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Apologies!
More new Lewis brakes previews:
https://www.instagram.com/bee_kay77/reel/DB2UnFGC4fF/?hl=en
https://www.instagram.com/bee_kay77/reel/DBU5-i3i-yB/?hl=en
There was a discussion not too long ago about DW bikes and Dave's approach to bike development and what it looks like. I think @jeff.brines mentioned Tim Krueger on Bikes and Death podcast touching on some more details regarding business in the bike world, but Tim (being a friend of Dave apparently) also mentions this process Dave has (well, they have) regarding bike design.
https://bikesordeath.com/ep-193-tim-krueger-esker-cycles-ceo/
It starts at about 1:59:00 in the audio version (not sure where it is in the video version).
it feels to me that the first product they come up with with more of their input is already "meh", the fact that the fins are on a separate plate and you need that thickness behind the pads, regardless of how beneficial, seems way too much of a PITA.
Bee Kay already modified a piece of alluminium to replace those fins and claims something needs to be there as otherwise pistons will start to become too advanced with all new.
Yeah, to me they seam to copy Shimano with the fins now. Slight alterations of the original Trickstuff's Maxim'a and the fins now added too. I'll wait for the reviews online to decide weather i'll will buy them or Hopetech V4, i can't make up my mind yet.
Got an easy answer there but the brake thread might be the better place for this
I have the LH4s and been running them as a pretty heavy guy (93kg) for the past 4 months (including a trip to morzine). They've been rock solid and one of the easiest I've had to bleed. Pads last a long time and are cheap as well.
It makes very little sense to have the fins integrated in the brake pads and throw them away every time you wear out a set of pads. If you still want fins, doing it the way they did is the best. Having them non removable could be a pain and I see the point BK was making regarding seeing the pistons, having them removable would make it possible to run the brakes without them and causing problems (pistons advancing). But otherwise your comments are very much what is to be expected - haters gonna hate.
best would be like intend do it
meh, i feel the way Intend did it is the way to do it if you really want them, although it's been shown it's pretty useless. Usually, like on Shimano and here, it causes more problems that it solves. Rattling, noise and stuff.
No hate here, just an observation.
But they only cover half the pad and minus the piston at that, plus the refrigerator is more complicated and needs to have a matching interface in the caliper (where is then the seal for the piston?).
The "best" way is dependant on a lot of factors. Manufacturability should be one of them.
How can the Sight LT change the Range in Norco’s lineup while being a 160mm bike with the Range being a 170mm one (which can go all the way up to 200+ with the help of WRP)? Something doesn’t compute….
My guess the range is being discontinued and the new dh bike must be coming out soonish. And short stoking the new dh bike is always a possibility.
Assuming they keep the shore and shore park as more budget friendly options that’s a very full lineup.
Thx for the info. I'm exactly your weight 93kg, but with all the gear and kitted on top around 96-97kg.
Range is definitely getting dropped. It’s an incredible bike, but heavy. I’ve been contemplating doing the WRP conversion myself…
I heard Range will come back as an independent platform for MY2026. It'll be like the Sight and Optic but even bigger.
There is going to be very inefficient heat transfer between the pads and the heat sink compared to the shimano version with the them being integrated. You could increase the thermal transfer if you used some kind of thermal compound but I’m not sure how that would stand up to water/mud.
It will do something but just not nearly as good as having the pad bonded to the heatsink.
Copper grease should work a treat for this use case.
Yup, any time you have to cross a boundary between 2 different parts the heat transfer will be much slower. Thermal compound would help but ideally the surfaces need to be machined or lapped as flat as possible which just adds another expense. Would be interesting to compare how much these help versus something like a little duct that channeled air through the calliper instead
Just quickly watching the video and reading the comments:
Could they have been looking to thermally isolate the calipers from the pads? As opposed Shimano looking to directly cool their pads?
There's a company here in the UK called Uberbike who offer separate fins with their pads. I tried them and frankly couldn't notice any difference in brake performance. Perhaps they'd help in places with more elevation and longer runs, but they felt like a waste of time to me.
I can’t speak for the Uberbike fins but when I was guiding in the Alps my finned Shimano pads (sintered) would last at least twice as long as the standard.
Prefomance was the same otherwise but the longevity hurt my wallet less despite the higher initial cost
Aren't the Shimano versions one piece though? Probably makes quite a difference.
The pad material is attached to the finned portion and that is attached to a separate backing plate on Shimano pads if I remember correctly.
The clear best solution is to just make water-cooled capable calipers. Water gets cycled through by a pump driven by a little baby pulley wheel on the outside edge of the rotors.
Correct - on Sintered pads it's [braking material][finned alloy plate][steel back plate], while resin is just [braking material][finned alloy back plate].
While it's anecdotal, I am very pleased with the Shimano finned pads. I don't know what the difference is in a compound between D02S, H03C and N04C. However, going from D02S to H03C has made a very noticeable difference in my brake pads' lifespan. I did make that change at a time I also singnificantly stepped up my riding, so pad wear may reflect that as well.
I had a rattling pad issue once, solved it with spreading the spring a bit more. I'll probably pay more attention to it now that my bike is quieter overall.
I do like the Lewis' approach. Got a pair of the Uberbike pads on my commuter. The downside there is you need their own pads with thinner back plate, and as others have mentioned, the heat transfer will certainly suffer. However it'll still carry some heat away, looks neat and I'm all for keeping brakes consistent. As long as it's quiet, I'm into it.
It's an interesting argument that one would like to see their brake pistons. I try to optimize bikes for on trail performance, and while ease of maintenance sure is a factor, how often do people inspect their pistons? If one side advances more than other is easily visible with fins, and only once in 12 years I've had my 4 piston brakes advance unevenly on one side, where seeing pistons would have been beneficial for diagnosis.
https://www.vitalmtb.com/forums/hub/nerding-out-brakes-shall-we-not-ano…
Are brakes the crabs of tech rumours?
Just connect them to a piss tube in your pants.
This could have the added benefit of extra cooling conveniently being available at the same time as sudden, extreme braking events......