WTF is up with those SRAM brakes?

carvegybe said:
Centerline rotors?

My bike is getting the Hopes installed this weekend. My wife keeps telling me Hope is a $hit name for brakes. She has a point.
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The ones that suck are HS2s.

www.competitivecyclist.com

SRAM HS2 Rotor - 6-bolt - Components

Buy the SRAM HS2 Rotor - 6-bolt online or shop all Components from Competitivecyclist.com.
www.competitivecyclist.com www.competitivecyclist.com

I put some cheapo Shimano rotors on and it was night and day.

Hopes are great brakes. I wish I bought them instead of the levels.
 
jShort said:
The ones that suck are HS2s.

www.competitivecyclist.com

SRAM HS2 Rotor - 6-bolt - Components

Buy the SRAM HS2 Rotor - 6-bolt online or shop all Components from Competitivecyclist.com.
www.competitivecyclist.com www.competitivecyclist.com

I put some cheapo Shimano rotors on and it was night and day.

Hopes are great brakes. I wish I bought them instead of the levels.
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I also have two wheelsets and got Hope rotors for only one of them. Second wheelset is sram centerline rotors...but I have shimano XT rotors too. Might do shimano rotors in front and sram in back to compare...
 
one piece crank said:
My SRAM's are good, really good. I can modulate lever input to nose-wheelie down-hill, or grab the front brake and skid a 4.8" tire on dry pavement. Lever input is easy to control and has never been excessive. Could everyone here just be used to poor brakes and somehow think they actually like them (Shimano)?

o_O
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Post video of nose wheelie down hill or go home.

Funny thing is my nica group today and I were talking about how crappy sram brakes are today compared to Shimano. I loved my guides and then I tried XT’s felt what real braking power is.
 
Serious question - why do shimano brake lovers obsess over bite?

There are two situations I can think of where I want to lock up my wheels. 1) I spazz out in the gnar and now I am inevitably going to crash from locking up my wheels. 2) I’m already crashing and squeezing the brakes as hard as possible is human instinct at this point.

Ever drive a car with really touchy brakes? It sucks. Also breaking when your car starts sliding is the absolute worst thing to do. Translate this to bikes somehow I dunno Im not a wizard.
 
Soundguy said:
Serious question - why do shimano brake lovers obsess over bite?
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To prevent this:

1657726510786-jpeg.189800
 
Soundguy said:
Serious question - why do shimano brake lovers obsess over bite?

There are two situations I can think of where I want to lock up my wheels. 1) I spazz out in the gnar and now I am inevitably going to crash from locking up my wheels. 2) I’m already crashing and squeezing the brakes as hard as possible is human instinct at this point.

Ever drive a car with really touchy brakes? It sucks. Also breaking when your car starts sliding is the absolute worst thing to do. Translate this to bikes somehow I dunno Im not a wizard.
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I want to skid a corner. Which I'm never going fast enough to do!

I was going to ask what is good brake performance? I'd want a good range (modulation) with limited effort. What am I missing?

Hopes 4lyfe
Although I have SRAM level on the fatbike with hopes sitting in my parts bin
 
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So I have 8 y/o Elixir 5 rsls on my hard tail.
Never given me trouble until a few weeks ago when I grabbed it out of an uninsulated shop and the front was seized.

I figured bummer, this is it for them.
Had LBS throw a bleed on them while I decided next steps.

During the bleed, they sucked out a big hunk of black snot.
Back to running just fine, but if they give up the ghost, it’s XT, like on the FS.
Performance/$ hits right for me.
 
Soundguy said:
Serious question - why do shimano brake lovers obsess over bite?

There are two situations I can think of where I want to lock up my wheels. 1) I spazz out in the gnar and now I am inevitably going to crash from locking up my wheels. 2) I’m already crashing and squeezing the brakes as hard as possible is human instinct at this point.

Ever drive a car with really touchy brakes? It sucks. Also breaking when your car starts sliding is the absolute worst thing to do. Translate this to bikes somehow I dunno Im not a wizard.
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In fact, most cars come with ANTI-LOCK brakes now
 
Soundguy said:
Serious question - why do shimano brake lovers obsess over bite?

There are two situations I can think of where I want to lock up my wheels. 1) I spazz out in the gnar and now I am inevitably going to crash from locking up my wheels. 2) I’m already crashing and squeezing the brakes as hard as possible is human instinct at this point.

Ever drive a car with really touchy brakes? It sucks. Also breaking when your car starts sliding is the absolute worst thing to do. Translate this to bikes somehow I dunno Im not a wizard.
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I rode guides, level’s and Juicy’s for a long time and loved them. What made me switch the the issues with sram levers. I also ran the bite adjustment on the RSC at the fastest possible (closest) So once I switched to XTs, wow, what a difference in amount of power. So what does bite have to do with it? On sram I always felt I had to use a lot of lever pressure to stop the bike and you pull the lever for a relatively far difference before the pads engage.
In comparison, Shimano brakes are grabbier and allow you to use less lever pressure for the same amount of braking. Instead of sram designing brakes for modulation, the modulation is done by a simple thing, less finger pressure.
Has nothing to do with skidding.
 
I think for me the biggest problem with SRAM brakes is that pressing the brake lever to lock up the wheel is not something I ever want to do on the trails but I want to know it as a lever movement data point. I can then control my braking between 0 and lock-up being able to anticipate the braking force and wheel reaction. I never experienced the floating bite point issue with XT brakes but my experience with "sram brake modulation" is that the lockup data point is missing. I would have gotten XT or XTR brakes to replace the SRAMs but based on this forum's feedback I decided to try the Hopes. This purchase choice is also consistent with my choice of bike frame: I want to support smaller players in the market who have created something special...
 
Perhaps Sram brakes feel underpowered on bikes with smaller diameter rotors? My bikes always had 200mm rotors so Srams/Hope always felt great but if it was a 160 or 180 rotor the extra power of the Shimano might be desired.
 
Seriously, all brand-specific fan-boy comments aside, this whole thread is like big floating ???, and I just don't get the massive swings in performance data. If you really cannot get your brakes to work, perhaps a few parts, new mechanic, and/or riding skills training are in order...

I have 160mm Avid BB7's on my play bike, and they can stop my 225lbs just fine.

I had old Avid Hydro discs on bike, levers locked up, @jdog replaced them under warranty, which I installed with a good bleed and they were flawless.

I never liked the SRAM Level T's on my fat bike, but they worked (modulated and stopped). Replaced them new G2 RSC's for the lever adjustability, and they blow my mind (granted, an unfair model-to-model comparison).

I have Xt's on two spare bikes, that I dont personally ride, but when I tune them and take a real test ride they just work.
 
I just came here to post that I have 4 full suspension bikes, 2 have shimano and 2 have sram brakes....thus I hate myself
 
rick81721 said:
All this brake nuance talk is amusing. I have multiple road and mtbs with different styles and brands of brakes. They all work the same - pull lever to slow down. Pull harder to stop.
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Preference and muscle memory?
Takes a while for me to get used to one after using the other
 
Paul H said:
Preference and muscle memory?
Takes a while for me to get used to one after using the other
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Really? The only thing I notice is going from my road bike with disc brakes to the road bike with rim brakes. And even then, I just start braking a little sooner with the rim brake bike.
 
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