Amazing brake setup

[tantra]

I have to report what is by far the best performing brake setup I have ever experienced on a road bike. This is on my recent parlee z5sli build: the new eebrake calipers, 9070 levers, d/a polymer-coated cables with nokon housings, lightweight pads, and enve tubular rims. This system feels like a disk brake, almost zero friction as you squeeze then wham. AMAZING power with quite good modulation. It modulates within a tight range of pull, so you need sensitive fingers. But it gives me a lot of confidence on curvy descents. I have plenty of use for brake power on my rides in the santa monica mountains. The 9000 calipers may be even stronger, but the ee's are WAY lighter. The combination of these 'power' brakes and my first electric groupset is quite dramatic.

[NiFTY]

What previous set-ups are you comparing against? I am using EE, SRAM Red, aican/alligator i link/KCNC ti, black prince, meilensteins and the braking is superb.

Just wondering why you are using lightweight pads with enve rims. Lightweight pads are, i believe, just grey swissstop yellows, which have been wholly replaced by the black prince, and they are not enve approved.

[Mario Jr.]

The LW pads are NOT the same as the Swissstop Yellow pads. And none of these are approved on Enve rims.

[greentimgreen]

Interesting, this is very similar to my planned set up.

Can you state what side your front brake lever is on? I'm in the UK and we typically have our front levers on the right hand side, and I've read recently that this negatively impacts modulation of the front brake. Not sure how much truth there is in that. I've never noticed an issue with previous DA setups.

[rmerka]

I'm using the Jagwire links on my S3 with the older ee's and Ultegra 6870 levers. It is definitely superior braking when compared with the Shimano housing I was using before. Very smooth pull and oodles of power. Enve pads on Enve 3.4 rims. I really like this style of housing, I imagine it's comparable with the Nokon?

@greentimgreen, I can't imagine why it would make a bit of difference which side you use for either brake.

Edit: actually looking at my bike right now It's seems the cable stop is angled towards the right shifter so maybe it will??? Might be better with the "Euro setup"?

[greentimgreen]

Yep, that's what I'm worried about. Not sure I'm willing to change to a Euro setup, but I've pushed go on the 'buy' button at Fairwheel cycles so it's too late now!

I'll let you know how I get on in a week or so...

[Frankie - B]

@Rmerka Euro setup? Only the British and Germans use this. The rest of Yurp is still on front brake, left handle.

[rmerka]

my bad I'm just a knuckle draggin' 'merican who isn't very well travelled outside of N. America. Sorry about that, I'll remember this though in the future!

[kode54]

i have EE brakes that i recently adjusted according to Craig at EE. i originally had the 'pull' incorrect as Craig mentioned when i sent him a pic of my set up. yes, he can spot an incorrect set up by pic. on my Parlee Z5 SLi with Enve 3.4 SES wheels, using EE cycle works brakes with Enve pads. very nice.

[Norregard]

@Rmerka: I don't know about modulation but for me, I like having my rear brake lever on the right hand side because I'm right handed. Makes sense to me to control the most important brake lever with my strongest, most reactive and better coordinated hand.

[rmerka]

@Norregard, the front brake IMO and others is the more important brake. This is good reading on the subject http://sheldonbrown.com/brakturn.html I set my bike up Right--Rear/Left--Front simply because that is what I'm used to.

[Norregard]

That's a really interesting read. I've been riding for years and it has always felt unnatural to me to use my front brake as primary brake. I'm always unsettled by the possibility of my front wheel skidding. I rarely use my front brake without using my rear brake at the same time. Seems I might be doing something wrong though. Something to play with on my next couple of rides I guess!

[eric]

When I was into off road motorcycle riding (a little MX. mostly observed trials) we used to do an exercise where you lock the front wheel at speed and see how far you can go before you have to let off the brake. Turns out that you can go quite a ways with the front locked as long as you're going straight.

On a bicycle I use both brakes but primarily the front if I want to brake hard. I have no problem switching between moto front brake on right and bicycle front brake on left.

I set up the Jagwire link housings on my race bike this summer and they're good. I'm using EE brakes and Sram 2012 Red levers. Good to hear that 9000 series Shimano works well with the EEs as I'd consider that for my next bike.

[Frankie - B]

@Rmerka, not a problem

[wingguy]

@Rmerka: I don't know about modulation but for me, I like having my rear brake lever on the right hand side because I'm right handed. Makes sense to me to control the most important brake lever with my strongest, most reactive and better coordinated hand.

Strongest makes no sense, most co-ordinated maybe. There is far more stopping power available from the front brake than the rear. I don't know how anyone can ride a bike and not notice this. Since the rear brake is much more likely to lock up it needs a bit more modulation. Six of one, half a dozen of the other.

TBH though it doesn't really matter. First time I demo'd a bike in Italy I thought it was going to be freaky as hell, 5 miles down the road I wasn't even noticing it. Switching on the MTB would probably take a lot more getting used too, but road? Meh.