Brake caliper weight - end screw plug

Chaps,
Having taken my caliper apart I'm borderline offended by the weight of the steel end screw plug that faces outwards and closes off the outboard side bore. I'm going to design something lighter, and wondered if anyone else would be interested in a lighter solution? I realise that the fast boys throw the standard brakes away, but I'm planning to do what I can to optimise the original system, and I figure that less weight is rarely a bad thing.

I'm pretty certain I'll design and have made a couple of funky plugs for my bike, aiming to more than half the weight of the original. It won't cost much more to make a few more once the program is written. One thing I'm not sure about is the product liability implications of a bloke in a shed designing and selling bits like this - does anyone have any experience in this area?

Ta muchly, Jon.

You see them all the time f/s on Ebay made from stainless. The rest of the caliper is alloy, why not the bore plugs? Might originally have been a durability issue, but chaincase plugs are alloy unless you replace them with stainless.

Jon, not sure if mucking around with brakes is a great idea, perhaps you could copy the original in alloy, I might be interested in a few of them.


Sorry if any offence taken, what I meant was redesigning brakes or brake components isn't a job for just anyone and initial testing could be dangerous.

Jim, Not sure if Ti would be a lot different in behaviour to aluminium (specifically 7075T6)

Mr.Sparks said:

Jon, not sure if mucking around with brakes is a great idea, perhaps you could copy the original in alloy, I might be interested in a few of them.

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Heh, I wish you'd been around in 1981 to tell me that, I'd have maybe chosen a different way to earn a living!

The only problem with making them of alloy would be the fact that they would never come back out after having been installed for a few years. But Ti would work. Jim