Based at Stein in the Netherlands, CeraCarbon Racing is introducing what owner Hans-Dieter Fischer describes as a patented and “truly innovative first” in motorcycle front fork design - combination ceramic and carbon fibre upside down front fork tubes.
“The advantages of USD front suspensions have been well known for years, but while they are typically lighter than conventional forks, race bikes especially would always have liked to see them lighter still. We are now able to use all the advantages of the USD system and eliminate even more of the weight, liberating the performance and handling advantages of the USD design.
“Our CeraCarbon front fork inner and outer tubes combine light weight with reliable strength and low friction into an ultimate solution”.
A front fork applying CeraCarbon inner and outer tubes is more than 2 kg lighter than a conventional front fork with steel and Aluminum inner and outer tubes. The weight saving is mainly “unsprung weight which results in much better handling and rideability, resulting in faster track times”. The CeraCarbon inner tube is an all-purpose application suitable for most front forks that can be installed with most aftermarket cartridge systems.
Inverted forks are exponentially more rigid because they mount the larger diameter “slider” to the triple tree. Conventional forks mount to the triple tree via the smaller and heavier steel fork tube. The much more rigid (compared to a steel fork tube) slider makes up a higher percentage of the overall length in an inverted front end.
This design benefit reduces flex and improves handling and feel when compared to a conventional design. Inverted forks are stronger because they have more overlap than conventional forks – the distance the fork tube protrudes into the slider. The more overlap, the more rigid the front fork assembly.
Conventional inverted front forks have one disadvantage - because the steel tubes are on the downside the unsprung weight is higher. This problem is now solved by CeraCarbon by replacing the heavy steel tubes with CeraCarbon Carbon- Ceramic tubes.
CERACARBON RACING
ww.ceracarbon-racing.com
