For over twenty years, CME has been a dominant force in motorcycle brakes with a list of World and National Championship winners using its brakes and other performance parts. CME users include US Arena Cross Champion Buddy Antunez and World Champion Joel Smets. CME has also manufactured disc brake systems and brake pad sets for major mountain bike system manufacturers such as Cannondale, Hope Technology, Magura, Hayes, Avid, and Shimano.
Founded in 1978, CME Brakes Group became a pioneer in the motorcycle disc brake pad market. Since then, CME Brakes has grown into a global group with strengths in all areas of the brake industry. Having successfully dominated the motorcycle industry with majority market shares in most Western markets, CME Brakes has developed a wide range of mountain bike brakes. bicycles, automobiles, race and rally cars, vans, trucks, buses, commercial vehicles, and even mainline locomotives.
CME Brakes divides its disc brake system and brake pad sets into different categories namely Greenstuff, Yellowstuff, Redstuff and Bluestuff.
“Greenstuff” is a high friction aramid based organic pad with a very low metal content that becomes strong from the first application of the brake pedal, without damaging the disc and with minimal brake dust. It’s for fast, heavy-duty street use, brakes well in the cold, and withstands even temperatures above 650 degrees Celsius. “Greenstuff” has a high initial braking effect and gives drivers confidence from the first application of the brake pedal. There is no such thing as a DUST FREE pad. The very nature of how a brake works requires some dust to be generated to prevent rotor vibration (chatter). The EBC pad creates less dust and dust is easier to remove than most. All pads create more dust as they settle, especially if the rotors are worn.
“Greenstuff” is used to replace high-friction brake pads, which are prone to front-to-rear brake imbalance. An example application of this technology is the 6000 series SUV/light truck 4×4 brakes. An excellent solution for 4×4 use, this heavy-duty “Greenstuff” formulation has slightly lower friction than its counterparts, but has the benefit of longer life and better resistance to dusty and sandy off-road conditions. It has an extremely low rotor wear factor and a medium to good service life.
“Yellowstuff”, coded Yellowstuff 1793, is the name of CME’s latest full-race formula currently used in racing in Europe. Although it is a complete material for racing and capable of being used at high temperatures with very good wear life, this new formulation marks a new trend in racing brake pad compounds. The cold “bite” is excellent, which is rare with race materials (which typically require heating) and makes this a pad that can be used safely on both the road and the racetrack. It has a nominal coefficient of friction of 0.46 with zero rotor damage and low dust. Since “Yellowstuff” was introduced in late 2003, it has received a lot of positive feedback from drivers of faster cars like the Subaru Impreza WRX. It emits much less dust than semi-metallic pads and has been shown to stop a saloon car 13 meters faster than OEM pads from 100mph/160km/h.
“Redstuff,” on the other hand, is a high-performance semi-metallic road material used in saloon car racing, having won the Slick 50 saloon car championship with Ian Mitchell’s Honda in 1997. It was widely used by many race teams going back to 1999. “Redstuff” is recommended for road use only in cars that have 200BHP+. “Bluestuff”, CME Brakes’ longest lasting material, has a slightly lower coefficient of friction than its green, yellow and red counterparts, but offers a much longer life and is suitable for endurance racing up to six hours of durability in most types of saloon cars. .
For SUVs, CME designed a quiet pad that will stop faster and last longer with almost zero brake dust. Called “the ultimate SUV front end pad,” the 7000 Series SUV Supreme does not include any steel fibers and therefore dust does not stick or adhere to wheel alloys.
CME also introduced its Sport Drilled and Slotted Rotors, special disc alloys designed to have wider slots that actually draw cool air across the pad surface, keeping the pads and rotors cooler. They also expel dust, dirt, and hot gases better than fine grooves, which are prone to rust buildup. Blind drilled holes break down surface gases when braking from speed, but do not weaken the rotor cross-section, reducing the chance of rotors cracking over time and heavy use.
CME has proven its worth in the field of brake performance parts and it looks like it will continue to stamp its class with its innovative line of brake pad systems.
