Sadly, most high-performance bolt-on bike parts come from overseas. Whether from Italy, Germany, Japan, or the US – trick exhausts, exotic suspension parts, lightweight wheels or fuel injection tuning parts, they’re often made outside the UK.
But a small start-up firm in Pinxton, Nottinghamshire, aims to bring its advanced, high-tech brake components to market, with design and manufacturing based right here in the UK.
The man behind the firm, JP Brakes, is Jason Pitchford, and he’s been working to produce replacement titanium brake caliper pistons, aimed at racing and high-end track day use. His pistons are specially designed to improve cooling airflow around the brake pads while reducing the amount of heat transferred into the brake fluid, calipers and pads. They use internal fins and drilled castellated rims to dissipate heat and have minimal contact with the back of the pad, while the titanium material used has very low thermal conduction. The pistons are claimed to cut pad wear by reducing overheating and drag on the discs while also saving unsprung mass over stock parts. And JP Brakes received a big vote of confidence in its products at the end of last year when premium performance parts seller Bike-HPS began selling the firm’s pistons.
Jason Pitchford has a CNC machining and engineering background, but two wheels have been his passion from a very young age. “I started at around 10 years old, collecting scrap bikes. I’d fix them up and sell them on, I was the one that everyone brought their bikes to when they’d broken them. I soon moved onto mopeds and dirt bikes and then cars. My working career went into the manufacturing industry, I did my apprenticeship as a CNC programmer/machinist. Even at a young age, I was designing and making parts then selling them through forums, and in my mid-twenties, I set up my own CNC machining company.”
How did the brake parts side of his work come about then?
“I chose brakes because I spotted a problem and a gap in the market, even with exotic set ups I still heard of people suffering from brake fade and drag causing excessive wear on pads, so I set out to cure it. We’ve sold more than 300 sets worldwide now and proven that, with the pistons in any caliper from OEM to exotic, we’ve got rid of the issues completely. The benefit of lower temperatures is that pads wear up to 90% less. There’s no brake fade or drag, equating to improved lap times, reduced pad wear, and a consistent lever every single lap meaning more confident riding. This is because our maximum ventilation design has a minimal contact patch with the pad, the internal radial cooling fins also increase the surface area to further help in removing heat before it reaches the fluid.
“The performance of the brakes is increased, but most of all, we’re saving people huge amounts of money in pads.”
And Pitchford is looking to expand his manufacturing business beyond brake pistons. “I’m launching a caliper that will be a world first in the bike industry and also a disc which again hasn’t been done before. We also have a full brake dyno and test facility being built. The new products I’m launching will save a massive amount of unsprung weight. The caliper with my pistons and the disc will be the lightest, most powerful set-up out there.”
JP Brakes is looking to expand further and is also signing up new dealers for this season. “I’m still open to new dealers, particularly overseas. I have a few going through as we speak, including in Switzerland, Spain, Sweden and Thailand, who are joining dealers in America and the UK.”
JP Brakes
[email protected]
www.jpbrakes.com