Brake Talk

Image courtesy of Paul Components

I was riding my King Fabrications "Honeman Flyer" the other day when I was struck by how much better my brakes were working compared to when I first put the bike together. Back at that time, I was pretty displeased with how they were working, or better said, not working! 

However; post-Mid-South, they started working really well, and now I would be hard-pressed to change them out for any reason. I had one stop the other day on that bike where I grabbed a bit too much front brake and I lifted the rear wheel off the ground. That's enough braking power for me! Especially when I think about using brakes on gravel. 

This brought me to a remembrance of conversations I had with Ben Witt of Heath Creek Cycles and also some of my research into flat mount calipers at that time. I thought that, perhaps, some of you might benefit from my thoughts on brakes and Ben's suggestions as well.

Growtac Equal Brakes. (Image courtesy of Velo Orange)

My comments and thoughts here are based upon my need for a mechanically operated flat mount caliper only. I may compare to a fully hydraulic system, but this is centered around cable operated brakes for the most part.

"Bougie" Brakes:

I did look at some expensive options for this custom bike because.....it was a custom built frame? I guess that I thought maybe a "high end" brake was fitting in this case. You know, kind of like wearing a silk tie with a tuxedo. You just don't do it any other way. 

But the prices for those calipers was, and still is, eye-watering. Wow! The Paul brakes would have been over one third the price of the frame alone. That didn't make sense to me. The Growtac Equal brakes were another high end offering that also gets rave reviews, but again, those were still pretty expensive. A little over one hundred dollars less than the Paul brakes, but yeah.... Why? 

You might say that "they work almost as well as hydraulic brakes and far better than other mechanical options.", but a fully hydraulic system, (With no shifting needs. This was for a single speed bike) like the TRP Hylex, which comes with levers and hoses, costs under $400.00 for a pair. So, right in line with Growtacs , which do not include levers, and less than Paul's which are caliper only. 

Shimano RS305 mechanical flat mount calipers. (Image from AliExpress)

Secret Weapon?:

Ben informed me of a mechanical flat mount caliper that I was unaware of previous to his telling me about them. The Shimano RS305 calipers, which Ben spoke pretty highly of, are dirt cheap. I've seen these for under sixty bucks for a pair! 

They come with resin pads with Ice Tech fins. Ben says they work very well. His word is good enough for me to say that I probably would have liked them on my new bike as well. That said, I wasn't 100% on-board with putting a cheap Shimano caliper on my custom bike. Yeah, probably a little bit of snobbery going on there, but mostly it was the look of that brake that turned me off. Too plain for this wild looking build!

I ended up with TRP Spyre calipers

So, I ended up with TRP Spyre calipers in the end. I already had them on hand, so that was a big reason why I went that direction with the brakes. As I said, they were not very impressive at first. So how is it that they are so good now? I think it all has to do with two things: Set up and bedding in of the pads with the rotors. 

Most of the issues with mechanically activated calipers, in my experience as a mechanic and personally, have been with how the brake caliper was set up to begin with. It is ultra-important to get this correct. The piston, or pistons, have to be set up so that the pads don't deflect the rotor when the brake is applied. Get that right and you are more than halfway there. 

Secondly, it is now my belief that getting your pads and rotors bedded in really well will bring your brakes to life. In my case, with the Honeman Flyer, I believe it was the abrasive red dirt of Oklahoma that helped get the pads and rotors happy with each other. That and the long descents which saw me dragging the brakes a bit more than I would in Iowa. 

Whatever the case may have been, it took a good bedding in to bring out the best in these brakes, and now I wouldn't change them out for anything else. And if I had to buy the Spyres? You can get a pair right now on eBay for under a hundred bucks and they are around $150.00 or slightly less for a pair at many online retailers.