The Radavist

I know a lot of you out there are aesthetes and that’s not a bad thing. Having clean cable routing and elegant lines is just as important to many people as the functionality of the bike itself. Well, what do you think about this new MAGURA Cockpit Integration?

While these aren’t necessarily a new product in Hope’s expansive line of brake calipers and components but it’s new to me. I didn’t get a chance to shoot the Hope booth at Sea Otter, but I did see these Rx4 brake calipers, compatible with SRAM and Shimano brake levers. Have you used these yet? Are they as amazing as their MTB brakes?

At Grinduro, Chico-based Paul Component Engineering displayed their new flat mount Klampers. Expect more details to come, but I had to share these with y’all seeing as how many have expressed an interest in seeing Klampers updating to this popular disc brake interface. EDIT: Check them out now at Paul!

Whether you race singlespeed ‘cross or want your disc tourer with bar cons to look classy, the new TRP Hylex RS disc brakes have the classic look of their RRL SR levers with the feel of Hylex hydro. These have got to be the best looking and best feeling hydro disc brake levers on the market! See more at TRP.

Photo by Firefly Cycles

I absolutely love EE Cycleworks‘ caliper brakes and will say with confidence that they’re the best brakes I’ve ever ridden on a road bike. Problem is, their availability is often low to say the least. Today Cane Creek announced it’ll take over the manufacturing, distribution and marketing of EE Cycle Works. As of November 2016, Cane Creek will begin rolling out product, so stay tuned. Head to Fair Wheel Bikes’ blog to read the full scoop.

… and they added a new color, perfect for summer: rosé! Check out stock at Paul!

Discs are not going to conquer the world, not if Jan Heine and the Bicycle Quarterly have a say in it. Part of successfully setting up cantilever and center pull brakes is the straddle cable. If you’ve never felt like your brakes were functioning properly, head over and give this article a read!

Love your Guide brakes on your trail bike but want something a little less aggressive on your XC rig? That’s where SRAM’s Level brake comes in. All the technology that went into the Guide line, in a package suited for XC rigs. Best of all, Level comes in five different models, depending on your budget. See more at SRAM.

Products like this are so simple, yet offer a simple way to add a bit of made in the USA bling to your current setup. These brake shoes are domestically machined, and anodized in Portland, Oregon, come equipped with Kool-Stop Salmon pads and are in stock now at Gevenalle.

See more information below.

SRAM has been making moves in their Guide brake lineup and have just introduced a new tier. As the pinnacle in SRAM’s brake technology, the Guide Ultimate has a completely new, 4-piston S4 caliper, SwingLink lever cam, and carbon lever blade, resulting in a 360-gram system. If you end up having to bleed the brakes, that task is easier with the Bleeding Edge system.

I’ve been riding the Guide RSC on my Black Cat hardtail for a few weeks and absolutely love them. More on that to come. For now, see more specs on the Guide Ultimate at SRAM and holler at your local dealer for pricing. The Guide Ultimate launches in May.

“If disc brakes were meant for road and cross bikes, Paul would have made them…”

Truth is truth and I’ve seen the light. Literally. I have a set of these and unfortunately, I didn’t have time to put any miles on them yet but I can assure you, they look and feel amazing. Like all of Paul’s brakes, they’re machined and finished to the highest of standards.

You should know however, that Paul is marketing these for road and cross bikes only at the time being…

Expect a review once I get back to Austin and if you’re going to Interbike, roll through their booth 15030.

In a world that focuses on “grams” and “actual weights”, Paul Components just focuses on making their products work better-er. Case in point: they’ve merged their two mountain v-brakes into one, clean package. Meet the new Motolite:

“The power, modulation, durability, and ease of service is all there but the pads now have an extended range so a 26″ wheeled frame can be converted to 650b or 700c. Made in our shop to exacting tolerances, there is nothing else out there that even comes close. Yes, disks are here but think about all the beautiful frames made for these in the last 25 years. Keep ’em shreddin’!”

Amen! Check out more at Paul!

While most cantilever cable hangers have built in barrel adjusters, some don’t. Since I run the Speedvagen x ENVE Integrated stem, I don’t have an in-line adjuster. Before, I used to just re-clamp my yoke or canti if I needed more stopping power and that’s just not right.

These little things have been floating around on the internet since 2011, but I completely forgot about them until last December…

I catch a lot of flack for saying things like “these are the best brakes” and “I’ll never ride another set of brakes again”. Rightfully so. What I’ve learned in the past is to say things like “these brakes impressed me, both in design and stopping power” and “modulation is king!”

Writing product reviews ain’t easy, especially when a company gives you their product to test out, which is not the case here. I bought these brakes because I believe in supporting the US-manufacturing economy.

EE Cycleworks is a small shop, that produces a handful of components, all of which are incredibly well-designed – from an aesthetics standing – and from what I can tell so far, are easy to service.

Check out more below!

Photo by Margus Riga

New found confidence? Or just summoning the Necronomicog? Finally, some photos of me riding gear in a review!

I think this goes without saying, but I’d like to thank everyone involved with last weekend’s trip, including Margus and Adrian for shooting such rad photos of the riding. One of the reasons why we were there was to test out the new Guide Brakes from SRAM.

I’ll be pretty honest here, I have never really liked Avid brakes. My bikes all have Shimano systems on them, from SLX to XTR. In the past, I’ve said that I’d never ride anything else. Coming off a weekend like this, it’d be easy to say that SRAM put us in this rad location, threw new products at us and expected some positive feedback but that wasn’t the case at all. They really were interested in what we thought and were open to critique.

Unfortunately, the only feedback I had to offer up was: “I didn’t even have to think about the brakes”. Period. Riding new terrain, on a new bike, the last thing you want to do is worry about if your brakes are going to feel good and perform up to par. They felt so amazing, even compared to XTR.

We all know I’m not a king of technical garble, but I think it’s safe to say that these exceeded mine and everyone else’s expectations. I didn’t hear a single squeal from the rotor, or person the whole trip.

These new Guide Brakes from SRAM are like night and day compared to Avid…

Check out more below.

Don’t get me started on domestically-produced bicycle components. Be it Japanese, American, British, whatever, if a bike component is made domestically, I’m into it. The world of high-end, performance road gear in the States is thick and I’ve always wanted to drop my kit brakes for something different on the Argonaut or the Bishop…

I think I found the right match: Ciamillo is running a special on their Micro brakes. They’re only $299 from now until October 31st. After that the price jumps to the normal $430. Yeah, you can get Made in the USA brakes that as far as I’ve read, are amazing, for less than the price of Dura Ace or SRAM Red calipers.

Pick up the Ciamillo Micro brake calipers here, where you can read up on the improvements for the new 2014 design.

This month, Paul Component is doing batch blue components. Everything, yes, everything in their line can be ordered blue. Read up and order over at Paul!

From now until February 2014, Paul Components are offering up a different colored anodizing batch of all your favorite components each month, beginning with orange in August. They’ll also do custom anodizing for you at a flat rate of $75 per color. So if you can’t wait for green, or purple, you can place an order to get it sooner. Head over to Paul Components for more information!