There is a big booty attached to the Crisp Brake MTB – a hundred thousand dollars to be precise – and the goal sounds a bit too stretched. However, a quick chat with the man behind it all, Allan Song Crisp, gives you an idea and a good look behind why the cycling, motorcycling and automotive industries need this “first major improvement in disk brake technology in over 60 years.”
What made you come up with this particular design…what is the story behind it?
On the Kickstarter page I have included the Invention Story, which goes through how the idea came about. Pretty much I just thought the existing brake calipers do not take advantage of all the extra space around them and are a hangover from the days when car calipers had to be wedged in between the biggest disk you could fit inside a wheel and the car wheel.
Here is a quick recap of the Kickstarter Page info:
– Crisp Brake is brake system that is stronger, lighter, easier to use, look after and install.
– The Crisp Brake MTB uses mineral oil which is known to be easier to use, bleed, and does not corrode your paintwork.
– Crisp Brake MTB uses the post mount standard, and bolts straight on using your existing disk.
– Crisp Brake is suitable for all disk sizes from 160mm and up.
You have an ambitious funding goal for the project, is that be default or by design?
The size of the funding goal shows how much the development costs are, as I can only manage a percentage of profit to pay for development I need a greater total amount of sales to come up with the development funds. As this Kickstarter campaign is more directed as a “testing the water” campaign, this lowers my chance of success in case my idea is not fully sound I will not be in debt to people and end up sending out rubbish.
How do you think your brake design will make a difference in the industry – why you?
I am a lot more confident in my design now more than when I first launched the Kickstarter Project, as I have been developing along very rapidly, I believe this will be a big game changer in all industries.
Why me? haha. Because I have too much motivation to be contained living a normal life, if I am not pushing boundaries of what is consider adequate and good enough I get bored and very difficult to be around.
Here is a new CAD model that Crisp has been working on. This one is the model from which he will be machining the first production prototype. The weight has been reduced further down to 92grams including pads, and using 40mm pads (industry standard is 30mm).
The Crisp Brake concept works in a way that instead of pushing pads from each side of the disk with two separate slave cylinders, the design employs a single slave cylinder pushing two levers apart that pivot against each other and then squeezes the pads against the disk. This benefits you in the following ways: reduced brake fade, increased reliability and durability, simple shaping, all of which result in a safer brake.
