[Lelandjt]

In the tests of the new Sram Maven brake, several reviewers have mentioned downsizing rotors to manage the very powerful brake's tendency to lock up wheels unintentionally. I can see going from 220 with Codes down to 203 with Mavens because the 220s are so large that it's easy to bump them and the slightest wobble results in pad rub. However, if my options were 203 with a weaker brake or 180 with a stronger brake I'd take the larger rotor option for its leverage and ability to shed heat, rather than the clamping force of option B. Your thoughts?

 

[canadmos]

Use powerful brakes and use them for long enough to adapt to their power and bite point aggressiveness.

I don't think I've ever had a situation where I've thought "huh I wish I had weaker brakes for this"*.


*riding on snow not included, because that's totally different

 

[4xBoy]

I live in flat lands, I don’t need moar than a 180 rotor, but I can't see a reason to run smaller rotors cause that is where the heat is.

Now if the maven came with a extra thick rotor, I could see running smaller.

The more I think about the maven brakes, the more I believe they were built for dh ebikes.

 

[SuspectDevice]

The sram marketing blab talked a lot about getting your brakes hot enough to work well. I have certainly noticed when i run my biggest brake rotors and metallic pads in cold weather i get sub-optimal function. Getting the thermal mass up to where the pads are working well is actually pretty hard on shitty modern machine built trail

 

[canadmos]

is actually pretty hard on shitty modern machine built trail

It's easy to do on shittily constructed machine built flow trails. You know, the types that have crappy corners or tight hair pin turns after long straights.

 

[Westy]

IME it is the pad compound that determines how much heat you need. Some pads have great initial bite when cold and need better heat dissipation from bigger rotors when worked hard, pads like ceramics need heat to work at all.

That being said I have had rotors glowing greyish blue but have never really experience brake fade except on an old pair of Hopes, but that was probably less fade and more of the lever pull Russian Roulette of whether they would work or not.

 

[Jm_]

This seems to be due to the industry just packaging the same crap for the rear as the front, because it's convenient. No one would put the same 6 piston brembos on the front of a car on the rear, but there are some autos that run bigger rear rotors, with a smaller caliper.

It makes no sense to me at all to run the same high-power caliper in the rear as the front. You are basically given two non-optimal situations: Run the caliper with a big rotor for ultra-sensitive lock-up, way more sensitive than the front/different modulation, or, run a smaller rotor and suffer the consequences of less heat capacity and faster pad wear. The only thing that makes sense to me is a smaller caliper with a big rotor, unless you are only doing short interval braking, where you never heat up much, then you might be able to get away with the small rear rotor...but that's not my riding by far.

 

[Jm_]

Use powerful brakes and use them for long enough to adapt to their power and bite point aggressiveness.

I don't think I've ever had a situation where I've thought "huh I wish I had weaker brakes for this"*.


*riding on snow not included, because that's totally different

With the vast, and I do mean vast, amount of power coming from the front brake, this makes no sense to me.

 

[Redwood Mulch Chucker]

IME it is the pad compound that determines how much heat you need. Some pads have great initial bite when cold and need better heat dissipation from bigger rotors when worked hard, pads like ceramics need heat to work at all.

That being said I have had rotors glowing greyish blue but have never really experience brake fade except on an old pair of Hopes, but that was probably less fade and more of the lever pull Russian Roulette of whether they would work or not.

I agree. I recently went from MTX red pads to Galfer greens.

The difference in colder weather (under 50f) is crazy. With the MTX pads I would have to drag them for quite a bit to get any bite, and it would go away quickly once off the brakes. With the Galfers they work right out of the gate with great bite.

My new go to pads for sure. We'll see how they do in the summertime.

 

[Gary]

Personally only ever had to downsize rotors on the rear of hardtails. Sometimes all the way down to 160mm. whereas 200mm is as big as I need for the front of any bike but has never been too much to control front end grip.

"reviewers" were clearly prepped on the Maven rotor downsize hype! Already seem to have 5 sets to fit when the UK pre-order drops. One set destined for my mate's DH bike who used to snap a few rear saint calipers each year so should find out soon enough if it's hype or an actual thing with these.
At the moment cynical me is smelling yet another made up/rehashed buzz term from our overlords. it's far too easy with brakes.

 

[Westy]

Personally only ever had to downsize rotors on the rear of hardtails. Sometimes all the way down to 160mm. whereas 200mm is as big as I need for the front of any bike but has never been too much to control front end grip.

"reviewers" were clearly prepped on the Maven rotor downsize hype! Already seem to have 5 sets to fit when the UK pre-order drops. One set destined for my mate's DH bike who used to snap a few rear saint calipers each year so should find out soon enough if it's hype or an actual thing with these.
At the moment cynical me is smelling yet another made up/rehashed buzz term from our overlords. it's far too easy with brakes.

Sounds like marketing hype. "So powerful you need to downsize rotors!"

Which may be true for people currently running SRAM brakes and their lever initiated whispered requests for deceleration.

 

[Gary]

Meh. Not a dumb fanboi so get on just fine with pretty much all curent brakes apart from awful magura lego levers and the foot long Hopes.

 

[4xBoy]

Sounds like marketing hype. "So powerful you need to downsize rotors!"

Which may be true for people currently running SRAM brakes and their lever initiated whispered requests for deceleration.

And what is your brake of choice?

 

[Westy]

And what is your brake of choice?

TRPs and Dominions

 

[4xBoy]

TRPs and Dominions

Oh

 

[Gary]

Yeah, because neither of those have EVAR had an issue

 

[Jm_]

Meh. Not a dumb fanboi so get on just fine with pretty much all curent brakes apart from awful magura lego levers and the foot long Hopes.

Yeah, that extra 3mm is a dealbreaker, T3 overlayed over the pivot of T4

 

[canadmos]

With the vast, and I do mean vast, amount of power coming from the front brake, this makes no sense to me.

Which part?

 

[Jm_]

Which part?

The part where you want the same power-lever, caliper, on the rear as on the front. There's so little weight on the rear with weight-transfer it just makes no sense to me. Sure, I can adapt my fingers pretty well, but there's also still a point where the rear brake being effectively 10x stronger than the rear/easier to lock up is just dumb, I'm carrying around extra weight for no purpose and making it harder to ride.

 

[Gary]

and SRAM levers aren't exactly short

can't say I blame you keeping yours in a neoprene bag away from children's eyes

 

[Gary]

rear brakes don't generally need any more power but they do usually need better heat management.
so yeah, a less poweful rear caliper with larger rotor makes a lot of sense for longer descents for most people. the new issue if doing so could possibly be matching lever feel/throw. probably not a huge issue tho.

 

[Jm_]

View attachment 208262

can't say I blame you keeping yours in a neoprene bag away from children's eyes

Can't see the angle from that pic, but assuming same MC sizes, the only other option is a cam, to shorten the lever blade and make good power. Everything is a trade-off.

 

[Jm_]

But that's why I'm running 3 T4 levers up front and 3 T3 levers for my rear brakes, to equalize out the lever feel, and V4/E4 on the one bike, with a large rotor on the rear E4 of course.

 

[Gary]

Can't see the angle from that pic, but assuming same MC sizes, the only other option is a cam, to shorten the lever blade and make good power. Everything is a trade-off.

Thank fuck buying a lever a full inch longer than I actually like isn't a "trade off" I need to worry about.

 

[Gary]

But that's why I'm running 3 T4 levers up front and 3 T3 levers for my rear brakes, to equalize out the lever feel, and V4/E4 on the one bike, with a large rotor on the rear E4 of course.

Ok Raymond

 

[canadmos]

The part where you want the same power-lever, caliper, on the rear as on the front. There's so little weight on the rear with weight-transfer it just makes no sense to me. Sure, I can adapt my fingers pretty well, but there's also still a point where the rear brake being effectively 10x stronger than the rear/easier to lock up is just dumb, I'm carrying around extra weight for no purpose and making it harder to ride.

I get that, but I wouldn't pickup a set of uber powerful bro brakes and think I need to downsize from what I regularly run.

I'm happy with my Dominions and 203mm rotors front and rear. I don't have a problem with the rear locking up and skidding everywhere..

 

[6thElement]

Thankfully my brakes operate from independent levers and operating fingers. So I can choose how much power to apply to each of them when requiring appropriate deceleration.

 

[Gary]

 

[Jm_]

Thankfully my brakes operate from independent levers and operating fingers. So I can choose how much power to apply to each of them when requiring appropriate deceleration.

What's the advantage?

 

[Westy]

Thankfully my brakes operate from independent levers and operating fingers. So I can choose how much power to apply to each of them when requiring appropriate deceleration.

 

[4xBoy]

 

[Nick]

Big rotors, grippy pads, all the time.

 

[Muddy]

 

[englertracing]

I wonder if the new maven will be srams first brake more powerful then a pissed on v brake

 

[Lelandjt]

I don't think I've ever had a situation where I've thought "huh I wish I had weaker brakes for this".

Agreed, but these Mavens sound like another level of power. Like when I've been only MTBing for a couple weeks, then grab my dirtbike's brakes.

 

[canadmos]

Agreed, but these Mavens sound like another level of power. Like when I've been only MTBing for a couple weeks, then grab my dirtbike's brakes.

What brakes do you currently use?

When people jump on my bike for a test, I tell them to grab the brakes REAL hard. They usually end up regretting it.

 

[Lelandjt]

The more I think about the maven brakes, the more I believe they were built for dh ebikes.

They do seem ideal for Surrons. I currently run Code RSC with 220 rotors.

 

[Lelandjt]

What brakes do you currently use?

The DH bike is XTR 4-pots on 203s. Enduro & All-mountain bikes are XTR 2-pots on 180s.

 

[boostindoubles]

Sram makes brakes??

 

[Westy]

Agreed, but these Mavens sound like another level of power. Like when I've been only MTBing for a couple weeks, then grab my dirtbike's brakes.

I got my KTM Duke in large part because of the Brembo Stylemas. Lever has adjustable leverage ratio and I run them in the middle setting. Would love a one finger lever. Pretty impressive for brakes designed to stop 600lbs from triple digits. To have something like that for a MTB would require extremely straight rotors which would need to be thick and heavy and still deal with constant rub.