When you’re riding a bike, especially if you’re really seriously riding it, you are putting yourself on the line constantly. There is nothing like the freedom of tearing it up on a well-tuned machine, but with that freedom comes a whole bunch of special responsibilities.
A typical dealer at the lot will tell you that in the present day, there is no need for third-party parts, that these days OEM parts are just as good, that absolutely all of their bikes come off of the line completely tuned, and that replacing any part on that bike is a complete waste of time and money.
The facts are, though, that this couldn’t be further from the truth. Things may have changed since the days of piecing together your own chopper half a century ago, but there are some third-party parts that out-perform any OEM you could care to name. Specifically, attention should be made to tires and rims (they say “where the rubber meets the road” for a reason), and perhaps most importantly of all, you need to look at brakes. Specifically we are going to look at EBC brakes in this article as many would agree they are amazing value for the money and it’s undeniable that they boost brake performance tremendously.
Nobody needs to list the many circumstances where fast braking is critical. We’ve all been there at least once. One thing I can guarantee you is that when you redo those brakes with EBC parts, you will notice a sudden dramatic drop in your stopping distance. You will experience a whole new dimension of control.
In addition, and especially depending on exactly what was being replaced, you will notice a dramatic drop in dust and noise from your brakes, especially after you have broken them in after the first three hundred km or so. Many people may say they don’t mind a little noise from their brakes, but consider this: a noise during a reaction-critical situation can be a potential distraction that can cause less than optimum decisions to be made at the worse time! This is not a trivial issue for anybody!
So the next time you are going to redo those brakes, ask for EBC. You can order them online at BikeBandit.com and bring them in the shop too, so the mechanic has no excuses. Actually, he will probably respect you more for it.
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