Da ich keine Lust habe, meinen Testbericht nochmal in Deutsch zu verfassen, hier der Englische
Hayes disc brakes were a staple on the Shore for a long time, but they fell out of favour as new options from
Shimano and
Avid made their way onto the market. Hayes lost its dominant position, and was forced to make major changes to its brakes to keep up with competitors. The El Caminos, introduced a few years ago, were the first drastically different brake from Hayes but it didn't put the company back on top so the development process continued. Earlier this year, the Stroker line of brakes was unveiled. I was asked to ride the Hayes Stroker brakes and give my initial impressions, so here they are.
According to Hayes, the brakes have these new features:
a more compact and stronger master cylinder
integrated reservoir and bladder
redesigned more ergonomic levers
aluminum adjuster lever to adjust brake lever feel
insulated brake caliper
largest brake pads (ed. note - this means you won't be able to re-use your old Hayes pads)
adjustable brake hose routing via a rotating banjo bolt
There are three types of Stroker brakes: the Stroker Trail in the oh-so fashionable white colour; the Stroker Ryde, which is a lower-cost version without an external lever adjustment knob and apparently has smaller sized pads; and the Stroker Carbon, which is identical to the Stroker Trail except that it replaces the alloy lever of the Trail with a carbon lever.
All the Hayes Stroker brakes come with rotors in the following sizes: 5" (140mm), 6" (160mm), 7" (180mm) and 8" (203mm) rotors. The rotors are all the standard six- bolt configuration.
Performance and comments
I have previously not been a big fan of Hayes. The Hayes Mags weren't a bad brake but their design was dated; compared to newer, improved brakes, they lacked power and had close to zero modulation. They were the poster boy for on-off "binary" brakes. A brute force, unsubtle approach to braking if you will.
The Hayes HFX-9s were admittedly lower-end OE spec brakes and barely adequate for freeride and downhill applications, having even less power and the same comparable stick-in-the-spokes modulation that seemed characteristic of Hayes. As for the disappointing next-generation El Camino brake, it had the Hayes characteristics of mediocre power and on-off modulation with the added feature of constant surprises at every lever actuation. One never knew what kind of braking feel you would get from second to second.
Set-up of the Stroker Trails was easy. The lever has a split clamp and it was easy to throw them on the handlebar and set the calipers up so that they wouldn't rub. The adjustability of the caliper brake hose is a nice touch. I note that the brakes are flippable. If you want to switch levers around to different sides of the handlebar, you can.
I've also used
Magura Louise and Louise Freeride,
Shimano XT and
Avid Juicy 5 and Juicy 7 brakes. Much to my surprise, the Hayes Stroker Trails worked great.
To expand on this comment, they have more power then other Hayes I have tried (comparable to
Avid Juicy 5s and
Magura Louise) but less power then say a
Magura Louise Freeride.
They also modulate well, in that lever actuation is no longer such a binary on-off event (comparable to say a
Shimano XT but with less of the fine feel of a
Magura).
Moreover, the adjustment knob actually works. Lever reach can be adjusted and stays constant when the knob is turned.
I tried the brakes on some North Vancouver trails and also had some longer runs in the Whistler bike park. Initial impressions were of some brake pump trail-riding but this appears to have been more my imagination then anything else, as brake pump and brake fade were non-existent on the longer bike park runs. As an additional data point, I did a continuous descent from 1500m to 200m and the brakes were also fade-free and pump-free on this wild and rather exciting run.
The brakes did not feel all that powerful in my first few rides, which occurred in dry conditions. One ride in the wet seemed to help the brake pads bed in and lack of power was no longer an issue. These brakes were used on a Norco Six One and seemed to have plenty of power for a light freeride bike and a 160lb. rider when coupled with 7" disc rotors.
Some additional comments:
I didn't bleed the brakes as no bleed kit was shipped with the brakes, so I cannot offer any opinion as to how easy it is to maintain the Strokers. Note that the four bolts holding the cap on the master are of the Torx variety.
Hayes has been notorious for relatively high prices for spare parts as required to repair their brakes. Will this change?
I can offer no insight as to whether the master cylinder or the caliper of the Hayes Stroker is rebuildable.
The master cylinder itself seems awfully exposed, protruding and perched as it is below the handlebar. Time will tell whether this is a relevant concern. I have my brake levers relatively loose so they can spin fairly freely if hit.
If you loosen the adjustment bolt too much, you can let air into the lines. You won't let in much air but I didn't want to prolong this experiment without having a bleed kit.
,...vom Fading vielleicht abgesehen. Das geht vielleicht schlecht. Aber sonst...?
