EBR’s 1190 New Superbikes

As automobile enthusiasts you must have gone through tons of photos that were captured by our photographers. This Auto Expo has witnessed millions of snaps and thousands of spectators but there were some things which went totally unnoticed by almost everyone. We made sure that nothing was to be missed and our eagle eyes performed the duty. It is well known to all of you that Erik Buell Racing showcased the 1190 RX and 1190 RS superbikes. The motorcycles looked stunning but there is a special feature of it which was hardly mentioned anywhere.

It’s the front disc brake mentioned as “ISO finned rotor, 8 piston calliper with cooling duct” in the brochure. Well the front brake is truly a special one and that is why it has made its way into this article. A conventional disc brake assembly has its disc mounted on a hub, has 2 or 3 piston callipers and the disc has plenty of slots for heat rejection. For higher capacities bikes, the disc diameter is as large as 320 mm and generally end up in a pair. Coming to the front brakes of the EBR 1190 RS and RX, the mono disc is mounted onto the alloy wheel with the help of fasteners. To restrain the 185 BHP beast; the 386 mm disc is mated with an 8 piston calliper.

It is to be duly noted that this massive disc doesn’t have any slots for heat rejection but has a couple of ducts for that purpose. The ducts are connected to a vacuum pump and are placed near the disc itself. The vacuum pump is coupled to the timing belt of the engine; vacuum is created by the pump in the ducts and air is sucked which eventually cools down the disc. No doubt that coupling the vacuum pump to the engine will reduce the overall power; on a lighter note we would say that the designers were biased towards the braking system.

Technically speaking the loss in power would be less and this technology improving the overall handling is acknowledged by the company itself. This braking system is patented by Erik Buell Racing. Currently Hero MotoCorp holds almost half the shares of Erik Buell Racing and that is the reason the EBR 1190 RS and 1190 RX were found in the much dominated Hero arena.