Campagnolo Bora AC3 Braking Treatment

[Greg66]

Good approach. I can wait.

If you get the chance it would be really good to hear how they compare in the wet back to back to with alu rims. I've been riding my (older) Boras the last few weeks and have been caught in the wet a couple of times. Not ideal. Yesterday I switched back to my Shamals because it was raining and remembered that alu rims aren't exactly fantastic in the wet (although they are better than carbon). Funny how easy it is to forget that.

[robertbb]

Out of interest, which Shamals? I've got the C17's and I think the braking is fantastic in both dry and wet. Never tried the Mille's so can't talk to how good those are, but for me the ability to easily swap between my Zonda C17's and Shamal C17's outweighs any marginal braking power gains that may be had with the Mille.

[Greg66]

2008? As soon as they came out in the ti colour, I got some. Didn't care for gold.

[graeme_f_k]

Out of interest, which Shamals? I've got the C17's and I think the braking is fantastic in both dry and wet. Never tried the Mille's so can't talk to how good those are, but for me the ability to easily swap between my Zonda C17's and Shamal C17's outweighs any marginal braking power gains that may be had with the Mille.

Shamal Mille also available in C17 for 2018 ...

[graeme_f_k]

To clarify above... there was never a "gloss clearcoat" on the brake track. The wheels come out of the mold looking as they do... no clear coat, even though it can appear that way.
The Diamante brake track has a bit more milling of the brake track once it's out of the mold, just to make it a little less smooth.
The current AC3 brake track, while I don't know the actual process used to create it, has more going on that just more milling. They claim to use higher heat resistance resins along with orienting the fibers in a manner which blah blah blah... never mind... because I'm not sure what exactly is different but the surface is very much a more textured surface than ever before, and does allow for more "bite" from the pads.
I have and am using the new AC3 Bora Ultra 50 at the moment.

@LionelB... the difference in clearance from the fork of the C60 and the rear brake bridge is pretty minimal... have seen much greater discrepancies than that for sure on other bikes.

More clarity ...

As Calnago says, the rims come out of the mould with the surface finish across the body of the rim that you see - so no, there isn't a clear coat on the rims. Some while ago I posted that the new (post 2015) decals have a clear coat over - this is not so for production wheels where they *do* have a non-replaceable water transfer but in production, no clear coat overlaying it.

The Diamant process is a bead-blast process. It removes a very high percentage of the resin from the braking surface but there is a small amount left behind.

The AC3 process is an extension of Diamant, using (I understand) a laser to remove further amounts of residual resin from the braking surface so that the brake block is acting on an very-close-to 100% carbon surface.

There are also some changes in lay-up and resin types to improve heat tolerance.

[RyanH]

@Calnago yeah, I did the same thing when I got the pre-AC3 Boras. Went out in a torrential downpour (3" of rain that day) and road around looking for streams of water downhill. Braking was okay in the rain itself but when going through streams of water running downhill, braking diminished significantly.

[JKolmo]

Out of interest, which Shamals? I've got the C17's and I think the braking is fantastic in both dry and wet. Never tried the Mille's so can't talk to how good those are, but for me the ability to easily swap between my Zonda C17's and Shamal C17's outweighs any marginal braking power gains that may be had with the Mille.

Shamal Mille also available in C17 for 2018 ...

I guess he meant not having to switch between regular alu brake pads and the Mille specific blue pads, not that there would be any difference in rim width between the Zondas and the Shamals.

[MiddMan]

@Calnago yeah, I did the same thing when I got the pre-AC3 Boras. Went out in a torrential downpour (3" of rain that day) and road around looking for streams of water downhill. Braking was okay in the rain itself but when going through streams of water running downhill, braking diminished significantly.

As someone who has never ridden carbon wheels--but is very much looking forward to it!--these are beneficial comments. As someone else said: braking on alloy rims in wet is worse than dry too, so it's not as if it's 'great' on alloy. And as @RyanH demonstrates here, there is a difference between braking in 'wet weather' (ok, though not ideal) and braking in a 'stream of water' (!).

Anyway kudos to you for the real tests and also to @Calnago who is planning to do the same.

[roadhog44]

FYI I've just fitted Some pre AC3 Bora Ones with standard Diamant treatment and the braking performance has blown me away! Easily comparable to my Shamal Milles in the dry once bedded in with red pads! The AC3 treatment must be amazing!

[robertbb]

Out of interest, which Shamals? I've got the C17's and I think the braking is fantastic in both dry and wet. Never tried the Mille's so can't talk to how good those are, but for me the ability to easily swap between my Zonda C17's and Shamal C17's outweighs any marginal braking power gains that may be had with the Mille.

Shamal Mille also available in C17 for 2018 ...

I guess he meant not having to switch between regular alu brake pads and the Mille specific blue pads, not that there would be any difference in rim width between the Zondas and the Shamals.

Correct.

[pdlpsher1]

Diamant is good but ultimate braking power is still lacking compared to traditional alloy rims. One ride in the rain had me consider getting a new bike with disk brakes, LOL. I'm sure the AC3 treatment is meant to help braking in the wet. But I highly doubt it would be anything close to the performance of alloy rims in the wet.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Imaking20]

^this is not necessarily directed at you, your comment just sparked the thought

I don't really understand why that's still an argument. Are people really expecting wet carbon braking to get to the same level as alloy? Why? Also, when is the last time anyone was out riding in the wet on rim brakes and though "man, this stopping power is excellent!"

[ultyguy]

Ok ok here they are in the flesh. Let's just say that Lady Luck smiled on me and I ended up with these.

First outing was a local hill climb race and of course it started raining heavily just 20 min before the start. A certain Nicolas Roux dusted us all after a flurry of attacks, he'd already won a tough 130km mtn sportive in the am [emoji15][emoji122]. I rode out of my skin and only managed 3rd, tough crowd.

At any rate, way back down was rivers of water and small roads so lots of braking etc. For sure these are the best wet braking carbon I've been on (other campag, Hed, Zipp not Nsw). Sensation is very similar to exalith which isn't surprising with the grooves. It's prob on par with normal alu for normal braking in wet but absolute power seems a bit less. Nice thing tho was no tendency to lock up when cold or warmer. So far so good. Dry seems ok as well.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Greg66]

thanks!

[graeme_f_k]

Ok ok here they are in the flesh. Let's just say that Lady Luck smiled on me and I ended up with these.

First outing was a local hill climb race and of course it started raining heavily just 20 min before the start. A certain Nicolas Roux dusted us all after a flurry of attacks, he'd already won a tough 130km mtn sportive in the am [emoji15][emoji122]. I rode out of my skin and only managed 3rd, tough crowd.

At any rate, way back down was rivers of water and small roads so lots of braking etc. For sure these are the best wet braking carbon I've been on (other campag, Hed, Zipp not Nsw). Sensation is very similar to exalith which isn't surprising with the grooves. It's prob on par with normal alu for normal braking in wet but absolute power seems a bit less. Nice thing tho was no tendency to lock up when cold or warmer. So far so good. Dry seems ok as well.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Nice to see the test results that Campag obtained from the lab and the Pro peloton also found in the "real world" ... <grin>