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TRP DH-R EVO brakes

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#444 ·
Dabs For Everyone said:
I am doing the piston massage and the bubbles keep coming and coming. Makes me think the factory bleed isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
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weird, I Got maybe 2 bubbles from each, i did mine exactly like Kevin from TRP showed in the release videos and they've just worked.
I still dont rate the e.2.3 caliper, i've had regular DH-r EVO's and trail evo's and the Pistons always used to get stuck and would take alot of work to get it moving properly with no air behind them.

These are the first TRP brakes that have just worked from new when following their own advice - the blue pads are still rubbish.
 
#445 ·
MrPotential said:
weird, I Got maybe 2 bubbles from each, i did mine exactly like Kevin from TRP showed in the release videos and they've just worked.
I still dont rate the e.2.3 caliper, i've had regular DH-r EVO's and trail evo's and the Pistons always used to get stuck and would take alot of work to get it moving properly with no air behind them.

These are the first TRP brakes that have just worked from new when following their own advice - the blue pads are still rubbish.
Click to expand...
Swapped out the blues for MTX, works every time.

The bubbles finally stopped appearing after 30 to 40 minutes (!) of massaging. The resulting alignment isn’t perfect but it’s a big improvement (picture included).

I think maybe I should just do a full bleed on this brake.

Image
 
#448 ·
Once you bed the pads etc it will be easier to balance them, just use a nice flat head to hold some back and push other side out , work untill the pad clearance to be pretty even on both sides. Try not to move the caliper to achieve clearance after its aligned to the rotor.
 
#449 ·
After all that fididling with alignment, I got one real test ride on the EVO Pros. My initial impression is that this a whole new level of brake. I was expecting an incremental improvement, but so far it’s surpassed expectations both for power improvements and modulation. I’m using my usual “mullet” setup of an MTX red in front and an MTX gold in the rear and the two piece 203mm TRP rotors F/R

I think part of this improvement is the PAD adjustment - turned fully clockwise I can finally get the lever feel I always wanted from the DH-R evo. Feathering them is lovely. They are also completely silent so far.

Looking forward to taking them to Northstar in 2 weeks.
 
#453 ·
Surprisingly good combo -Jagwire semi metallic red in the front and MTX gold in the rear
JW are super cheap but the I’d be hard pressed to tell the difference between the Stock TRP semi metallics and them
 
#454 ·
At Northstar on the Evo Pros, I had some rubbing noise issues when the brakes heated up. After bringing the bike home I found that the rotor / piston alignment on both front and rear was off-center from where I had set it up. I am not sure how this could be, given many rounds of piston massaging and careful centering of the caliper and pistons on setting up these brakes. I re-aligned everything so we'll see how that goes, but I'm confused as to how the alignment could change so dramatically, given that the pads are basically new.

I also found that if the PAD adjustment was dialed all the way in, for the firmest possible feel, the brakes were more likely to rub when heated up. This improved when I dialed the PAD back about halfway.

If this noise keeps up, my next task will be a full bleed on both brakes to replace the factory bleed, as I'm a bit at a loss here with these brand new brakes behaving like this.
 
#456 ·
Dabs For Everyone said:
After a local ride the piston alignment is wonky again. I'll try a full bleed next, I guess. Also going to try some 200mm hope rotors so that I can eliminate the 1.5mm spacers under the calipers in case that's somehow making them less stable.
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I used to have this problem with TRP E2.3 calipers in the past - used to be so f%$king annoying, I used to sell them on (came on bikes)
The problem I believe was air trapped in the caliper on one side and it wouldnt dislodge... I bought a set a year later an had the same issue, So i ripped the caliper apart and drained all the oil, Put it together and Filled the system from the caliper end, suddenly the issue vanished. - just make sure you clean TF outta the caliper as oil sits in the piston design and in that caliper bleed port.(TRP suggest brake clean for this)

I probably had atleast 5 sets in a row do it.


EVO Pro, First set was just the lever purge when installing, bedded pads, Aligned and the are good, except the pads... those blue are sh1t.
 
#457 ·
Question, I dont have these brakes anymore, shop gave up and swapped them for the Maven's. But I was just curious as to all your thoughts. TRP DHR evo pro's with the Cascade adjusters (which I also had to have dialed all the way in). I had to have the reach dialed all the way in because I have small hands. The shop bled them I think 4 times (a hand full of different technicians tried as well), but the levers remained mushy and there was no power. I also noticed the pistons were squeezing unevenly and they screeched like I ran over a cat (shop said they werent contaminated and it was because they were metallic pads). The shop said the DHR's required a vacuum bleeder machine. But eventually gave up and now I have the Maven's. The Maven's have almost too much power, since I wasnt getting much modulation out of them and I got pitched over the bars twice, but thats another story.

Just looking for thoughts on what happened with the TRP's.

Here's a few videos of what was going on:
 
#458 ·
Did a full system bleed on both Evo Pro brakes using the new instructions from TRP, which are a little bit different than previous - they ask you to remove the caliper from the mount while bleeding and hold it with the banjo connector at the top while depressing the syringe.

There is an obvious improvement- rear caliper immediately aligned perfectly and the front did as well after a bit of coaxing. This makes me wonder a) at the quality of the factory bleed b) whether the piston massage does what is claimed, or if I just did it incorrectly.

Will need a full ride to see if heat build up induces rubbing, but this is an encouraging sign.
 
#459 ·
CrashDummy31 said:
Question, I dont have these brakes anymore, shop gave up and swapped them for the Maven's. But I was just curious as to all your thoughts. TRP DHR evo pro's with the Cascade adjusters (which I also had to have dialed all the way in).
Click to expand...
A clarification question first: The brakes in the video are the older TRP DH-R Evos without Cascade adjusters, is that the model you are asking about?

A few different thoughts, with a caveat to start: I used be a bike mechanic in several different shops, and hate to second guess a shop without examining myself, but there are a few things which don't make sense to me.
  • DHR's absolutely do not need a vacuum bleeder. They bleed very similar to a Shimano brake.
  • Levers that mushy mean there is something compressible in the system, aka air. My guess would be bubbles trapped on the backsides of the pistons.
  • The uneven pistons can also suggest either bubbles in the caliper, or needed to do a piston massage to get them to move better. It's possible that uneven pressure could cause the caliper to flex/resonate, but I would expect there to be more stopping power if that was the case. Or the overall lack of pressure in the system is letting the pistons move within the bores causing that resonance.
  • If the bleed was done properly (which I have doubts about given the lever feel), then there's something wrong with the pad & rotor interface. I've never heard metallic pads (which have been properly bedded in) to squeal like that while also having no stopping power. They sure as **** sound contaminated to me, but another possibility is that the rotors weren't fully cleaned/sanded/reset after being used with a different pad compound.
Did you contact TRP about the situation? When I've talked to them in the past (via phone, electronic is hit or miss) their customer service has been great and they sent me a replacement caliper at no charge to fix my issue.

To reiterate what I said at the beginning: It feels bad to be contradicting what a shop told you, but something just feels off given my professional experience and my personal experiences with my DH-Rs.
 
#460 ·
Dabs For Everyone said:
Did a full system bleed on both Evo Pro brakes using the new instructions from TRP, which are a little bit different than previous - they ask you to remove the caliper from the mount while bleeding and hold it with the banjo connector at the top while depressing the syringe.
Click to expand...
I was curious about the new instructions so I looked at the new documentation, which is nearly the same as the old one... Their updated bleed video shows the changes, but also contradicts the documentation in several places. 🤦‍♂️

Screengrab from the video:
Image


It seems like the caliper part of the procedure would be an update for the non-pro version as well.
 
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