6 piston front brakes
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6th Gear
Joined: Apr 2012
Posts: 13
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From: Dallas
6 piston front brakes
I have noticed this trend toward one sided 6 piston calipers on many custom bikes. Do these calipers have equal clamping/ stopping force to say a stock twin brembo front set-up? I will be updating to a custom front wheel and would like to go with the one sided look, but I am not willing to give up braking ability.
Thanks for any input.
Thanks for any input.
Road Warrior
Joined: Nov 2008
Posts: 1,296
Likes: 3
From: Cheltenham, UK
There are 4 variables that govern braking effort in hydraulic disk brakes...
1. Total area of the pistons
2. The hydraulic pressure in the system
3. The diameter of the disks / rotors
4. The number of disks.
Your initial question only asks about number of pistons in the calliper and reducing to a single, so the simple answer is:
Assuming hydraulic pressure remains the same (ie you are using the same master cylinder and pulling just as hard on the lever) AND the rotor diameter (for now assume the pitch centre of the brake pads) stays the same then to get the same braking effort...
Total cross sectional area of the 6 pistons of the single calliper must equal Total cross sectional area of 8 pistons (ie 4 pistons per calliper - 2 callipers).
Of course this gives you equal braking effort but NOT equal heat dissipation ability, which is also important when comparing overall brake performance.
If, for example, the total cross sectional area of 6 pistons is only half (chosen to keep the maths imple) and you still want the same braking effort then you have 2 choices:
1. You an double the pressure (which is achieved by a different ratio master cylinder)
2. You can double the diameter of the rotor
Of course by calculating carefully and matching things up, you can also achieve the same braking effort by increasing pressure and rotor diameter
Again, to stress, this does not apply to heat dissipation, so aggressive and prolonged braking - for example on a long twisty section - could lead to a very serious degradation in brake performance.
1. Total area of the pistons
2. The hydraulic pressure in the system
3. The diameter of the disks / rotors
4. The number of disks.
Your initial question only asks about number of pistons in the calliper and reducing to a single, so the simple answer is:
Assuming hydraulic pressure remains the same (ie you are using the same master cylinder and pulling just as hard on the lever) AND the rotor diameter (for now assume the pitch centre of the brake pads) stays the same then to get the same braking effort...
Total cross sectional area of the 6 pistons of the single calliper must equal Total cross sectional area of 8 pistons (ie 4 pistons per calliper - 2 callipers).
Of course this gives you equal braking effort but NOT equal heat dissipation ability, which is also important when comparing overall brake performance.
If, for example, the total cross sectional area of 6 pistons is only half (chosen to keep the maths imple) and you still want the same braking effort then you have 2 choices:
1. You an double the pressure (which is achieved by a different ratio master cylinder)
2. You can double the diameter of the rotor
Of course by calculating carefully and matching things up, you can also achieve the same braking effort by increasing pressure and rotor diameter
Again, to stress, this does not apply to heat dissipation, so aggressive and prolonged braking - for example on a long twisty section - could lead to a very serious degradation in brake performance.
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