both ends are locked radially, while other calipers are often locked laterally. The vertical locking points at both ends of this kind of calipers form an isosceles triangle with the axle, and the braking force will be evenly distributed on the disc, greatly improving the braking force. It is named "radial calipers" because it spreads stress to the disc like a fan. Radial locking is an effective way to reduce lateral shear stress.

Do you need to change the master cylinder when changing the motorcycle caliper?

Yes, this question involves hydraulic amplification ratio. In the braking system, the working of hydraulic oil follows Pascal's principle of fluid statics. There is an amplification ratio between the master cylinder and the sub-pump (caliper piston). If the amplification ratio is too small, the braking performance will be lower than that of the original factory, while if the amplification ratio is too large, it will bring overload pressure to the braking system. It is not enough to simply increase the number of caliper pistons or increase the size of the master cylinder. Both need better matching.

Let's finally talk about the high-end integral motor caliper: In addition to the calipers introduced above, there are also integral calipers, which have superior performance, higher strength, and better avoidance of twisting. They are high-end calipers. The material of caliper pistons is usually titanium alloy, aluminum alloy, iron, and other materials. As the intermediate medium of pushing the brake oil to push the brake pads, when the caliper is working, the brake pad will produce high temperature due to friction. We need materials with good heat dissipation to face the high temperature. Different materials directly affect the performance of pistons, and titanium alloy material pistons are the best.