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was wondering if anyone has put any useful time on the lewis ax brakes. kinda curious as there is like nothing about how they are online
This is insane how have I never heard of this bike
They weren't mass produced compared with other GT DH models. There are so many custom machined detail parts all over it that i doubt they made much profit on them. GT used to be very experimental back then.
Sorry for going OT on the brake thread
The early 2000's were the wild west of frame design.
You need three of these?
I have no doubt these are massively powerful, but the lever throw must be pretty long. 9mm master cylinder piston with 18/19.5mm caliper pistons and no cam system in the lever. I remember people having complaints about this with Trickstuff DRT/Maxima levers when installed to formula Cura 4 calipers (9mm MC, 18/18mm pistons).
I’m assuming when he’s talking about the Gustav being comparable in power, he’s referring to them matched to the same Radic lever, but these have 19/19mm pistons which seems liken it would make the lever throw issue even worse.
I sure do enjoy seeing people try all kinds of franken-brake setups though!
Better to go with base caliper then?
Oh man these things made a ton of headlines back in the day but never really went anywhere....they actually showed the first prototype back in 96-97. They also rode terribly due to being from the time where a "freeride" bike meant 200mm of travel with a super steep head angle and low gears for climbing. A bike shop here had one in stock for probably over a decade because they still wanted full retail for it LOL
As for centre lock - the splines always feel loose and if you rock the bike back and forth they often move on the spline no matter how tight the lockring is. They also need different specific lockrings depending on the hub and have just always felt like they didn't add much (like a lot of "standards"...). I think CK went all in on only using centrelock a few years ago but eventually had to bring back 6-bolt
According to Omakacycle "The free stroke is shorter, and the post-bite lever travel is the same as the stock Maven."
I agree with you though, it doesn't add up. I used TRP levers on maven calipers and the free stroke was quite long. I don't see how the radic lever would be any different as the master cylinder is the same size (9mm).
I throw good old Formula Curas in the Mix. Especially the two piston version.
I did the radic/maven combo at least 1-2 years ago. Downgrade from stock. Longer throw, hate maven pad changes.
If I recall correctly King’s claim was that they switched to CL only because they had limited production capacity during covid and CL hubs can run any rotor through the use of adapters. 6B hubs aren’t “universal” in the same way.
Have you ridden stock TRPs dhr evo ? how much longer the free stroke gets? I feel they have a decent long free stroke to start with; I wonder if it gets worse with the maven caliper? Thank you
I went from Code RSCs to Maven silvers to Code Silvers. I can't detect a significant difference between the Code RSCs and the Code Silvers. They work well for me.
Are you saying that kaha lever throw with mace caliper was longer than stock kaha setup, or longer than stock maven setup? I’m curious about this combo but it’s not worth trying if the kaha lever ends up with super long throw.
The lever throw with trp/maven setup is slightly longer than a stock trp Dhr evo setup. Not unusable by any means, but it’s a decent amount of lever throw for sure. Modulation and power were top tier though.
Would the new TRPs with contact adjust help here? Or is it shimanos version of contact adjust?
the TRP version works good.
What "stock" brakes have you run that you can compare them to? Power/lever throw vs a T4V4?
I’ve a good amount of experience on xt, trp, saint, Lewis LHT, shaven. Never used hope.
The trp / maven combo has a long throw but it’s not crazy. Maybe closest to Hayes because those have a decently long throw also
Asking for some thoughts, I'm considering an ebike that comes stock with the new 4 piston XT brakes. My current ebike has TRP dhr's and I love them, I've had XT's in the past and liked them but the wandering bite point and PITA bleed have me kind of turned off on them, then Vital's own Jason Schroeder says they're a step down from Maven's, TRP's etc. Is that the consensus from others who have ridden the new XT's? Would love to give the new Hope's a run, heard many good things about them.
I guess the question is how picky are you? No disrespect intended, but I think this forum is an assembly of the nitpickiest nitpickers in the world when it comes to brake lever feel and power.
The new XT and XTR brakes are totally adequate for mountain biking and ebikes, and if you need more power, you can pair them with a big thick rotor (like a 220mm/2.0mm SRAM HS2). However, they are less powerful than some of their newest competitors* (Maven Ultimates, TRP DHR EVO, Hope Tech4 V4, etc), and the lever feel is less crisp than the classic Shimano on/off feel. Some people think the new XT's and XTR's still suffer from the dreaded wandering bite point, others don't, and the members on this forum will give you a million perspectives on which brake is just right.
In summary, if you're not picky, they'll be fine. If you are picky, and you're fishing for reasons to justify replacing the XT brakes on your new ebike, you will find an abundance of reasons in this forum.
*Editor's note: I think Shimano knows this, which is why they're developing the Jackson Goldstone prototype megahuge brake caliper
Thanks for the reply, TeamRobot!
TRP EVO Pro Question.
This is for folks that have run both the EVO Pro and the DH-R Evo's. I ran DH-Rs prior to some MT7s (HC3) then currently some Lewis options on my two primary bikes. I prefer my levers pretty close and just the index into the end curve, which resulted in me having to use Freedom Coast levers to get them close enough on the DH-R's. Ultimately I ended up moving on from them because I was forced to either sacrifice on brake lever position or shift lever position, which was not great for a thumb that has been through shit, skiing and mechanicing.
Question: Is there more room for setup variation on the new master cylinder, or is it the same. How about reach compared to the original with Freedom Coast levers?
Also considering trying some Hayes, but I have a bunch of mineral oil...
I haven't ridden the new Shimano brakes, but I can tell you that if you love the TRP's you'll miss them. I have TRP's on my primary bike and had XT's on my downhill bike. We did 6 park weekends back to back and I rode XT's for those weeks then went back to the TRP's and it took me a couple rides to readjust. Within 2 months I had TRP's on the downhill.
I really would love to try out Hayes but the whole family rides Shimano and it's nice to use the same pads (and fluid) across the board.
Slapped a set of Mavens on my Sight only to find that the little tangs on the Maven pads don't clear the the carrier on my XTR Freeza rotors
Probably just going to chop the tangs off the pads while waiting for new rotors as my buddy said he'd swing me a new set of HS2's for $$. Anyone else run into this?
Had an interference issue with my dominions paired with RT86 rotors. Unfortunately it meant I defaulted to some centrelines I had, which suck.
It has been years and I still have the centrelines. Really need to do something about that lol.
Post a reply to: Nerding out on Brakes shall we? Not another tech deraliment