>>1141300Sure, it's a dumb bike. It's also a hell of a lot of fun. Feel free to roast it; I'll get a chuckle.
Yes, the Klampers are new - this was my first ride with them. Yes, they're stupidly expensive, but I make a stupid amount of money compared to my lifestyle; might as well spend some money on some nice bike parts that make me happy, yeah? And I'm a firm believer not judging stuff until trying it out.
The Klampers replaced some TRP Sypres, that I finally concluded were trash. "But muh dual piston!" Yeah, doesn't fucking matter. I've put 2000 miles on Spyres this year alone; here's the issue with them:
1) The Spyre caliper is super cheaply built and flexy as fuck.
Lever action always felt spongy, and that's not something that's inherent in cable-pull brakes: My 26-year-old XTR cantis (forged aluminum) are firm and tight; there's no reason a modern cable pull disc should feel like mush in the hand. It's because the TRP caliper is built as cheaply and lightly possible, and so much of your hand force goes into flexing the caliper instead of applying force to the disc. This isn't a showstopper, but it's really annoying.
The Klampers may be overpriced heavy aluminum bricks, but DAMN the brake levers feel firm. Modulation is great. They're not as good as the hydraulics on my real mountain bike, but they're the next best thing.
2) Spyre pad adjuster engineering fail
The pad adjusters on Spyre brakes have zero retention mechanism on them - when you use them, the adjusters will back right out over the course of a ride or two. Less, if you're bouncing around off in the rough stuff. Out in Canyonlands over Thanksgiving, the adjusters in my rear brake backed out halfway down a steep rocky canyon descent. Sketched me out real bad. Nah, fuck that poorly engineered shit.
The Klampers are the best cable-pull disc caliper I've used in the past decade, hands down. I still prefer hydros but that's not an option on these dropbars without revamping the entire drivetrain.
