Lewis Brakes
LH4 Brake Set - Metal Braided hoses
Sram Matchmaker Adapters
$363 shipped
Ordered 12/5, received 12/23
Brakes look very good. Came with bleed blocks, sintered pads, and spare pad retaining pins.
TL;DR
Nice brakes.
Lever clamps are fragile. Cross threaded one during install.
Brake hose barb system works well.
Stock pads are poor.
With the same pads (truckerco sintered) and disks (XT 180mm), power is better than Shimano 4 piston. Feels like 10-20% less effort.
Very good modulation.
Levers feel great and do not rattle at all.
No response to my email inquiry about stripped clamps after 9 days. I have a pretty simple fix that is working, but alarming if a more serious issue arises.
Longer Version:
Installed just the front brake. Right off the bat, I managed to strip the threads on the bar clamp. It's a steel screw going into aluminum and the clamp is hinged. I guess I did not have them properly aligned and the soft aluminum did not significantly resist until it was too late.
I installed using the other bar clamp (they are separate from the lever) and it seems fine. I emailed Lewis on 12/24 and did not heard back.
I decided to run just the front Lewis brake until I was sure they were legit. My rear brake is internally routed so I waited until I was sure.
Front brake installed. Rode around bedding in brakes with same Shimano XT rotors I was using with my 4 piston SLX brakes. They work well. The pads are noisier than the sintered truckerco pads I was running on the SLX brakes.
After 2 rides and about 30 miles, they seem pretty nice. Power is slightly better than the SLX. Riding with the Lewis front and SLX rear I can definitely feel less pressure is needed for the Lewis.
The lever clamp design is challenging. Besides being fragile, the offset cantilever perch gets in the way of having a dropper post clamp just to the inside of the lever.
The matchmaker option is very basic. It only allows one position on the clamp. No rotational adjustment at all and only about 5mm left right. They want you to install the bar clamp upside down in order to add the matchmaker. I ended up fixing my stripped clamp by drilling it out and using a m4x.7 x 35mm bolt with the head at the top and then using a nylock nut to tighten and attach the clamp and matchmaker. Not ideal having a 7mm nut though, as it's not a common tool to carry on a bike.
I committed to the new brakes and installed the rear and shortened the hose on both. The hose cuts with regular cable cutters just fine. It uses a threaded collar and threaded barb system. Instructions were good and worked just fine. There is no rotational adjustment once the collar and barb are tightened and then the hose screwed into the lever. I had some bad rotational pressure based on the natural curve of the hoses. I was able to mark the "up" position of the collar and then mark the natural up position of the hose and then remove the lever and barb and rotate the collar mark to the hose mark and then put it all back together and ended up with the hoses in a position with no rotational spring effect.
Bleeding was not too bad. I used syringes for both the lever and the caliper. There were at least a dozen times I put negative pressure on the lever syringe and got lots of bubbles. Next time I will rotate the bike on the stand so that the caliper is above the levers when removing the caliper bleed hose and replacing the plug. One odd thing on the bleed ports. They use a green o-ring and both have some fraying after one bleed. Definitely need spares of these.
Update. They posted a bleed instruction video in the time since I bled mine.
I will try their method. Interesting part is pulling the lever tight and then putting suction on the caliper syringe.
The stock sintered pads are not optimal, they squealed when braking hard whether wet or dry. I replaced them with a set of truckerco sintered and they work MUCH better. Good feel, power and quiet.
I did notice that the stock pad springs were very widely spayed. When I installed the rear pads using the truckerco springs, the brakes rattled. Bending the springs into a wider position fixed the issue.
So far, I like the brakes, but am nervous about support.
12/24 - email sent. no response.
1/2 - posted same message on website form. Heard back same day.
Part of the issue was the vendor vs the manufacturer.
Lewis Bike Brakes|Hydraulic Disc Brakes|MTB Disc Brakes is the manufacturer.
LEWIS BRAKES DEALER, where I was able to purchase them, is the vendor.
They want the vendor to handle support. The email was sent to both, so bad on them there.
1/4 I sent lewistech pictures and described my 2 issues.
1/4 I got a response. No warrantee on cross threaded clamp or the o-rings. They offered a discount on the clamp and to throw in some o-rings if I ordered the clamp. They did provide the specs for the o-rings though, so I can source a set for my next bleed as I don't think they will survive another removal/installation. Not great support, but at least they responded. Again, this was the Lewistech vendor. O-ring diameter 5mm x 1.5mm thickness. Material HNBR
Regarding the clamp and the matchmaker adapter, I noticed that the Trickstuff parts look very similar and that their MM adapter has more adjustments. The cost of the clamp and MM adapter on r2-bike was not terrible, so I ordered the parts. The Trickstuff clamps work just fine with the Lewis LH4 levers. The lewis clamps are hinged and are lighter. The Trickstuff has 2 pieces and 2 bolts and feels a lot more sturdy.
Hexsense mentioned the large pad take up or dead stroke. I have that too. I think part of my issue is the 1.8mm rotors (probably less due to wear). I am pretty sure there would be less dead stroke with thicker rotors. Also, this dead stroke does not bug me. I ride with levers so that they crab pretty close to the bar so I am used to riding with the levers partly engaged most of the time anyway.
Overall, these are nice upgrade over the Shimano 4 piston brakes. More power and better modulation, no lever rattle, no wandering bite point.
If you look at the bleed port on every picture below you can see the green o-ring fraying. I am not sure if the issue is the machining or if the green (high temp, I think) o-rings are just really not right for this application.
Lever with stripped and drilled out clamp.
View attachment 2076973
Right brake with stock clamp (no issues with cross threading)
View attachment 2076970
Lever with Trickstuff clamp.
View attachment 2076974
Tricktuff clamp and mm adapter.
View attachment 2076971
Cross threaded clamp, drilled out plus mm adapter and nut.
View attachment 2076969
View attachment 2076972
