It’s an irony of racing that, to go fast, you have to be able to stop! It’s all very well blasting down the straights if you have to start braking halfway along it in order to make the next corner. The very best riders will brake as late and as hard as possible and, for that, they need to have confidence in their brakes.
Not only do you need a strong initial bite, but you also need consistency and a reduced tendency to fade. While not nearly as glamorous, another consideration for the amateur or semi-professional racer is value for money.
A relatively new name to the brake pad market in South Africa is Premier, set to do battle with the likes of SBS and EBC. South African TT protagonist AJ Venter has been using Premier for both his TT and local circuit racing adventures, so is well-qualified to comment on their performance.
‘The key is to go fast but have the confidence to be safe,’ he begins. ‘To go fast you need to be able to stop; you need to be pushing the limits, where you can brake as late as possible and as hard as you can and have confidence that you will stop.
‘With brakes, we need three things; power, which can also be called bite; consistency – how the pads work throughout the temperature range and in a range of braking conditions; and pad life – how economical is it to run these pads?
‘The price is right; Premier is the cheapest pad – value for money – with the best bite: I like something that, when I pull the brake lever, it must stop! But they also last well, which again is more cost-effective.
‘Around the Isle of Man, it’s not that you punish the brakes, but there is a lot of heat generated. There are a lot of flat-out areas with heavy braking at the end and you have to be confident that there is no brake fade and, with Premier, there just isn’t. It might sound like I’m just saying that, but, believe me, I wouldn’t be using a component and putting my life in its hands if I didn’t believe in it.
Even though AJ is sponsored by Premier, it quickly becomes clear that even were he not, these would be the pads he would use.
‘Premier was relatively unknown, compared to EBC and SBS. With those two brands, sometimes availability was a problem but, so was cost: when you’re looking at R4,000 per caliper for the pad that will last, then that is a big consideration.
‘When Premier approached me, we would have been daft to not try them; not only were they cheaper but they were a good pad; they did everything I needed and in a way that I needed it to be done.
‘Put it this way; if I wasn’t sponsored, I would still use them because they’re such a good pad.’
That’s quite an endorsement and, given AJ’s pace at the Isle of Man TT this year – a lap at 126 mph is not hanging around – you have to trust what he says.
You can find Premier brake pads at many outlets throughout South Africa. For more information, visit – www.poweredbyautocycle.co.za
