As many of you know, I am still in the testing phase for the brakes… They’re a lot less critical to longitudinal dimensional changes than the gear cables. Hence I was previously using ultra-thin mylar washers in between each one of the ceramic segments (to act as a buffer and thereby increase their ultimate strength when connected in series). The custom-made mylar washers were about the thinnest you can get and cost an absolute fortune, but even so, the braking became a little too mushy as a result.

I’ve recently been testing the ceramic brake housing with just the individual ceramic vertebra pieces and no mylar buffer washers. That’s right - I am my own guinea pig tester. In the past week I installed the new prototype brake lines on my own personal bike. I just came back from a ride with a 550m descent and I’m extremely pleased with their performance (I’ve been using 1.2mm gear cables!). They performed flawlessly. I even rode down 20% slopes with only one brake activated and yet I never felt like I ran out of braking power. It’s the third ride I’ve done like this.

The first two rides I was using the wrong brake pads made by zipp (they’re meant for carbon rims but I don’t use full carbon rims anymore). Since I swapped back to the original standard pads, I’ve been further impressed. So much so, it’s really given me the boost I need to promote these more than I have been doing. The only limitations in braking force that I did experience was when the alloy rims heated up to a dangerous level; I was more frightened of a tyre blowout than the ceramic parts breaking.

The trouble is, there’s a lot more force applied by using the brakes. I don’t even need to say this, but should they fail, the brakes won’t work!! I can say that the overall compression strength of the ceramic housing decreases once the bend radius becomes too tight (because the individual pieces begin to mismatch). Having said that, traditional metal brake housing will also fail if they are kinked too tightly. Even so, to be perfectly honest, I’m reluctant to sell them for fear of litigation claims (at least in the USA). 
 
Yes I am confident enough in their performance to put I put my own life on the line. I feel that in testing my own product in this way, I can earn the trust of many other potential customers. Since riding with this product, I’ve gained a tremendous amount of respect for the strength of Vertebrae ceramic brake housing.

I’ll send a few out for a magazine review soon. My ultimate aim is to get them into the pro ranks of cycling (I’ll most likely have to sponsor somebody), but I do think that every discerning cyclist can benefit by them. I really should post some updates on my blog but I’ve been so busy promoting www.Tenerife-Training.net that I haven’t had time to juggle both things at the same time.
 
If a few riders can pass the word around about Vertebrae Ceramic Components in the mean time, I’d be extremely grateful. They’re a truly excellent product which could really benefit enormously by more exposure.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 10th, 2008 at 12:01 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.