The following newsletter on motorcycle brakes was provided by Bob Stewart of Stewy's Custom Cycles in Wakefield, MA.  If you have any motorcycle questions, give Bob a call.  He can take care of any issues you might have. 

DP Brakes NewsBrake April, 2008 DP Brakes and Clutches, North America DP Brakes N.A. 4401 Walden Ave. Lancaster, NY 14086 (716) 681-8806 Larry Mills, President, DP Brakes and Clutches, North America www.dp-brakes.com  or dpbrakestm@aol.com

NewsBrake Notes from Larry Mills. Welcome to the April 2008 issue of DP Brakes NewsBrake. Got to love this time of year. Hey, here in the northeast, the snow has finally disappeared and blue skies and sunshine are replacing gray and that winter feeling of everything being lighted by a 40 watt bulb! Best of all, it’s time to start riding again. Cool. Life is back the way it’s supposed to be. Anyway, enjoy the newsletter, and don’t forget, if you have a question, concern, comment or opinion about brakes or clutches drop me a line and I’ll get back to you. If the question is broad enough I’ll even print it in a future issue of this newsletter. You can reach me at dpbrakes@northamericannewswire.com or at dpbrakestm@aol.com

As riding season heats up, now is the time for a complete motorcycle system review. Check out all the usual suspects…tires, fluid levels and the nuts and bolts of your two wheel dream machine. But, don’t forget to dig deeper and check on the condition of your brake pads. Don’t wait for a problem. Your eyes will tell you when it’s time to replace. Check the brake pads on both the front and rear wheels. Your brake pad wear depends on how many miles you’ve put on your current ones, and how much braking you do. An eyeball inspection can tell you whether your pads are worn and thin, and need to be replaced. If you’re not sure then don’t mess around. Go to your motorcycle shop and have a pro check. Safety comes first.

And now is also the perfect time to improve your braking performance for the coming season. One of the easiest, and least costly ways, is to install a quality set of replacement pads. Both as replacements and performance upgrades for O.E sintered metal brake pads, DP Brakes complete product line offers fitments for every riding application, including racing, sport, touring, and cruising. Additionally, our expanded line now offers pad fitments for the increasingly-popular off-road and ATV markets. Superior to anything else available, DP Brakes ATV pads deliver the kind of high mileage and exceptional braking in mud, wet sand and worse that leaves other brake pads far behind. So, if you want to upgrade, we’re happy to oblige naturally…that’s what we do. So, do both me and yourself a favor and ask for DP Brakes! Check this out for more information. www.dp-brakes.com.

Motorcycle history and trivia. A The first American motorcycle only race took place in May of 1901 at a one mile horse racing track in Los Angeles. Four racers competed in ten lap event. The winner crossed the line in 18 ½ minutes….that’s ten miles in nearly twenty minutes! Wow how times have changed! In May of the following year the first road race took place in the US between Irvington and Milburn NJ with the winner averaging a speed of 31 mph. Here’s a couple more interesting motorcycle history notes…Yamaha was founded by Torakusu Yamaha in 1888… originally as Yamaha Musical Instrument Company. The first Triumph motorcycle was produced in 1902. It featured a single cylinder engine fitted on a bicycle frame.

FAQ -How can I keep my brakes from squealing? Wearing earplugs will cure brake noise, but you will still cause dogs to bark and the police to notice you. Brake noise or squeal is due to vibration that sets off a harmonic frequency within the brake system.You can take steps to reduce noise, the most common fitting is an anti squeal shim or greasing the abutment sides of the pad and making sure corrosion etc has not caused pads or caliper to jam. The trick however is to make sure the pad is compatible with the rotor. At DP we spend a lot of our R&D time making sure the pads are quiet. We do it by use of complex graphites that are mixed so that they are present at each layer of the pad, so the pad stays quiet even when it wears. It's called IGGS, inter granular graphite structure and its difficult and expensive to achieve which is why only DP does it. For more FAQs go to www.dp-brakes.com.

Check out quality DP Brakes clutches. The street, off road and ATV lineup of DP Brakes clutches features the same commitment to quality and state of the art manufacturing processes as our brake products. For more details check out: http://dp-brakes.com/dp.php?load=clutches .

Pass this newsletter on. If you find this newsletter interesting, helpful, or informative, please pass it along to your friends. They can also signup by emailing us at dpbrakes@northamericannewswire.com  Thanks again and enjoy the ride!