TRACK TESTED
EBC X-Series Brake Rotors
Author: Barry Cowart
Putting square pegs in round holes to stop you faster
It was the middle of July but felt like Christmas morning around here when the UPS man showed up with my new EBC X-series brake rotors. As I tore open the box and got a look at all that gold and silver, my eyes nearly bugged out of my head. It was like looking at jewelry, albeit motorcycle jewelry. With a manufacturers suggested retail price of $240.00 per rotor, the X-Series features EBC’s most current innovation, the unique and patented S-Drive rivet system. These high-performance brake disks are at home on the street but thrive on the track as well, just the thing for riders who use their machine for double duty.  What makes these rotors different from anything else on the market is their square rivet design, which is claimed to totally eliminate the dreaded rivet lock. What is rivet lock? Glad you asked. I didn’t know either, though now I’m pretty sure it’s what killed my stock disks. Rivet lock occurs when a brake rotor heats up and expands under extreme use, causing the blade to contact the floating rivets which separate it from the inner mounting hub. When this happens, the rotor blade, rivets and hub all lock together. With no room left to float, the blade begins to distort, causing severe issues with brake performance, feel and reliability. The rider notices this as fade coupled with a worsening vibration in the brake lever. One hundred percent of rotor failures due to distortion are the result of rotor lock. The new EBC S-Drive system completely eliminates this problem area. More information can be had by watching this video at the EBC site: http://www.ebcbrakes.com/sdrive.html
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