[Sandwich]

So in reference to my previous thread, I think I'm going to try and get a nice new crispy set of brakes. I've always loved gustavs as they were the ultimate in stopping power, but they have retardedly expensive adapters and have remained relatively unchanged over the years. I have an extremely heavy bike, and swapping to them won't make a difference in weight. Are they still solid brakes though, or have Codes, formulas, and saints caught on? Are they reliable in a crash? I had a friend who crashed twice and ruined his master cylinder twice, but that was some time ago.

 

[Secret Squirrel]

So in reference to my previous thread, I think I'm going to try and get a nice new crispy set of brakes. I've always loved gustavs as they were the ultimate in stopping power, but they have retardedly expensive adapters and have remained relatively unchanged over the years. I have an extremely heavy bike, and swapping to them won't make a difference in weight. Are they still solid brakes though, or have Codes, formulas, and saints caught on? Are they reliable in a crash? I had a friend who crashed twice and ruined his master cylinder twice, but that was some time ago.

I've yardsaled several times with mine, and they are fine. Going on 3 years of trouble free service. All I've needed is new pads and a good flushing once a year.

Gustav's FTW.

 

[gixme]

You may want to consider Hope Moto V2s as well. I just sold mine because they were too powerful for the riding I was doing. Crazy powerful brakes. Oh, and they are billet so they are as tough as you will find.

 

[Eastern States Cup]

I love my gustav's but I tried codes and formula's the one and both stopped as well but lighter weight.

 

[jonKranked]

gustavs are too legit to quit

 

[c.o.d51]

I went from Gustavs last season to Codes this year, and I like the Codes more. The Gustav has more raw stopping power, but the levers me nuts. The Codes are lighter, have almost as much stopping power and modulate better, at least for me. And I like the lever on the Codes much more, but my Gustavs kicked serious ass. I'd go Code over the Gustav to be honest though.

 

[Hulkamaniac]

The gustav's are definitely the most powerful brake I have ever run, hands down. However, I just unloaded mine due to shop sponsorship issues and I'll always somewhat miss them.

However, I just got a brand new set of Hayes Stroker Ace (4 piston dh brake) and they are bedding in very nicely already.....only slightly less powerful than the brute force of the gustavs, but as equally powerful IMHO as Codes and they are lighter than the gustav's by a long shot.

 

[Sandwich]

thanks for the info guys...keep it coming.

Did you ever have problems getting replacement parts, service, or pads for your brakes?

I'm looking to abandon my aging hopes and go for something a little more accessible...I know gustavs aren't as common as hayes or avids, but they're also supposed to be hyper-powerful, so running them on my 50lb bike would be saweet.

 

[daisycutter]

THey are well made and have huge amounts of power. I tried codes but found them to be good but not a good a gustavs

 

[Hulkamaniac]

Did you ever have problems getting replacement parts, service, or pads for your brakes?

Honestly, yes, I had problems getting pads and spare parts a few times....it always seemed to be just before a race for me as well! I think my biggest problem was that I usually tried to go through my lbs/team sponsor first, in which they'd try to order through BTI or Quality, then usually ended up taking matters into my own hands and dealing with Magura USA after many times of things being out of stock or backordered. The guys at Magura USA are really helpful and timely, so I finally just started going that route at the first sign of needing pads.

I tried a ton of different pads on the gustavs over three years. Here's what I experienced first hand and what I developed for my needs:

EBC pads - not bad, readily available, but not the greatest in lifespan. The red pads were eaten in only three runs by the Gustavs. I always had wear issues with the EBC pads to, in that the outboard pads always wore quicker than the inboard pads. Ran EBC green pads up front quite a bit due to them nearly always being in stock at BTI or any online shop. Green's up front most of the time, wore pretty well, but not great.

Goodridge pads - ran both the g-star and g-plus. Overall nice quality, wore evenly most of the time and both lasted longer than the EBC's. The g-star pads were usually my choice out back, simply because they were really good performance wise and could be had much cheaper than Magura pads.

Magura pads - easily wore the best of all candidates. Magura includes the h-clip in with the pads, but I never really needed a new h-clip....but I had a ton of spares! These pads are usually expensive no matter where you buy them and they were usually hard to find in stock anywhere other than Magura USA.

Some other random bits of info:

I ran a goodridge braided stainless line on the rear. On the very first outing with my gustavs something caught the rear line and pulled the line right off the banjo fitting at the rear caliper. Didn't really notice any performance gains with the goodridge, but it's not like the Magura hydro lines were bad or like the gustavs needed more power anyways! Went with the goodridge line simply because the local shop had the kit in stock and I was able to finish out the day riding instead of packing it up to go home.

Do yourself a favor and buy the magura bleed kit, as well as plenty of magura blood mineral oil. The dealer service kit is nice, but not needed most of the time, so stick with the mini service kit. It includes two syringes, but you really only need one....or at least that is all I ever used. Expect a few hiccups trying to bleed the brakes your first time, like air in the lines or magura blood ending up on the wall (long story, but happened to me!), but after the first time it's much easier and faster.

Also buy plenty of spare olives, compression sleeve/nuts, sealing washers, brass barb inserts, and the likes. Take it all with you, including the bleed kit, to any race or event.....cause trust me, it's highly likely that nobody will have anything that will work with gustavs at any race or event you attend (I learned it the hard way one time...and only once!).

Last, but not least, you can replace the stock four finger levers with Julie two finger levers if your like me and hate the long levers. With the stock levers on, I had to run the brakes so far inboard to feel comfortable with them. However, the Julie levers fixed that in mere minutes and are a direct bolt on for cheap.

If you decide to go with gustavs you won't be dissappointed, they are ungodly strong and a true one-finger brake, but be prepared to be self-sufficient in the event that something goes wrong. It's not a hard thing to get used to and the brakes are very easy to work on and set-up, but just keep it in mind.

Long post, but figured I get my experiences out there where everyone can view them. I really loved the gustavs for their performance and reliability, but I am super excited to be moving onto the new Hayes Stroker Ace brakes (just mounted them up tonight!).

 

[Secret Squirrel]

Last, but not least, you can replace the stock four finger levers with Julie two finger levers if your like me and hate the long levers. With the stock levers on, I had to run the brakes so far inboard to feel comfortable with them. However, the Julie levers fixed that in mere minutes and are a direct bolt on for cheap.

I forgot to mention that I'm running the Louise FR lever bodies and cylinders with my Gustav calipers. Much better than the Gustav bodies and cylinders IMO. A more positive feel if you will...

 

[Brian HCM#1]

Buy Hopes!!!! Try some M4's