[nwmtb]

Are you manly enough now ?

Appearently the brake manufacturer of Alfa Romeo and Ferrari has decided to get into the mountain bike market. At $800 per wheel it will be interesting to see how they do, it sounds like they're plenty powerful.

read on: http://www.descent-world.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&Itemid=82&task=view&id=523

 

[Locotiki]

A buddy of mine sent me that link a few days ago. Very cool, but what they are asking for them is a bit insane.

 

[A MAN CALLED HORSE]

Bet they'll be superb, but at £400 per end when the Gustav is all the brake anyone will ever need at £170- i'll stick with the Gustav.

 

[nwmtb]

Very cool, but what they are asking for them is a bit insane.

no doubt, the price is waaaay Over the Top. But i bet a few sicko's will sink the dough to purchase a set. Me....no way man. Magura Louise work just fine for me.

I do like the look of them though. The bar clamp looks like it's made from galvanized steel and look at those fasteners...HOLY !

 

[PCinSC]

...the Gustav is all the brake anyone will ever need at £170- i'll stick with the Gustav.

I'm suprised that they didn't even mention Magura in comparison. I guess it can be assumed they're included in this statement:

"These (the Brembos) are the best brakes that I have ever used, bar none. Having been lucky enough over the last 8 years to have ridden pretty much every top braking system on the market I feel qualified to make that remark too. Even the best are designed with compromise; they have all had their issues."​

Plus in my casual perusal of the article I didn't notice whether it was stated how long they brakes for used for. With them being so new on the market, I wouldn't expect anyone to know too much about long term reliability and such. Even though they cost a lot, I personally wouldn't assume that they are the end-all be-all of brakes without more market feedback. Not that I could afford 'em anyway.

 

[Jayem]

Wow, they almost look as classy and well made as my Mono M4s, of course without the mono part. On second thought they look a little cheap (cast lever?). Of course it's simply mechanical advantage, just because brembo or anyone else makes it doesn't guarentee its good, and it's not that hard to make a good set of brakes. I'd say the pad material (especially in my experience with avid) makes a much bigger difference. I like the part of the article where they try to justify not having a monoblock caliper. I'd argue that it's not needed, but it's a more efficiant structure and allows a lower weight. I thought my old DH4s didn't flex either, but progress is progress and there are benefits with the newer monoblock calipers. In the end, these brakes aren't all that complicated, and I can't imagine what justifies the price.

 

[415m3]

I have Brembos on this bike. They're very very nice.

 

[SCUBAPRO]

Are you manly enough now ?
Appearently the brake manufacturer of Alfa Romeo and Ferrari has decided to get into the mountain bike market. At $800 per wheel it will be interesting to see how they do, it sounds like they're plenty powerful.

I'll pass. I think the new Hopes look much better.

 

[mtnbkrdr98]

At that price, the only parties that will be able to afford them are the rich or stupid, or top race teams

 

[Jerk_Chicken]

Grimeca is moving upmarket, eh?

 

[trailadvent]

Man those are one ugly brake $800 hundy u kidding me, I only use brakes to rest my fingers on so little overkill

 

[Clyde S Dale]

They like pre-production test mules to me. So far Brembo has put the money where it counts: floating rotors, ti pistons with a ti nitride coating, and some large 5mm thick pads. When they go to production the caliper bodies will be magnesium and the levers will be carbon. There will be only 250 sets available per year so the prestige factor of Brembo and economies or scale dictate high prices. Its not llike Brembo's going to be an OEM for Specialized's Stumpjumper line.

I'm sure Brembo will sell everyone of them and a set will end up on a Turner. Think about it: Someone will post a photo of a Highline with these brakes on it (which by production time will come will anodized bits to match hubs and nipples, etc.--that alone will make them hawt) and within minutes Larry and Chad's phones will be ringing off the hook.

 

[RED5]

They like pre-production test mules to me. So far Brembo has put the money where it counts: floating rotors, ti pistons with a ti nitride coating, and some large 5mm thick pads. When they go to production the caliper bodies will be magnesium and the levers will be carbon. There will be only 250 sets available per year so the prestige factor of Brembo and economies or scale dictate high prices. Its not llike Brembo's going to be an OEM for Specialized's Stumpjumper line.

I'm sure Brembo will sell everyone of them and a set will end up on a Turner. Think about it: Someone will post a photo of a Highline with these brakes on it (which by production time will come will anodized bits to match hubs and nipples, etc.--that alone will make them hawt) and within minutes Larry and Chad's phones will be ringing off the hook.

Doesn't even have to be a Turner, heck I could get you a pic of a 03 IH SGS DH with Brembos mounted in SoCal. My bud works for Brembo, he's been trying to sell me a set for a while now.

They are pimping brakes, although very utilitarian (sp?). Massive pistons, lines ID are much larger than standard MTB fair. My only caveat, besides price, is the 90% metal connectors look to be very easy to damaged.

Oh well guess I'll stick to my Gustavs.

 

[Random Drivel]

oops dupe

 

[Random Drivel]

wow! I'll take 2

At $800 per wheel it will be interesting to see how they do, it sounds like they're plenty powerful.

Sheesh, I can get a front set of Brembo calipers and pistons for my GTI for about the same price . . . . and yeah, they make awesome brakes.

This is what Smellsworth should put on that new $10k Ti bike they are planning on making . . . :thumbsup:

 

[Random Drivel]

Think about it: Someone will post a photo of a Highline with these brakes on it

Highline? I want a set for my Flux . .

 

[Jayem]

lines ID are much larger than standard MTB fair.

You realize that would deliver less power?

 

[Jerk_Chicken]

But if the pistons are massive, it might need the larger id to allow proper braking.

No thanks. Grimeca can rebrand all they want. I'm not paying $800 for brakes when there are alternatives that are proven and cost $300. They're just using the Brembo name to try and sell some new brakes and people will buy them, as evidenced by the people in this thread that associate Brembo bike brakes immediately with the motorcycle and vehicle brakes. It's a known company, so that's why they do it. I can show you a Brembo oem rotor that separated from the hub portion. For the older German vehicles, it's known to not use Brembo because of the high rate of defects, short life, etc. In fact, I saw one several years ago where the braking surface actually peeled away from itself.

I also love the rationale for defending the use of conventional bolts, but it also displays Brembo's lack of understand of what riders would want. Something like 100% of us carry around hex tools and few carry sockets and wrenches. I could understand if they went TorX or soemthing, but with conventional bolts? Stainless is flexier than conventional steels, yes, but it has proven itself over and over again as the material of choice in mtb. Not only does it provide adequate strength, but corrosion and other problems are reduced. Don't like pulling threads out of a casting, personally. The mtb environment is not the same as an F1 car, but why won't they speak of oem Brembo brakes that come on many family to performance cars? Oh right, that won't sell these brakes.

They just don't get it.

 

[Jayem]

I also love the rationale for defending the use of conventional bolts, but it also displays Brembo's lack of understand of what riders would want. Something like 100% of us carry around hex tools and few carry sockets and wrenches. I could understand if they went TorX or soemthing, but with conventional bolts? Stainless is flexier than conventional steels, yes, but it has proven itself over and over again as the material of choice in mtb

The other funny part about that is that if "brembo" believes that stainless steel bolts are not strong enough, why the hell are they making IS and not post-mount standard brakes? Post mount is structurally better, although I like to believe that it's not a big enough deal to make a huge difference, but the same line of thinking that tells you "stainless hardware" is not strong enough should also mean that IS isn't strong enough either.

Actually, regular "stainless" bolts are usually not what are found for the caliper-mounting bolts on most brakes. I don't know what kind of toy-brakes they've been riding at descent-world, but most of the disc brakes that I've owned and encountered used something like grade 8 bolts, or sometimes even higher. SS bolts are weaker than all of those. I sometimes see SS bolts as rotor-bolts, because the load is shared by many bolts so you don't need a massively strong bolt, and sheered rotor bolts is pretty darn rare. Still, many disc brakes use something better than SS bolts in this place too.

Diff between two (one that brembo makes for the sti and one that subaru makes) 4-pot front systems using the same size rotor is about $1300 (or in other words the brembos are more than twice the price);

I could get the brembos that come on the sti for my wrx, but what exactly do I get for more than twice the price? Brakes aren't that complicated, and the car already has a computer that distributes the brake force and such...

 

[Jerk_Chicken]

Yup, they certainly do use higher grade bolts at the contact points, but I see lots of contradiction that makes the Brembo boys look like they're marketing towards the Sharper Image/$7k Specialized crowd more than someone that wants a brake with performance that speaks for itself, no matter what design convention they use.

I think Brembo doesn't even know that the average person they're marketing to in such classes as DH respond to items that work over bling.

As far as IS and PM, PM is probably stronger, but the standard IS type has proven usable where braking forces are huge. The thing that annoys the hell out of me about PM is the caliper twist when tightening. I now use allen keys to minimize, but it's not optimal.