Beringer Inboard Brakes: plane tech for supermotos
Essentially a direct copy of its twin-engine airplane brakes scaled down to fit a supermoto hub, Beringer's new Inboard Braking system promises a number of significant technical advantages. It's the least obvious of those that holds the most appeal: these brakes are virtually impervious to crashes. 
Think about it: how often are your hubs damaged in a crash? They're
protected by the fork bottoms, the forks themselves and, since they're
narrower, the rims and tires too. In addition to saving you money in the event of an accident, Beringer claims the system delivers three times less gyroscopic inertia, a 20% power increase (presumably over a single disc setup) and a 500g total weight reduction. They also look really cool.
Despite the lack of discs exposed to airflow, Beringer says cooling
shouldn't be an issue. Air is drawn into the hollow hub centers then
directed around the discs.The Inboard Braking system has been designed to fit supermotos or custom bikes. The light weight of the former and walking-pace speed of the latter means braking requirements are fairly minimal. It doesn't appear that the system could substitute for the twin-disc setups of larger or faster motorcycles. It also appears that Beringer may intend the system to be used on motocross and enduro bikes. We'd be hesitant to employ it for those applications, fearing that mud and other debris could build up inside the hubs and reduce braking effectiveness.
Beringer
Wes Siler. December 01, 2008 — Permalink
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I could see this being very popular with custom bike builders who want brakes but don't want it to look like it has brakes.
I think they're really cool, I like the slick way the fork mounts
Beautiful piece of machine. No doubt about that.
another marvel of engineering and advanced thinking from Beringer. This system is only a prototype at this time and will be tested in SM lites and/or 125 GP. The main advantage, like with their new small conventional dual disc system is to eliminate the torsional forces created by a large single disc as used in SuperMoto and still most of the 125GP bikes. Stay tuned as availability will be announced in the press or at frogspecialties.com
You know what? It's fantastic to see this sort of mechanical innovation.
Everyone is so caught up in electronics and digital controls, that most of the mechanical innovation has essentially stalled. Replaced by "refinement", aka "sensors".
Remember Jesse James' perpendicular rear brake/shaft drive deal on that custom he did for Honda?
It's not ready for Superbike application yet, but I hope they pursue it. 3x less gyro?!? That'd be great!
A buddy of mine has these on a single engine plane that he built. They were more compact/lighter than traditional brakes, thus the attraction. However, they do have significant heat buildup issues in an aircraft application.... not sure how directly this translates to motorcycles, but something to consider.
I'm having Honda CBX400/550 & VTR250 flashbacks.