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Yes, I have gone between the Galfer wave and the TRP SE05’s. Both work great, they are on different wheel sets currently. I will replace the galfers with TRP’s once the galfers are done. I know the frameworks team was running a mix of both, waves and sharks of which the TRP’s are a clone of last year when they were running dominions. I couldn’t tell a real difference between the two sets but the price of the TRP’s is better and they are really true and I haven’t had to touch them at all.
Alright, y'all. I recently upgraded my enduro bike from Code Rs to Code RSCs. Got a smoking deal on eBay last month and paired them with Galfer Wave 2mm thick rotors. Modulation is amazing and they're quiet.
I am left with a working set of Code Rs. My trail bike has Guide RSCs...
Not wanting to spend any more money this season, but wanting to upgrade my trail bike's brakes as I'm now at a skill level where the Guide RSCs are not ideal. I love the ergonomics, though.
If I mix the Codes and Guides together, which way should I mix them:
Guide RSC lever with Code calipers?
or
Code R lever with Guide calipers?
If they can be mixed, that I can't confrim, the RSC lever of any product group is going to be "better" than and R.
If you’re going to mix them it would be guide RSC levers on code calipers.
The guide and the code levers share a lot of the same internals. It’s one rebuild kit.
You might find that they get weird as the pads wear though. I think the Guide may have a smaller reservoir on the lever.
The Guide levers are indeed noticeable smaller than Codes. What I don' understand is why is it counter intuitive to place a lever with a larger reservoir onto smaller calipers; Why do the Guide RSC levers work better for Code calipers?
Code calipers have bigger pistons for more power and a bigger pad opening for more cooling if I’m remembering right. I run Code R with 200mm 2mm thick Magura rotors on my hardtail and they work pretty good. Not as good as the MT7 setup did with the same rotors… but it’s what I got right now.
You'd be pairing a lever with a smaller reservoir with a bigger caliper - because of the larger pistons, the Code requires a bigger oil volume as the pads wear. Might be that there is not enough of this oil in the guide lever. Thanks for this info @Nobble, never really thought about what the difference is but I did know the piston is the same across both.
As to why you want to pair the RSC lever with Code calipers, the RSC lever has the swing link which makes the lever pull to piston movement non linear - a lot of movement of the piston in the freestroke part (to have good pad retraction) and then very little piston movement when you have pad to rotor contact for more power. RSC levered brakes are a more powerful than R brakes.
Wasn't the Guide RE a Guide R lever combined with a Code-sized caliper? I never tried them but I remember reading a lot of (relatively) positive reviews. If so that kind of setup works well enough.
Correct, previous gen code caliper and were touted as a E-bike brake option. They were okay, not bad but not great either.
Ah, well there's the answer. Thanks!
AND apparently the Guide RE used the most basic Guide lever, where I'll be using RSC levers, should be a blast.
But, will a Code banjo bolt fit through the current banjo on the Guide hose?
Code banjo bolt:
Guide/G2 Banjo bolt
@TimBud couldn’t post the picture in the comments, and here could interest more, lever blades on the Evo Tech 4 are not backward compatible with Tech4 masters due to different cam design
This is what immediately came to mind. It's been a long time, but if I remember correctly I think the banjo fittings are different for Code and Guide calipers. But as long as you keep the original hose with the caliper, you'll be fine as far as connecting different master cylinders to the hose/caliper.
Old Code caliper which possibly means less piston travel (as the new one is bled with pistons slightly extended) and thus needing less oil volume in the master.
Simply bleed the brake with the rotor and pads in place. It will work fine I'm very sure.
It sucks to buy a new bike part that has problems or doesn't live up to expectations. I use galfer red pads in my gravel bike and there are always circles worn into them where the paint has come off but it doesn't seem to have any impact on the brake's performance. If you don't like the paint coming off then Hope's sintered pads are not painted and work really well, particularly if you value consistency and lifetime over maximum power.
Out of interest are you planning to use something else than silicon grease to lube the pistons? In my experience the pistons need some lubrication to keep the brakes functioning well and I use Avid dot grease for this because I can't get Hope's recommended lube where I live.
I would suspect pushing the pistons back in could be a 'problem' vs. normal operation (not sure if you would really need to push them back in anyway...). The bleed block is about the same as bleeding with pads and rotor place (if both are more or less unused).
But this is just guessing.
I'm currently rebuilding/tweaking my nomad ready for the annual morzine trip, on inspection both v4 calipers are leaking on the inner big piston-so slight though but it's worried me enough to buy a rebuild kit-is this a known issue? The brakes are crazy good, 220mm magura discs on uberbikes eeb pads.
Alright, Code calipers added to the end of Guide RSC lever and hose. Banjo bolt works fine. Running stock160mm rotor so banjo bolt sits super close to spokes. Once I get a 180 rotor it should have more clearance.
That aside, I tried twice to bleed it and the lever goes straight to the bar. I got my Code RSCs on my other bike feeling firm and awesome, and the front line is still the Guide RSC and that feels good, but I’m not sure what’s going on here. Bleed like Code or Guide?
Pad contact dial was all the way out per instructions. Performed a piston massage to get them all moving evenly.
Hmm, I think I found why… my lever syringe was still pulling a vacuum when I picked it up to put it away, so I don’t think I let the system equalize when i unscrewed it.
Guess there’s tomorrow…
I've got a Mondraker Crafty E bike with Shimano XT brakes (standard pads and 203 centre lock discs). After long steep descents at the weekend, the brakes were cooked. Levers pulling closer to the bars and brake fade was more than present. What's the best solution to improve this (apart from braking less)?
Changing to an e-bike specific pad like the purple Galfers?
Changing to 220/223 discs and 2.0mm rotors rather than the 203mm 1.8mm ones?
Or a combination of both?
Fresh mineral oil in the brakes so that doesn't need changing. Thanks for any suggestions.
I run 220 and thick rotors with mtx gold pads - but any bigger, thicker rotor and more aggressive pads will help.
If you've cooked your brakes on the ride as described, I would flush your brakes with new fluid as well.
Purple pads have become extremely popular recently - they really are good.
we run them with galfer wave rotors 2mm, often 223 upfront and 203 rear on XT brakes.
The real answer is Mavens with hs2 rotors.
+ 1 on the mavens to be the one to rule them all. My set has been flawless and hasnt been touched and i dont even have to worry about aftermarket pads or different rotors as the whole package is pretty much perfect to me.
When i first got my new bike with mavens on i wasnt pleased at all. I have been on the dominion bandwagon for a long time. After ridding the mavens for a while now i must say i got used to them. I put the contact point almost all the way in wich made it easier to modulate the brakeforce (and not to perform a full on brake manouver when i just sligthly touch the lever). Depending on what i ride i switch betweem a bike with dominions and the new one with mavens. I feel like the hayes need considerable more fingerstrength to get them to brake powerful compared to the mavens.
I am a really big fan of MTX pads, I gave the reds a shot about a year ago. Compared to Shimano resin/metallic and TRP resin/semi metallic:
-Bedded in so quickly and easily it was comical.
-Never seemed to fade or falter regardless of heat/moisture
-Bike sat for over 3 months during the winter, first ride out they felt like when parked (Have had issues with Shimano pads).
They are just now at 1mm remaining with over 1,750km's/55,000m of descending on them. There might be more powerful pads available but they just work so damn well I am hard pressed to run anything else (other then maybe the golds).
Been thinking about reds. Gold were a little finicky on setup.
Alright, now I got the lever feeling rock hard which is awesome. Got the pistons moving synchronized so no uneven contact.
however now it has almost no power because of my rotors having been used with organic pads and I only have Code semi metallic pads (the bronze SRAM ones), even though I have cleaned the rotor, maybe I didn’t clean enough?
Did you run in the pads? Installing fresh pads (even on a rotor that's seen only metallic pads) gives no power at first but you can feel the power coming on during the first or second hard braking event when running them in.
I had to grind these particular pads a little because the previous owner most definitely did not have the correct spacers on his caliper; these pads had that 2/3rds wear pattern where the top third was unused and they had developed a ridge. Plenty of material left on them, though.
I have 4 pairs of Sram bronze pads: 2 from my own Codes (replaced with TruckerCo golds currently on my enduro bike), 2 from the RSCs I purchased.
I just grabbed a random pair to install, and they happen to come from the brakes I bought. I would have had to flatten them in the future anyways to get rid of that ridge. I thoroughly wiped the rotor with isopropyl and microfiber. Should I rough-up the rotor? They are 8 years old and only ever saw organic pads.
Mondraker Factory Racing went from riding Shimano brakes/drivetrain in 2024, to SRAM brakes/drivetrain in 2025. In the latest B Practice Podcast we asked Dak Norton about how it's been going from Shimano XTR/Saint to SRAM Mavens. It's interesting to hear how even a rider of his caliber has still had to adjust to the power/modulation of Mavens.
** Hope I'm not disrupting the conversation above too much
i have had my eye on the mavens and from what I am hearing the new base model seems like the best balance of power and modulation. anyone have experience on both?
Post a reply to: Nerding out on Brakes shall we? Not another tech deraliment