Submitted by
surferdann
a Cross Country Rider
from San Diego, CA
Date Reviewed: December 21, 2011
Strengths: With a little bit of modification to these brakes, I was able to get these brakes to actually work. Before the modification, the brakes would just slow the bike down a little bit and I couldn't even get the back tire to skid. After the modification to the caliper (removing the original return spring and adding a spring that pulls the lever back), I was able to get these brakes to work really well. The back tire actually skids now and I'm sure these will do fine on the trail. Send me an email at surferdann@yahoo.com if you have these brakes and want to get them to work. I can send you pictures of the modification and a description of how I did it.
Weaknesses: Poor Design. The return spring between the brake arm and the end of the cable housing actually creates a lot of resistance right when (or just before) the brake pads touch the rotor, preventing a tight grip on the rotor. This is why many of the reviewers here say that these disc brakes brake poorly. With a little modification, these brakes can work just as well as other disc brakes.
Bottom Line:
Without the modification that I made to these brakes I can see why so many reviewers here rated these disc brakes so poorly. Don't know what those RST engineers were thinking with that return spring, but if you remove it and add a spring that pulls the brake arm back you can get a lot more braking power and these disc brakes can live up to their full potential.
Similar Products Used: Tektro hydraulic disc brakes
Bike Setup: Giant Rincon
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Submitted by
dave not sure
a Weekend Warrior
from north uk
Date Reviewed: July 7, 2005
Strengths: smooth, red, strong
Weaknesses: setup (probably why they get slated)
Bottom Line:
this thing are great once you get them setup i changed the pads to fibrex pads when i got them shimed the brake to get tracking correct and then fiddled till they felt right. use them for every type of riding from xc (not really the right bike for it but hay) to trails (still not the right bike) via down hill and junp. these brakes have never let me down theve done well over 3000 miles and have only changed the pads 3 times i see that as great. learn to set them and they will rock.
oh and get some decent levers with good modulation (avids work well)
Bike Setup: custom made frame, lx and fsa, dmr chain guide, kore bars and stem, jnr t's
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Submitted by
Chris
a Weekend Warrior
from Brisbane Australia
Date Reviewed: May 26, 2004
Strengths: Looks good, sorta stops you - just
Weaknesses: Really weak, you have to jump on the levers to get them to work. Pads are expensive compared to much better shimano's
Bottom Line:
You can live with the, if they came with the bike but don't buy them, and they look really cool, much an envious glance from other riders. The strength of the brakes can be improved by changing the modulation on your levers from v/disc to cantilever, this can be a little dangerous if your brakes work half decently, they have a habit of locking up especially the front...
Submitted by
Khalil Hassan
a Weekend Warrior
from Pierrefonds
Date Reviewed: July 14, 2003
Strengths: they look nice from far, if you dont know anything about disc brakes
Weaknesses: they brake very badly, theyre ugly, theyre f****** pieces oh $|-| | T!!!!
Bottom Line:
holy SHIZZNIT! those have to be the worst disc brakes ever i cant believe how bad they are! They dont even brake at all, they look REALLY ugly, they have such bad modulation, wait they dont brake at all so technically there isnt any moduation. they feel so mushy, like im pressing them into rubber, must be the plastic pads! they feel like someone put tons of oil on the disc, like they really dont brake AT ALL, i find it amazing how $*|-|*|*T*T*Y they are. why the f*** does rst make those "disc brakes" anyways? i think they are trying to cause accidents or something, because they dont brake AT ALL. NO ONE SHOULD BUY IT, EVERYONE SHOULDN'T
Weaknesses: RST, This is the worst brake I've ever used. I would suggest also buying a sturdy pair of shoes with a nice sticky sole because that's what you're going to use to come to a stop.
Bottom Line:
Don't buy these pieces of crap. You'll regret it for a long long time. If you already have these, see how many times you can drop them off a cliff before they break into 12 peice. It's fun
Submitted by
rohan .
a Weekend Warrior
from new zealand
Date Reviewed: November 12, 2002
Strengths: sure they are crap for discs but are better than any v on the market
Weaknesses: mine tend to lock on sometimes during heavy braking.
Bottom Line:
better than v brakes but more expensive i think. If you do decide to go the v brake way get Odyssey A-brakes they are VERY stiff and controllable(for v's)
Bike Setup: db hardtail wi mavic 521 and222 and odyssey A-brakes rear
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Submitted by
Mundi
a Cross Country Rider
from Tauranga , New Zealand
Date Reviewed: November 7, 2002
Strengths: it has a solid caliper construction
Weaknesses: The fact that people are trying to pass this off as a brake. It does nothing of the sort, it is absolutely useless, it should have a warning saying ,"this only intended to LOOK like a disc brake,it serves no actual purpose".
Bottom Line:
never ever should anyone be subjected to the tauma of having to use these so called 'brakes' they dont work and i only give them one flamin chilly cos you gotta hand it to rst its a killa scam , passing hunks of metal off as brakes and makin money outta them
Bike Setup: avanti barracuda,rockshox judy XC's, deore groupset and those damn rst peices'o'crap
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Submitted by
Janriê Reck
a Cross Country Rider
from Brazil
Date Reviewed: October 18, 2002
Strengths: Look´s like a disc brake. When the bike is stopped at home, it seens very fast...
Weaknesses: Like others said, it´s suposed to be a brake. That´s the last thing this damm thing do!
Bottom Line:
If I have read this msgs before, I do not have done the shi* I done. Bike parts costs a lot here in Brasil, and I spend my little money in this damm poor thing. It´s simple: they don´t work. And, on the first hour of servicing, the adjusting screw went off when I was tightening the nut bolt. I´m on the 4 day of brake and I gave up. Trying to get my money back. YOU, NEVER BUY ONE OF THESE, I AM WARNING YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Similar Products Used: Only V´s. I gave my used XT v´s to the shop to get a discount and now I want my brakes and money back
Bike Setup: Scott fx 3. Deore components. Duke up front
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Submitted by
Robo Slosar
a Weekend Warrior
from Bratislava
Date Reviewed: October 16, 2002
Strengths: Looks like a disc brake
Weaknesses: It is not the disc brake, very poor stopping power, when wet absolute none stopping power. Hard to adjust.
Bottom Line:
It's total bull $hit. No braking power in downhills. My old cantilever brakes which cost 2$ are much better than this piece of $hit. When I replaced pads it worked better but now I couldn't stop when I've been jumping near to road and a car went there (I'm lucky man, the car had hydraulic disc brakes!!!). If you want to die, buy it!!!
Strengths: Um...They are red which looks kinnda pimpy.
Weaknesses: Less power than a wet cantilever
Bottom Line:
When i first got this brake, I noticed how heavy it was out of the box, and this was only the 160mm version. They only took one ride to bed in, but it took me a while to realise this as the power is appaling! On downhills they fade away to nothing, althoughI dabble in trials and, once locked, they stay locked. On downhills. though, this can mean that on loose surfaces the front wheel locks and slides out. Modulation isnt exactl enspiring. If you must have cable ops go for the avids, but get Hope O2s if you can.
Weaknesses: They suck more than Sram 5.0 vee-type brakes that aren't even set up right with the pads revers...
Bottom Line:
I read a review almost at the bottom and i quote "these rst are just as good as the new mechanical Avid..." WHERE YOU ON DRUGS WHEN YOU TRIED THEM??? Honestly the only mechanical disc brake you can compare the Avid is to the hayes mechanical. Which both are 100 times better than RST's. Damn RST and their spiral caliper suck, they can't even make the rear end go up...
But i LOVE RST disc for 1 reason and 1 reason only, it was only after i tried RST i realised how good Hayes Mechanical are...
Similar Products Used: none, this is too bad to compare...
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Submitted by
Leon R
a Weekend Warrior
from Kent, Rochester UK
Date Reviewed: August 31, 2002
Strengths: They r a well good looking colour, They r good in the wet, they r powerful wen they set up good, they dont rub and have no drag. Decent quality build.
Weaknesses: They are on the little heavy side but i only use it on the rear of my bike so not too bad.
Bottom Line:
Good quality component well worth the money, good stopping power and i use it for trials on the rear of my bike! Work well wen combined with a hope xc hub which i have with the rst disc. Keep the cable well greased and u could b fooled to thinking it was a hydrualic brake! They r well worth it and not too good on the front as bit on the heavy side but go for one on the rear and they r well good!!
Submitted by
DD
a Cross Country Rider
from Leominster, MA USA
Date Reviewed: June 12, 2002
Strengths: Strengths? Hmm..They're painted fire engine red so people can see you coming and get out of the way? Or how about, "they look like disc brakes, and they sure look cool"..
Weaknesses: They don't brake the bike. Considering that these are supposed to be BRAKES, I'd say that's a weakness, you think?
Bottom Line:
These suck, period. I ignored the reviews here for the first year I rode the bike with these brakes..The brakes started bad, and got worse. I managed to get them properly adjusted to get rid of the squeel and intermittnt rubbind following the break-in procudures that were in the manual..But once broken in, performance immediately went from "no different than cheap tire squeezers" to marginal to bad to non-existant very quickly.. My wife has an entry level GT bike that came with standard brakes(that aren't even V-breaks), and she can lock her tires up (nice big fat 2.10 Velociraptor rear tire, she can still lock it up), I've never been able to lock mine with these. Heck, I can barely stop the bike with these, at times I've pondered unclipping and dragging my feet to assist them.
Bottom line is that these are dangerous brakes. If you got bought a bike with these, take everyone's advice here and replace them. If your looking at these (even used, since I guess RST is out of business?), don't..Seriously, these are a dangerous component..To paraphrase one of my compadres in another post, "they wouldn't perform any differently if you poured oil on the rotor"..Unfortunately, that's the truth..I gave them some time and benefit of the doubt, and now I agree with the majority of everyone else here..Avoid these like the plague..
Similar Products Used: No other disc brakes (yet), just standard tire squeezers before these
Bike Setup: Stock KHS Alite 3000 (brakes came with the bike). I'm very happy with the rest of the bike..
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Submitted by
Chris
a Weekend Warrior
from Edison NJ
Date Reviewed: June 10, 2002
Strengths: They look like real brakes.
Weaknesses: They aren't really brakes at all.
Bottom Line:
After riding half a season on these, they are worthless. They worked as well as the cantilevers on my old Diamondback Sorrento Sport, which is what I upgraded from, and had better modulation, that is, until I actually started riding technical trails. They didn't last more than six days of Chimney Rock. Now, I can't even lock up the rear when riding on dirt, no matter how hard I pull! And the pads look fine. My friend rode my bike for a while, and he said he couldn't stop with them UPHILL.
Throw these away, before they endanger your life. I would be surprised if RST didn't have any lawsuits over these brakes. One more weekend for me would have likely been tragic. I was tempted to go hydro, but I'll get Avid based on the excellent reviews.
