I own a tracked Porsche, and yes, you take the carbon ceramic rotors off and go with iron, not because they wear faster, they actually wear slower, but they do wear out, and to replace them on Porsche is $20k…so even though they last 7 times longer than iron rotors that cost $700 you don’t wanna have to spend $20k EVER to replace them.
I’m fine with running Ceramic rotors on a track BIKE though….for several reasons:
1. While expensive they don’t cost over $20k to replace.
2. The heat and breaking forces generated from stopping a bike amount to about about 1100 pounds of inertial weight to stop at about 2G’s on two rotors on the Ducati, with my Porsche it’s about 7700 pounds of inertial weight that two rotors have to stop…that’s ALOT more wear, a lot more retained heat etc….
3. The Sicom Carbon Ceramic rotors come with a special pad specific to them, when you use those pads (this from the manufacturer) the pads and the rotors continuously pass material back and and forth and there is little to no brake dust, so according to Sicom, theoretically the pads and rotors should NEVER wear out when used together….it’s a completely new technology.
I chose the Brembro GP4-MS Calipers specifically because I could use the Sicom pads with the Sicom rotors.
Sicom told me that they have never once had somebody order a new set of pads even on their race team bikes, and he straight up chuckled when I asked about the life of the rotors for track use…he said they haven’t even had someone go through a set of pads yet, much less a rotor in heavy track use or anywhere else.
Those rotors, out of dozens of mods, are by far my best purchase, abs the one that made the biggest noticeable difference on the bike…for those of you that have gone from forged wheels to carbon wheels, you know how much more agile the wheels make the bike…the rotors have the same affect but on steroids, a much bigger handling improvement than the gap between forged wheels and CF wheels.
With all the mods I’ve done, if it’s in your budget to do it, I’d do the Sicom rotor mods literally before any other mod, even before dialing in your suspension because it so profoundly influences handling that you need to adjust your suspension and geometry again after putting them on.
Again, I 100% believe and agree with you on the positive impact they make to riding dynamics. No arguments there. I will say two things about durability and maturity of carbon braking technology -
- It is well known among the car tracking community that CCBs are just for show and don't suit track driving. The science behind it is well proven and I am including some of the literature in the post below, links are also posted to support.
- Heat generated in a motorcycle caliper is not just determined by inertial mass (though that is a contributing factor obviously). Heat in caliper is more correlated to rider ability and braking style. On my Kramer which only weighs 260 lbs wet and I only weigh 150 lbs (so extremely low kinetic mass), I go through brake pads every 4 sessions on track. That is correct, new pads EVERY 4 SESSIONS. You know why? The single caliper system is very poor at heat dissipation and I outbrake motards/brake past the 1 board at every corner carrying a ton of speed with me every time I touch the brake lever. Brake pads on the V4 that makes 3 times more power and weighs 160 additional pounds last 4 times as longer than the Kramer. To manage the heat in the single caliper system (which I like because it is light), I run ducabike caliper radiators, braketech stainless caliper pistons and castrol SRF fluid (best brake fluid known to man with extremely high wet boiling point). I still go through pads as fast as I go through gas.
So yeah, heat is heat. And Carbon rotors are not there yet to cope with heat. If you have a motogp team and can replace them every race or every qualifying session, sure. Otherwise, stick with iron / stainless.
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"However, for these pros, there are a few cons. Firstly, although carbon-ceramic brakes can theoretically last longer on the street, they still degrade quickly during repeated racetrack use. Enough that Porsche had to stop claiming its brakes could “’ last virtually for the life of the car,’” Autoblog reports.
"the single
biggest problem with carbon ceramic discs is that they oxidize at track temperatures. If you refer to the section above on how carbon ceramic discs are manufactured, you’ll remember that the final step is to paint a coating on the discs that protects the carbon fiber strands from burning up and turning into carbon dioxide gas at high temperatures. Unfortunately, the current technology embedded in that coating is not sufficient to protect carbon ceramic discs on today’s crop of heavy, powerful sportscars under severe track conditions"
" High disc surface temperatures-
The temperatures on a carbon ceramic disc face can run a couple hundred degrees C higher than a similarly sized iron disc under comparable track conditions. The result is more heat pouring into your pads, caliper pistons, piston seals, and brake fluid, which necessitates more frequent caliper rebuilds, and a higher likelihood of boiling the brake fluid.
Low thermal conductivity-
Heat does not flow through carbon as readily as it does through iron, which causes numerous issues. First, carbon ceramic discs rely on radiation from a large surface area to cool. Whereas an iron disc can leverage intricately shaped internal vanes to introduce cooling air and carry away heat, the
heat is not as evenly dispersed throughout a carbon disc. Carbon ceramic discs therefore are not very effective at leveraging brake ducts. Instead,
carbon ceramic discs have a very wide friction face, or swept area, to radiate as much heat as possible. Another downside to the larger swept area is that the pads required to mate to the discs are very large and expensive, as pad prices are typically proportional to size."
Are carbon ceramic brake discs better than iron? | Essex Parts Services, Inc.
Is Giving Your Car Carbon-Ceramic Brakes Worth It? (motorbiscuit.com)
