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Plazmatic Disk Pads?


squince

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nah there not, that would be pain silly :)

No they were, but as said before, they never went into full production.

First we must understand that traditional disc brake pads for bicycles are no different than thos designed for autos or motorcycles. They must endure fast rotation, with that comes alot of heat. To acheive adequate braking in these conditions the pads are "cintered". This means they have metal flecks in them to deal with the heat and wear associated with the heat. The compounds used with the metal and rotors are designed so that the braking gets better when they are warm or hot. The problem for trials riders is that quite often there is not hight speed rotation going on...... hence not that much heat... therefore, they do not work as well as thier potential on paper in this application.

Having said that, there are obviously a number of reasons people like disc brakes. The levers are more powerful (smaller piston master cylinder.... I won't digress into why you can't use the same size one for rim hydraulic brakes here!). That in combination with alot of that power being placed in a small area (pad) leaves little room for water to really effect them much. Another reason is modulation. However you have to be careful when analyzing modulation. In most cases, the more modulation (and this of course is a completely subjective term) means less "grab" (another highly overrated term!).

Understanding these issues was key for Plazmatic to go forward testing and developing a trials specific disc brake pads and rotors.

First there was the rotor. At first we looked at Carbon Rotors. The braking results were astounding.... but so were the rates of rotor failure! At the end of the day, the only way to produce a rotor not prone to ripping apart was so expensive it would never sell........ yes, that expensive.

The second rotor option was aluminum. There were a number of pad compounds that we knew worked with/on aluminum. But the rotors already available were not up to snuff. So some high end aluminum was procured, machined, braking surface lapped and coated with anti oxidation dip (the reason they are bronze color). High quality, but an easier task than tackling the pads.

After testing numerous compounds, for the heck of it, it was decided to test the existing Plazmatic CRM material. Very promising indeed, however there were a few glitches. The material had to be a harder durometer than the rim brake material. Even at that, rotors that had many holes in them shredded the pads like a cheese grater. So, make the aluminum rotors with out holes (the weight gain is so nominal it isn't really worth drilling actually). Since that time, Magura Marta rotors are now produced without holes, giving riders further choice.

Sam

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Over on OTN i heard that they worked extremely well with the normal magura louise rotor *i think*

Id love to give them a go, look sticky as hell, tar for disc brakes anyone?

Lol my mate actually did use tar on his discs front and rear because they were so dodgy. It didnt really do them any good though, but seeing as they were knackered anyway why not try?

Anyway i would go for the ebc reds as a lot of people seem to agree that they are good pads and more hassle free than plazmatics.

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I've got that rotor and a pair in my garage. Sam i highly doubt there the same as normal Magura pads. It worked well when i first had kinda died towards the end. The rotor was cool.....

Mine was a pre production set i think? i got them about 2-3 years ago, Maybe longer....

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