Tiong Hin Co Tyre – MTB Zone

This summer I finally got a chance to thoroughly give these brakes a go and this is my review.

Tech
The Prime Pro brakes represent somewhat of a departure from other Hayes components with a host of new features not found in the rest of the current line-up. The poppet cam technology inside the brake master and the re-designed lever / detented adjuster really sets the Primes apart from simple piston / reservoir systems. Here you’re getting a complex, scaled down version of a braking system that you would find on some sport bikes.

Checkout the video from Hayes below to see the poppet cam and how it adjusts the dead stroke.

Poppet cam

In addition to the poppet cam, Hayes includes a bunch of other great features that make the Prime a truly premium brake. For starters, the Pro kit features titanium and anodized aluminum bolts to shave weight plus you get a two piece rotor (with the Pro sets) made from an aluminum center and stamped stainless steel brake surface.

The caliper is a redesign that is very user-friendly with an easy-to-remove bridge pin holding the two pads in place. With this system you can remove the pin and pull out the pads for a quick service or change without having to pull the caliper off. The higher placement of the two caliper bridge bolts and corresponding placement of material also makes for a stiffer caliper design.

Installation

These Prime brakes screamed out for abuse so I installed them on my DH rig. The brakes feature burly construction which makes them a natural choice on AM – DH bikes.

Installing the Primes on my Banshee Legend took about 40 minutes. Both hoses were long enough on my medium frame that I still needed to trim the brake lines a good 6 – 8 inches each. Don’t worry – Hayes supplies you with hose ends to do this operation. All you need is a proper brake housing cutter (a Park CN-10 or similar) and you’re golden.

After trimming the hose I installed the levers and calipers. It’s important to tighten the lever clamp top bolt so that there is no space left; torque the bottom clamp bolt at 3.4Nm. The caliper itself takes a bit more work to dial in but a tool like the Hayes Feel’R gauge makes life easy. Set the caliper squarely over the rotor and check the spacing using a gauge or two business cards on each side of the rotor; with the brake applied, tighten the caliper down to 9Nm.

Double check for leaks and proper torque before burnishing the pads with some safe stops (about 30-50) at medium speed. After that it takes a little more riding to really get the lever reach and contact points adjusted properly. I found sitting on the bike standing still is not good enough – I needed to hit the slopes to get a realistic feel for the levers. With the levers dialed I adjusted the contact points.

Performance

How well did the Prime brakes perform? After some serious trail time I have to say these are right up there with the other brands I have played with. Hayes comes out on top in terms of adjustment characteristics and the poppet cam works very well. The detents on the reach adjuster are easy to dial with positive feedback with a nice click between settings. All of the adjustments can be done with gloves on and without any tools needed to make things move.

The Primes offer roughly the same power as the Avid Codes and modulation that’s comparable to the ONE from Formula. I did notice that I needed a bit more finger force on my end to stop the bike than with other brakes I’ve tested. But stop they did. Even on the hardest courses at Blue Mountain, which are notorious for burning up brakes (Shot Glass and O-Chute), the Primes fared well. I did get some noise near the bottom of the runs but I didn’t get any fade. I definitely got these brakes super hot, so much so that the rotors changed to a blue color, which is a good indication of the amount of heat involved.

The Primes modulate very well and by playing with the contact point you can adjust how they engage. The brakes will ramp up faster if your contact point is closer to the bar, more slowly as you move away from the bar. By moving the lever out at the same time you can get the brake to work virtually any way you want it to work. I tend to set up my brakes to have the maximum pressure (fully engaged) with the levers parallel to the bar with about an inch in between the two. I have seen other people set their brakes so the lever touches the bar on maximum pressure (a big no no but who am I to say), and although I am sure you can do that, I didn’t. Throughout my tests with the Primes I always had consistent feel and no change in force through the braking stroke.

Having tanked my bike more than once (I broke my ankle and played ping pong with the bike down a slope), the Hayes Primes didn’t show any signs of damage – the levers survived and nothing was bent. As with any bike part, you will have to service these brakes. After every few rides or so I tend to pull the pads (easy with the Primes) and retract and extend them, just to make sure the pads don’t stick due to accumulated dirt and dust (doing this also keeps the seals moist). Checking up on your equipment also gives you a good indication of how much pad is left, leaving you enough time to order a new set if necessary.

All in all I think Hayes did a great job bringing a powerful and reliable brake to a highly competitive market. So for about $260 a wheel, try out a set and I think you too will be impressed.

Thanks to Joel Richardson and the folks at Hayes for sending down the brakes for review.

Grab yours today at Tionghin now!

An amazing thing happened this week. It stopped raining. Now, it would be incredibly selfish of me to complain about the delay of the start of mountain bike season, while there are those who are truly affected by the flooding in the Midwest, and my heart goes out to them. With record breaking rainfall for Ohio in the month of April, things are still plenty wet, but finally starting to dry out a bit.

In order to get my first real trail time in on the new Hayes Primes, we decided to make the drive to the guaranteed dry trails of Brown County State Park, though the dry trails were a stark contrast to the flooded lowlands of the nearby Monroe reservoir. The drive was well worth it though, as Brown County’s fast, dry trails are an excellent testing ground for brakes due to its many long, fast descents.

After the initial buzz of being back on the trails for the first time in ages wore off, I was surprised as I overcooked it into a corner, and had a hard time slowing down, but this turned out to be a good thing. How is that possible?

The new 7 inch post mount adapter is much more slim than older designs.

While riding the trails at Brown county was my first experience with the Primes on dirt, it wasn’t my first time riding the Primes. Previously, I had ridden a few training rides on some gravel, pavement, and dirt paths along a local bike trail. It definitely wasn’t mountain biking, but I was able to get in some good miles and break in the Primes at the same time. The fact that I had gotten the Primes to the point that I thought were broken in, and working great was what confused me as I blasted into that first corner at Brown County, feeling as if the brakes were fresh out of the box.

As mile after mile ticked away, it hit me that I had changed wheels just before the ride, meaning I had new brake rotors on the bike now, that hadn’t been broken in as the ones on my other set of wheels had. Shortly after this realization, I noticed that the brakes were now working much better and by this point had plenty of power.

Why is this a big deal? Well, just about every brake manufacturer has a recommended break-in procedure that doesn’t involve actually mountain biking. In fact, by riding new brakes immediately on trails, more often than not you can glaze the pads and rotors, semi-permanently affecting their performance. When it comes to break-in procedure, most companies recommend riding at a moderate pace, and using one brake at a time to slow the bike down, but not bring it to a complete stop, with the idea being not to overheat the brakes during the process. Even though just about every brake will benefit from this procedure, it is not always communicated effectively to the end user resulting in poor performance. Some brakes seem to be affected by poor break-in more than others, especially when compared to riding the Primes on brand new rotors.

Honestly, I completely forgot about the new rotors on the wheels, which apparently was easy to do with the excitement of the first big ride of the season. What’s important here, is that even without breaking in the brake rotors properly, the brakes appear not to have suffered at all. While I wouldn’t recommend skipping the break-in on your set of Primes, it does give you the idea that these brakes are not finicky. They just work.

Towards the end of the ride, braking power was stellar while easily kept in check via the Prime’s silky smooth modulation. Even though my handlebar set up only allows the tip of each index finger a perch on the lever, I never once felt that I could use more power after the brakes were up to speed. Speaking of handlebar set up, the Primes were extremely easy to find a position on the bar to my liking and could easily be set up for one or multiple finger operation. Also, due to the fact that the reach adjuster and the Poppet Cam adjusters work extremely well, fine tuning the Primes to your particular liking is a simple affair. Just in case you are wondering, my Primes came out of the box with a near perfect factory bleed. No need to mess around with bleeding that should have already been done, just bolt on and go!

Even with great power, awesome modulation, and easy set up, perhaps one of the best features of the Primes is their silence. Slam on the brakes from high speed, and the only sound you’re greeted with is the comforting whir of the rotor coming to a stop. Even after multiple creek crossings with plenty of flowing water, the only time the Primes ever made a peep, was before the new rotors were broken in and after a particularly muddy creek crossing. Regardless, there was never any “turkey gobble” sound that so many people seem to complain about on some brakes. Keep in mind that my Primes are being tested with one stamped 7 inch rotor up front, and a two piece floating 6 inch rotor on the back, neither of which seem to make any more noise than the other.

While a few rides are certainly not enough to validate the Primes 100%, they are already proving to be much improved over my last pair of Hayes brakes, the El Caminos. In fact, it was the very first ride on my El Caminos, that the reach adjuster started coming apart leading to a long and drawn out repair process while in the middle of a road trip. I’m happy to say that the Prime’s reach adjust is completely different and shows no signs of any issues.

Overall, I am extremely impressed with the new Primes, and I am really excited for there to be what appears to be another top quality brake on the market. If you are looking for a new set of brakes to keep things in check, I would highly recommend the Primes.

Available soon at Tionghin! Stay tune for the arrival news ahead.

They say that good things are worth waiting for, and if that has any truth to it at all, the Hayes Prime disc brakes should be really good. Just over a year ago, Hayes first took the wraps off their newest disc brake design and unveiled the Hayes Prime. Here is the proof that the Primes actually exist, and despite the delay are sure to start appearing on bikes near you.

How do the Primes stack up on weight?

Find out after the break!

A lot of talk was generated due to their supposedly revolutionary Poppet Cam lever stroke adjustment, which serves to increase or decrease the amount of dead throw (how much travel there is in the lever throw before it starts moving the pads) in the lever even while you are riding. In the photos above, the left photo represents the setting with the least dead throw, while the right shows the setting for the most. Personally, I can’t see myself adjusting my brakes mid ride, but I do like the fact that the brake has multiple adjustments, and best of all, they actually work! Both the reach adjust and the Poppet Cam adjustments are tool free and extremely easy to use, even with gloves on, and the make a noticeable difference right away.

While the top hat reach adjuster is a welcomed carryover from the Stroker line of brakes, as it makes dialing in your levers quick and easy and requires no tools. My last pair of Hayes happened to be the El Caminos, and after a few runs the reach adjuster would start backing out, which I don’t see as a possibility here. The top hat features some pretty heavy detents, but nothing that would make it hard to turn.

Inside the caliper, lurking just behind the brake pads, are some fairly massive 26mm pistons. Increasing the size of the piston should effectively increase power. You may have also noticed the lack of the standard Hayes bleed nipple, which in a move seemingly right out of Avid’s book, the nipple has been replaced with threaded fittings on both ends of the brake. The fitting allow the installation of new bleed fittings that based on what I have read about the new bleed procedure, should make bleeding easier and less messy. Hopefully we can get our hands on one of the new bleed kits to find out!

If you notice, the top of the caliper is wide open, which means Hayes has finally embraced the top loading disc pad design. Not only do this make changing pads easier as you don’t have to remove the wheel, but it also makes aligning the caliper on the rotor easier since you can see it better and it improves the brakes cooling, acting as a massive vent. A new disc brake design means a new brake pad, which is what you see in the photos above. According to Hayes the new pads are made of a different material which should mean less noise and better heat dissipation. Like many other top loading designs, the Prime uses a 2.5mm allen screw to hold the pads in place, but unlike other brake designs, the Prime does not rely on a tiny c-clip or spring clip to keep the pin from backing out. The pin comes pre-treated with blue LocTite which should keep it in place, which means you don’t have to worry about losing those tiny clips anymore!

Rotors also receive a major overhaul as they are now, clearly, a two piece floating design with the “Sweeping Fin” venting pattern. Not to be excluded here are the excellent Ti rotor bolts along with all of the rest of the hardware. It very well may be the nicest hardware I’ve seen included with a brake. Keep in mind that this is all for the Prime Pro, as the Prime Expert has stamped rotors and steel hardware.

Obviously, Ti hardware isn’t just for looks, so what does everything weigh? For starters, the rotor alone comes in at 113g on my Park Scale which definitely isn’t the lightest 6 inch rotor, but the stiffness and performance from the two piece design may be worth it (we’ll see). On the right we have the rotor along with 6 rotor bolts, which by process of some grade school arithmetic means the Ti rotor bolts weigh in at 10g per set.

When it comes to the weight of the brake system, the front brake weighs 283g with pads and no hardware, while the rear adds 25g (with the exception of the two caliper bolts I threw in for some reason).

With everything together (both brakes, pads, all hardware, two160 rotors, and one 160 rear adapter), the grand total comes to 862g. Clearly, this isn’t the lightest set of brakes that you will find, but that’s ok, they’re not supposed to be. When it comes to the Primes, they are more about power and control than light weight. However, I did weigh my bike before and after the installation, and my bike set up with full Shimano XT brakes was actually about 85 grams less with the Primes installed. Not bad.

All I can say at this point, is that if the Primes have the performance to back up their looks and performance, Hayes really has gotten it right.

Available soon at Tionghin!