Nerding out on Brakes shall we? Not another tech deraliment

More like Level pushed up a lot further based on lever functionality... Guides at least had a swing link (and pad contact adjust). 

What are zrace levers? I’m getting new brakes for my trail bike and intrigued with this idea 

Aliexpress brakes. 

As @Primoz posted aliexpress brakes. 

But you can purchase just levers. I ran one set initially on Tektro 4 piston calipers for a year and then got a good deal on the DB8 calipers. 

I put a second set of "Zrams" on my enduro bike after how well the levers played with the DB8 calipers

Cool, just ordered a set. Thinking I’ll try them with some TRP slate t4 calipers I have. 

It not clear what olive and barb to use from memory. But I just used the shimano barb and olives (for the zrace levers). 

Arenwe talking about the "M1" version?

Going off SRAM's marketing materials, wouldn't that make you a DB8 customer? In terms of brake power, it seems like the new SRAM heirarchy is:

1. Maven Ult/Silver/Bronze

2. Maven base (no swinglink, slightly smaller pistons)

3. DB8

4. DB4/6

5. Motive (no swinglink)

I'm testing the DB8 for Vital right now and loving it. I can see why that would be a bummer if you've absolutely gotta have a bearing pivot in your brake levers, but it seems like if the Motive isn't enough brake for you than any other brake in the SRAM lineup would give you more power.

That was my assumption. (Lever is $25, the $7 is for the pads).

Yeah, they always quote the cheapest part of the listing, those cheeky aliexpress shops.

DB8 brakesets can be had for about 25€ (per wheel) right now in europe, it's an interesting mod to try, as it seems the weakest link (no pun intended) for DB8s appears to be in the lever itself. A pair of take-off, new in box levers, shouldn't be that dificult to flip, if the experiment ends up working as expected.

Just buy the complete Ali brake. Two reasons. 1, the non tool free reach adjust Zrace MCs use an IFP instead of a diaphragm in the res. I had issues with that when the temps dropped below freezing. Newer tool free units use a diaphragm awfully similar to Shimano's. 2, you can find the complete brakes for around $70/set/shipped.3, IME the completes are pretty damn good. They were consistent in Copper Harbor and Duluth, and admittedly both locales aren't heavy in vert they can put a demand on stoppers. I liked em better than Level 4 pots and they have a lighter lever feel than Codes. Ymmv of course, but I liked em well enough to put em on the other 2 mtbs, ditching my Shimano SLX 4 pistons.

I’m building up a new frame and plan on bleeding my Hayes A4s. I have a small bottle of dot fluid that came in the Hayes pro kit. It’s been opened and unused for the last 6-9 months. I’ve heard it’s best to use a fresh bottle as older/unused fluid will have absorbed moisture. Am I good to just use what I have or is it best to just get another small bottle of dot fluid? 

12 months is supposedly the cut off for using a previously opened bottle of dot fluid.

Although I've used longer opened, but as long as the lever isn't spongy either after bleed or after a heavy brake incident to heat it up significantly then you are fine. Of course then you have to do another bleed with new fluid if it is spongy.

Yep, those ones

FWIW I bought only from the official Zrace store and initially had to ask for the tool free adjust levers. 

The second more recent pair I bought (when I requested tool free) they says they only have the tool free ones now.

At least I think that is what they were saying 🙃

Intend has updated the Trinity: https://www.vitalmtb.com/news/press-release/intend-launches-trinity-2-0.

So, now that some of us are coming out of winter hibernation, wanted to get some thoughts on brake pad options. I did spend a week riding on Galfer green pads on a set of mavens and they seemed “fine.” However I’m not convinced they are that much better than SRAM metallic, though they did bead in super quick. I just haven’t been on a set of SRAM metallic brake pads in months (due to not being on a bike) and I can’t really decide if I should double down on Galfer greens, or just stick with SRAM metallic. I also hear that the Galfers wear significantly faster, but I can’t speak to their longevity just quite yet. 

For those who have played around with a bunch of brake pads options, what do you guys think of the current state of OEM vs after market pads. 

The SRAM metallic Maven ones are solid, and the black ones are good too.  They're a big step up from the pads that comes in Codes, for whatever reason.  I tried the Galfer purples and didn't find that they offered any real advantage, and wore down faster.  You can get the SRAM metallic ones from Backcountry without bolt & spring for <$10, so they're a great value too.

Yeah, that’s kinda what I figured. I’m not sure if Galfer greens are worth it to have the ease of picking up a set of SRAM metallic pads pretty much anywhere.

Though they did seem to work well on the set of TRPs I also threw them on. Still trying to find a good pad for that brake that isn’t Shimano. I’m going to go on record and say that Shimano pads are crap. 

I get 3 x the pad life from a Galfer purple than i do any other Resin or 2x semi's without giving up Bite or heat management.
Most of the brakes i seen in QT NZ had galfer purple in them, they are damn hard to buy here because of the demand.

Hardheaded Ram has shimano and Tektro brake pads. I've been using their sintered for Dominion A4 calipers and they've worked well. Have some of the other compounds but haven't tried them yet. For the price though, doesn't hurt the wallet to give em a shot.

I'd like a set, but am not willing to jump through the hoops to get them. Hopefully they become more readily available. 

Yeah tried to score a set this morning but I forgot to fill my info in checkout before the drop and there they went lol. 

use the autofill function of your browser 

Yeah well when it comes to bikes, I know what im doin. Computers.. not so much lol. I got my last set of them easy since I had everything filled out. And probably got lucky. No time for mistakes tho, those pups are gone in seconds. Just wanted to snag a silver set for my other bike but I can wait

They sold in under a minute this time, I'm pretty quick with these things and probably had them paid for and ordered in less than 30s and there were 8 of 33 left when I got done. 

It helps to preemptively log into PayPal also. 

The last (also first) time I shop for a hyped up product (Stridsland frameset and handlebar) the e-shop was set up so every item in the basket was locked for a reasonable amount of time. But of course, the guy is not german, so he probably did not expect highly efficient customers 🙂. I think there is a idiom that says: Where there's a will, there's a way, or something like that, so... Yeah. It's part of the experience too I think, "fighting" for that rare part that you really, really want, but you dont really need.

i had mine after 10s, but i‘m an efficient german

1: Open 2 separate browser windows, where one is the product page and the other is checkout.

2: Add things that are available to the cart, and if you don't want anything else just add som extra brakefluid for 6 euro.

3: Go to checkout and fill in all your info. Click on any other page on his website, and then click on checkout again. If some of the info is removed, fill it out again, and repeat the process of going to another page and then back into the checkout window. When all information needed is still present in this window, and you can refresh this page(F5) and all info is still present, you are good to go.

4: Wait for the brakes to drop, and refresh page, add them to cart as soon as they are available. Now Alt + Tab to checkout window and hit F5 to refresh. Click that you've read terms and conditions and then click place order.

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I have not ordered anything from there myself, so this is just what I assume to be the quickest. They claim Direct Bank Transfer to be the fastest, so hopefully that means that you get to place the order as quickly as possible with this choice, and then get payment instructions on email(?) so it shouldn't matter if you spend 5 minutes on the payment as long as they've already received your order because the moment they have recieved an order should be what counts as where you stack up in the queue.

Correct me if I'm wrong though.