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Gatorbrake Eight Piston Hydraulic Disc Brakes with Carbon Fiber Rotors

gatorbrake dual eight piston hydraulic front disc brakes with carbon fiber rotors for mountain bikes
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gatorbrake dual eight piston hydraulic front disc brakes with carbon fiber rotors for mountain bikes

…oh, and two brakes for the front wheel.

Yep, I’m thinking Gatorbrake takes the cake for the most over-the-top component I saw at Eurobike. While the man at the booth (as best I could tell) said the carbon rotors are both durable and for sale, they’re not shown on their website’s store. They do have some nice looking metal rotors there, though, which aren’t too expensive in Euros.

Let off the brakes and roll past the break for more insanity…

gatorbrake dual eight piston hydraulic front disc brakes with carbon fiber rotors for mountain bikes

Moto style, no less. The splitter pushes fluid to both front brakes…which means they must have an oversized master cylinder and plunger in the lever.

gatorbrake dual eight piston hydraulic front disc brakes with carbon fiber rotors for mountain bikes

Mmmmm… carbon. F1 does it, why shouldn’t mountain bikes. If you believe the forums, that’s what our DH races will look like in a few years anyway.

gatorbrake dual eight piston hydraulic front disc brakes with carbon fiber rotors for mountain bikes

Count ’em: Eight pistons. It’s tempting, but our heart’s set on a perfect 10…

gatorbrake dual eight piston hydraulic front disc brakes with carbon fiber rotors for mountain bikes

Click to enlarge and read.

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23 Comments
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moz
moz
13 years ago

Until I see one of those products tested at redbull ramepage, I am not gonna say a thing.

Kristoffer Bakken
7 years ago
Reply to  moz

Will never happen… Why the f*ck do you need 8 pistons ? And carbonrotor…
Im happy with my Sram Code RSC.. More than enough power.

Nikolaos
Nikolaos
3 years ago

i dont know why the f you need carbon rotors and 8 pistons. isn’t 2 or 4 enough?

Jawn
Jawn
13 years ago

The rotors have my attention, the 8 piston dual caliper set up however….. I thought the problem with CF rotors in a bike app was that the rotors won’t get hot enough to generate enough friction for the brake to work well. So, is that the reasoning behind their set up, silly large brake pads and double the brake rub area to generate the necessary friction for the carbon rotors to even have a hope of slowing the rig down?

snick
snick
13 years ago

F1 uses carbon-ceramic for their discs. Pretty different stuff from basic carbon fiber and resin…

ben g
ben g
13 years ago

well said moz

Topmounter
Topmounter
13 years ago

I think I’ll remain skeptical that carbon rotors are ready for DH prime-time. Of course with all the restrictions on carbon brake tech development in F1, the brake manufacturers are probably looking for new ways to use their smarts.

Ben
Ben
13 years ago

The carbon brakes they use in F1 and elsewhere look nothing like that. They have a carbon matrix as well as fibres (no resin) and don’t really start to work well until they get REALLY hot. Seems like a pointless load of toss at this point…

Robin
Robin
13 years ago

That’s right, Ben. The carbon rotors used in motor racing are carbon-carbon, and are definitely not carbon fiber in a resin matrix. Those carbon-carbon rotors also require a lot of heat to work properly. Quite often they’re shielded to maintain temperature in the rotors by preventing cool air from flowing over them. CF rotors ain’t like that. CF have that wonderful resin matrix which is not known for working optimally at high temps. If I were interested in using CF rotors, I’d want to see test data before I ever mounted them for use.

Topmounter
Topmounter
13 years ago

Silly me, reading the post and thinking there was some similarity between these rotors and F1 rotors…. whatever could have given me that idea.

lolifap
lolifap
13 years ago

not even my dirt bike uses dual rotors looks cool though

RoDe
RoDe
13 years ago

very off topic but what fork is that

JohnG
JohnG
13 years ago

In the first paragraph if this story it says:
“While the man at the booth (as best I could tell) said the carbon rotors are both durable and for sale”
Are you saying the man was hard to understand or it was hard to tell if the person was a man or woman?
Carbon fiber brakes: keep in mind the brake pads play in the braking so the F1 heating issue might be attributed to their pad material also.

Tyler
Tyler
13 years ago

There was a language barrier. He was definitely a dude.

AndyD
AndyD
13 years ago

The dual front caliper technology exists in motos for a reason, so I can see that taking hold in DH if it can be made reasonably light, and there are certain kinds of carbon fiber that are ansiotropic, which means they collect heat and expel it at a certain area, like like fiber optics for heat. It is used in some electronics where heat dissipation is very important. I don’t know about resistance to friction or impact. I can see this working with proper R&D, which only a bigger company like Sram or Shimano could pull off, imo.

andy
andy
13 years ago

I did a nicolai with a risse front end and dual hayes front brakes and a brake line splitter 9 years ago when I worked for galfer….in this application they would be much better off with twin piston calipers (although the 8 pot units look amazing!) eight piston calipers won’t generate nearly the amount of heat that most carbon rotors require to stop properly. carbon rotors (and pads) on F1 cars are completely usesless until they come up to temperature! I know this is a show bike and done primarily for looks and in that instance they really knocked it out of the park! I still have the nicolai!

B-machine
13 years ago

The concept looks good, but carbon rotors aren’t really a good Idea. The reasons have been stated above, but also, a DH race isn’t that long. Those things need time to heat up to be effective and the whole purpose of going downhill is to be fast; not stop on a dime!

The looks are spot on; very sexy indeed. More pistons don’t equate to more power, but the coolness factor is sky high. Paint them red and they will look like Brembo calipers on a Porsche turbo. If customer service is up to par, I’d give them a try.

Renato
Renato
12 years ago

What fork is that, and what is the purpose of those orange cylinders near the hub ???

Martin
Martin
12 years ago

It looks like a million dollars 🙂 id buy it just to go to the shops on, however getting to the point, multi pistons in any brake setup wil increase braking efficiency. Any increase in the braking efficiancy and you automatically get an increase in braking power….

Jake
Jake
10 years ago

There’s another point to bring up. An F1 car weighs how much? Goes how fast. Comparatively, a downhill mtb and rider needs WAY less braking power, so the compositions of the components can be way different and engineered for use under different conditions. You’re comparing apples to oranges.

Mark
Mark
9 years ago

This is the funniest thing I’ve seen yet in this sport. Thing is, if they make it, some idiot will shell out big bucks for it just to say he owns the latest thing. I still have yet to see the benefit of hydraulic over the simple cable setup let alone this nonsense. Heck motorcycles don’t even use dual rotors until you get into very high speed cycles and a decent amount of weight to stop. This Gatorbrake setup is just laughable.

John Casey
8 years ago

Who makes a fork to accept 2 calipers? And a hub with 2 rotors?

Paul white
Paul white
6 years ago
Reply to  John Casey

Old marzocchi Z1 forks take twin calipers ? And I make twin disc hubs from a rear flipflop hub . Chalky

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