Special Projects

At Galfer USA, we are always trying to think outside the box and come up with new applications for our disc brakes. Take a look at some of our special projects from the last 2 years and you will say, “whoa, what on earth are they thinking!”

Featured in the 2003 Interbike show daily, Galfer created this hydraulic disc brake equipped road bike. This project was especially fun because there were so many cool companies that helped us with this bike. The frame was built by Roark welding with a variety of special features including 135mm rear spacing, custom cable guides, extended head tube, custom geometry, rear caliper mount, and S&S torque couplings that allow for easy break down for travel. The disc compatable hubset is a DT/Hugi 240 mountain bike setup laced to DT Titanium MMC spokes and Araya Japan Market only rims. The brake calipers are Formula B4sl magnesium calipers linked to a Santana tandems designed/Formula manufactured cable to hydraulic adapters to allow for brake actuation via normal STI or Ergo levers. The fork is a prototype piece from Wound Up cycles designed with standard road geometry and ride height and is WAY overbuilt at about 600 grams to cope with the braking forces at the dropout rather than at the crown. This fork was put through their fatigue testing regiment and found to be stronger and longer lasting than high quality tandem steal forks. Tioga supplied the rims, aheadset, stem, saddle and tires. When everything else was all done, we brought it all together with Galfer semi metallic brake pads, Galfer patented Wave® rotors and Galfer custom stainless steel brake lines. Think its heavy? Think again. It weighs in at 19.1 pounds as you see it. And when you consider the S&S torque couplers add about a _ pound, the wheels are clincher and not particularly light ones at that, the fork could easily lose 1/3 pound in production form, you would have a bike that would easily weigh in at 17.5 pounds without going crazy on parts. And what does the disk brake system add to the bike weight?Well, I weighed a standard set of Campy record calipers and hardware against The formula B4sl calipers, cable to hydraulic adapters, stainless steel brake lines and Galfer Wave® rotors. Result….the disc brake system adds less than _ pound per wheel.

Designed to be displayed in the Galfer booth at the 2004 interbike show, we at Galfer asked ourselves the question, “how much brake is too much brake?” And thus, we created “The Beast”, dual front disc brake bike. We started off with one of the most sophisticated and well built frames on earth, the Nicolai Nucleon FR that features an internal center mount gearbox featuring the Rohloff speedhub. For suspension we put a Risse fully adjustable rear shock and a Risse Trixxie 7 inch travel front dual crown fork and custom hub. Risse also made a pair of custom bolt on caliper adapters with hayes calipers bolted up to Galfer 203mm Wave® rotors. For brake lines we made a custom brake splitting junction block where we threaded in 3 custom stainless steel brake lines. The master machinists at “Bob-on-wheels” machine shop manufactured the triple clamps to our specifications. In addition to being the new 1.5” headset size, the triple clamps have a unique insert system that allows a rider to change the fork’s rake in under 2 minutes.

Who makes the best brake system? Car manufactures have a way to determine which car stops the best. It’s called a 60mph to zero stopping test. Unfortunately, bicycle magazines go by the slightly less scientific test of “I think so and so’s brakes worked the best of this test.” Unusually, bicycle magazines brake evaluations are based entirely someone’s opinions and are subject to variations like test conditions, different oem spec from the manufacturer such as pads or lines from different suppliers, the bike the system is installed on, what tire was used, etc. Don’t forget that a tires job is not only to drive the bike forward, but also to provide resistance so the bike can stop as well and different tires provide different levels of resistance. To truly test brake performance on an objective, scientific level, many automotive and motorcycle brake manufactures (including Galfer) have “brake dynos” that measure brake performance in a similar method to the way a standard dynamometer measures horsepower. Brake dynos can provide information such as stopping distances, friction ratings, heat buildup and dissipation, etc. Although it isn’t quite finished yet, Galfer USA is building what is the first bicycle specific brake dyno. Our dyno will be available to the bicycle magazines so that they can do objective testing of brake systems. It will also allow us to test our and our competitor’s products so that Galfer will always at the cutting edge of brake system technology.

Ask most brake companies what their “torture test” consists of and you might hear a 24-hour race, or letting a pro downhill rider thrash on the stuff for a while. Well, here at Galfer we do all that stuff too, but our real torture test is done in the parking lot.

Step one, take our test bed bike (a old Haro Works dh racer) and put its front wheel against a wall while the bottom bracket and rear wheel are propped up with a milk crate.
Step two, take the bosses Suzuki DRZ400 enduro race bike with a blueprinted Yoshimura race motor and pivot the rear wheel off the ground (utilizing the front wheel and sidestand) so that it contacts the bicycle’s rear wheel.

Step three, start the Suzuki and run it through the gears (up to about 75-80mph) so that the bicycle rear wheel is running the same speed in the opposite direction.

Step four, slowly but firmly apply the brakes on the bicycle (this is where it gets difficult as the two tires want to skip around a lot- 5 people at least are required for this test to keep both bikes steady!) and increase the pressure. Within about 1 minute, the rotor should be glowing cherry red. Within 2 minutes, the brake fluid should start to vaporize. Shortly thereafter, the brake won’t work at all no matter how much you squeeze the lever. Please keep care to not let the motorcycle overheat and spill coolant on the ground. (don’t ask me how I know this one, let’s just say cleaning up the coolant on the ground was a pain!)
Step five, after letting both bikes come to a halt, pour cool water on the bicycle’s brake rotor (ooooh, steam!), when the rotor is cool, remove it and check for flatness and Rockwell hardness.

Repeat steps one through five two more times.

If the rotor maintains its flatness and hardness, it passes.