Lyndall Racing Brakes

Lyndall Paul Kittrell started Lyndall Racing Brakes in 1998 with a background in premium friction materials from his seven years at Porterfield Enterprises, the largest supplier of friction material for racecar applications. Paul's love for racing motorcycles was what got him to start thinking about improving the stopping power of the brakes on his own bikes. He was unimpressed with what was available on the market for motorcycle racing brakes, let alone a stock bike. So, in his spare time, Paul began hand-cutting brake pads from the same premium friction materials he used on the racecars for his AMA super bike.

Paul was able to get time on the same racetracks he raced on for all the testing of Lyndall products. Once Paul had what he felt was a premium set of pads for sport bikes he took all the same ideas to the V-twin market. After getting on and riding a Harley one day, Paul felt a need for better brakes in the Harley market. One year later, in 1999, Lyndall Racing Brakes was born and production of brake pads for Harley-Davidson motorcycles hit the market.

One-piece rotors, like the ones that come on most stock Harleys are just a solid shape usually stamped out of stainless steel. Solid rotors of this variety are easily mass-produced and are usually limited in stopping performance and service life.

Lyndall Racing has since expanded its products to fit all American V-twin applications as well as many others. Because Lyndall has chosen to focus strongly on the V-Twin segment, his production runs are typically smaller than other brake pad manufacturers. This allows for better quality control and more time for focused research and development of their products and commitment to 100 percent customer satisfaction.

There are three types of friction materials commonly used for motorcycle brakes: sintered (formed into a mass by heat and pressure) metal, ceramic, and Carbon-Kevlar. Sintered metallic brake pads, which have a very high metal content, are typically very hard and abrasive to the rotor surface while offering moderate stopping power and mechanical strength. Service life tends to be significantly lower and sintered metallic pads tend to be dirtier and noisier than other types of friction material. They are also inexpensive to manufacture and are the least expensive pads on the market. Ceramic brake pads usually have a very high copper content and are sintered as well. While ceramic pads generally offer a slightly longer service life and run cleaner than sintered metallic pads, they offer only moderate stopping power. Carbon-Kevlar pads, often referred to as organic pads, usually have a small percentage of iron or non-ferrous metal and are softer than other friction materials. Carbon-Kevlar pads typically run very clean and quiet and offer good stopping power. They have extremely long service life and are not abrasive to the rotor because they generate less heat than other friction materials.

Lyndall's brake pads are the Carbon-Kevlar variety. What makes Lyndall's pads unique is that they contain a premium blend of Carbon-Kevlar and non-ferrous metal and have a high heat transfer rate. Once the pad material has transferred a layer to the rotor, the rotor effectively becomes one big brake pad stopping against the two smaller brake pads positioned in the caliper. The result: increased stopping power, no dust, no noise, no drag, no measurable rotor wear, and the higher service life of any pad on the market.

The brake pad is just one component of an entire braking system, rotors provide a unique opportunity to enhance a motorcycle's stopping performance and improve its aesthetics at the same time. Motorcycle rotors are typically offered in three different mechanical designs: one piece, two-piece, and fully floating.