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I got the Ultimate upgrade kit (carbon levers). I rode yesterday for a couple hours going back to the stock cams and my Oak levers, and I much prefer that feeling. For me, the A1 cams have a more direct / intentional braking feel. Our local trails are almost never straight and steep, so you're rewarded for braking in quick blips to minimize braking in corners and free up the suspension. I have an easier time doing that with the A1 Mavens than any other brake I've tried... the quick application of immense power lets me do my braking in as little amount of time as possible.
I didn't feel anything funny with the carbon lever blades when I tried them. My main complaint with the SRAM lever shape is lack of a strong hook on the end and lack of texture where your finger rests. I put a thin strip of grip tape on them now (like I did with the stock alu levers), and will give them a try with the A1 cams this weekend, just for completeness. I do have some reservations about breaking them but got the carbon kit because it was only $30 more than the SLV kit, and knew that I'd never bother running the lightly machined alu levers over my Oaks.
New brake combo in the works. TRP / Oak Lever / Maven base 18/18mm caliper. Shimano BH90 lines and maxima mineral oil.
I previously tried the 19.5/18mm maven caliper with these same levers, and found the lever throw to be a little excessive. I'm hoping the 18/18mm caliper reduces that a bit. The TRP levers don't suffer the pump out effect experienced with maven/shimano levers. No swing link / servowave action, just heaps of mechanical leverage on a 9mm master cylinder.
It should not be this complicated.
I'm here to nerd out on brakes ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I saw someone this morning on IG that is mega pumped on Radic/Maven combo
Yeah omakacycle does all sorts of fun brake experiments on IG. He claims short lever throw on that combo but I don't buy it.
I haven't used the radic lever but it should be quite similar to the TRP lever. They are both axial cylinder, 9mm master cylinder, and have long levers for plenty of mechanical leverage.
I believe radic achieves the minimal dead stroke their brakes are known for primarily through caliper piston seals that retract very little. They also use 2.3mm rotors, which IME seem to run more true than thinner rotors, leading to less pad rub and allowing less pad retraction.
I'd love to try the radic levers, but $360 USD for levers is kind of steep.
Just to follow up on the question regarding the carbon Maven levers. I rode them yesterday with the A1/red cams and didn't notice anything weird feeling. With grip tape at the hook, they felt just like alloy SRAM levers with grip tape, other than being less cold in the morning.
Well, what did you expect?
A1 cam with the B1 carbon lever (that came with the updates gold cam)?
Yes. But you have to swap the black cam mechanism that's attached to the lever as it's a different profile than the ones on the A1 levers. The gold cams just have a different length pushrod which is only half of the mechanism. I used the 3d printed tools + bolt that came with my Oak levers to press out / reinstall the threaded bushing.
I‘m also a bit confused. My terrain would let me get away with TR4s like 80% of the time for sure. But when I went to Finale Ligure last week I managed to get arm pump in longer trails with my Dominions. I want to upgrade to hopes, a for more power and b for the looks.
I would ask the other way around: would a GR4 be too much power (I.e. too hard to control, skittish, OTB-Feeling)? For someone in the 72-75kg (160lbs) range and an Enduro/AM-Bike (15-16kg), who prefers techy singletrails, has direct access to around 200 vertical meters of trails and goes to Switzerland and Finale Ligure 1-3 times a year. The recommendation from hopes site would be to go for the GR4s. But I want the brake to be as intuitive as possible and don’t be overwhelmed by the power. (I’m also more on the cautious side, but I am rather quick once I know a trail).
Maybe someone else has experience with Dominions and TR4s/GR4s as well.
No experience with Dominions
But with plenty of other brakes
GR4 have massive control other than power, tr4 feel pretty good but lack power when needed for me
81kg riding weight 203 rotors
Unlike mavens with metal pads where it’s all power and no control hopes are still very strong but have lots of control so they won’t feel “too powerful”
I have A4’s and T4V4’s on my trail and enduro/dh race bike respectively, along with a set of Kahas in my parts bin. With the same pads (same compound different shape) and rotors the T4V4’s make more power with less lever force, it’s a pretty noticeable difference over long sustained and steep descents. Nod to the T4V4 for the short lever pull compared to the dominions as well.
FWIW I’m 210 ready to ride and have found that TRP SE05 rotors paired with either Sinter Greens, or Hope Greens/Tricksuff Power+ pads are my favorite for bite and overall power.
TBH I thought I was going to not like the feel of the hopes but in all reality I dont feel like I lost anything coming from Radic Kahas and the Dominions to the hopes. The bite point, is light at the lever, but it’s super consistent and can be felt quite well on the trail. The power deliver is super linear and very intuitive. I go back and fourth between the A4’s and the Hopes and while I still really like the dominions, the hopes are a cut above.
YMMV
I have GR4's and run dominions along side them for ages.
Get the GR4's dude, they're amazing brakes. It's easy to tune power out of them if you're worried. Running the ebike pads is the go, they don't have the savage bite of the race pad, but come on strong and last ages.
Allright all of this sounds, like there is no reason to go for the TR4s or am I missing something? Maybe for my Banshee Phantom the TR4s would be better.
As others have said as well, you won't feel overwhelmed with the GR4. If your Finale experience was such that you really want the most power you can get just "to be sure" (it may not solve your arm pump issues, BTW...that could be many other things, like grips, suspension set-up, riding technique, fitness in demanding terrain...), then by all means go for the GR4. So much modulation on tap, they have never surprised me in any riding situation.
Thanks, that helps me out a lot!
I’ve married a DB8 caliper to a Shimano XT lever. Seems to be holding oil… But will it work well? Or will I be killed?
It’s only the front that I’ve made this frankenbrake with as the caliper was weeping on the shimanos. Haven’t yet bedded it in but it has a much more mushy feel to it than shimano.
For those in the UK you can get a set of db8s for £35 from banana industries.
I'm using same setup just with SLX levers for almost a year. Works like a charm.
On another bike I have DB8 callipers and Formula Cura levers, same story.
In both cases the system is filled with Maxima fluid.
I've run DB8 calipers with Tektro, shimano and (currently, on one bike) zrace levers.
Not dead yet
Thank you both for the reassurance. I've got a custom blend of stock sram fluid and shimano fluid in mine, for performance reasons and definately not because I haven't bothered to do a full bleed...
Just get the whole Radic brake set and don't bother messing about with the Maven bits. They work so well as they are and don't require any piston massaging or other faff... 😜🙃
Got myself a pair of those.
Raicam is an Italian manufacturer. They originated outside of the cycling industry, can’t remember exactly.
It was all very neatly packaged, the bleedkit is supreme, rotors and pads seem very nice. Setting them up was a charm, bleeding was super easy and everything has a nice touch to it. Original Pads have no rattle, pad shape is the same as Shimano, TRP, etc. 4P Brakes, pistons work very evenly, it’s a mineral-oil system…it ticks a lot of boxes for me.
I haven’t put any meters on them yet but this seems to be a very considerable option. This is the Gravity brake which comes in three levels. The one right here sits in the middle of the three. The lever shape feels like a XTR, the pull force is very low similar to Hayes and the little extra squish after pad contact reminds me a lot of Mavens or TRPs. Freestroke and Lever Adjust seems similar to the Hope Idea.
It will take time to give a first comment on how they worked on the trail since I am still injured, but I could share more pictures of the single parts and accessories if you are interested.
Just pulled my bike out of the basement and discovered my Shiguras are leaking oil at the pistons. The donor MT7s were brand new and the brakes were performing perfectly last fall. Standard Shimano mineral oil, not the new lower viscosity stuff. Bummer.
I very much doubt it has anything to do with the mineral oil choice. I have a set of MT5s (with SLX levers) on my wife's bike that is filled with Shimano mineral oil since 2023. And I just checked the callipers - no leaks.
It’s not.
This is good to know. Pretty disappointing because I loved 'em, except it gives me an excuse to try some Mavens.
Pal had a couple pairs of old XT brakes that were well, well, WELL overdue for some loving. Swapped out the caliper pistons to the Exnavi phenolic units I've used in the past with great results. While cleaning things, I got to thinking. (We can blame that on the 91% iso fumes.) As we've all seen Shimano fluid get horribly dirty, like stupid beyond belief dirty, I started looking a bit more at these cal pistons. Ceramic jobbers, porous. You can see crap built up in the pores (not the best photo work, sorry), but one thing that piqued me was the presence of what looks to be embedded aluminum. This got me thinking that it'd be rad to get a chem analysis of the fluid, to see if some of those suspended solids are in fact aluminum. Working theorem is ceramic piston grinds on piston bore, material is transferred to the fluid, which eventually ends up in the MC, which in turn causes more aluminum grinding and scores the MC bore. I've seen dirty fluid on all levels of their brakes, but it always seemed substantially more on units with the ceramic pistons. That could well be due to a person riding series level brakes tends to ride more and harder of course, exposing the brake to more crap, but I still think getting a spectrograph of the burnt fluid would be interesting. Likely a non-issue for the latest n greatest stoppers since they walked back from ceramic pistons, or at least I would hope so.
I didn't read everything, but I can 100 % assure you that aluminium enters the chat when it comes to dirty fluid. QED, I've bled a lot of Code R and RSC brakes. The difference is that RSC is anodized, which includes the insides of the lever body and the caliper, which means a smooth, hard coated master cylinder bore resistant to wear. On the other hand Code R is painted and is painted only on the outside. Which means the piston rides directly on raw aluminium. The master piston, if you disassemble the R level brake, is a lot dirtier and infused with aluminium than with an RSC brake and the oil, when doing a bleed, is gray while it's hardly dirty when bleeding an old RSC brake.
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