Clarks Skeletal brakes - eurgh!

Spazwangle

Just a quick heads up, despite some good advice on here on what TO buy, I ended up buying a set of Clarks Skeletal ltd. edition disc brakes, I'd read a few reviews and they appeared to be great for the price and looked rather snazzy in the product photos.

Unfortunately they're gash, cosmetically in the flesh they're bloody ugly, the rotors appear to be painted instead of anodized the levers stick out a mile and the white hoses are twice the diameter of my old Avids. Nearly every bolt supplied appears to have made out of some kid of soft metal that's head instantly rounds off when you show it an alan key, not the end of the world as I can get good bolts made up by a local engineering firm but not a good start. Then there was the warped rotors which took a good hour to get properly straightened

I then decided to take it for a good test ride, the levers rattle incessantly and it took almost Herculean strength to bring the bike to a stop, I swear it'd have been quicker to just put both feet down, I know they need to bed-in but my avids were never this bad even from new!

£90 wasted, hopefully I'll make some back on Fleabay for them as I've just spent another £150 on a set of Formula Oro Puros (direct from Formula)

On the plus side, the Mavic Crossrides were a great recommendation, thanks

.blitz

Thanks for the heads up

supersonic

Give them time to bed in - a budget lightweight brake ain't going to be finished like more expensive stuff.

Spazwangle

They'll probably bed in just as my Puros arrive, no idea how long they take from Italy though.

Going to have to get all new bolts for them prior to selling them now too.

TickTockTick

Best cheap brakes on the market are the Avid Juicy 3 which you can pick up for less than £100 front and rear. They are as good as anything costing £250 front and rear.

getonyourbike

TickTockTick wrote:

Best cheap brakes on the market are the Avid Juicy 3 which you can pick up for less than £100 front and rear. They are as good as anything costing £250 front and rear.

no way! the performance is moderate at best, power is ok but there is hardly any modulation. The stupid 3D washers are a pain and keeping cracking, even when tightened to the correct torque with a torque wrench. Then there's the fiddly pad changing and sticky pistons. Why would you waste money on these when you can get some Formula Oro K18s for £140 from CRC for a set including rotors?

TickTockTick

I've never tried Formula brakes. Having said that, the Juicy 3 was/is I understand designed and made by Formula.

Since you can get a whole set of Avid Juicy 3's for about £90 I still think they are best bang for buck. Or even a set of Hayes Stroker Trails for about £100 a set f n r. I'm a fan of Hayes. Ugly as sin, but good reliable stoppers.

Does K18 refer to 18mm pistons?

I have Hayes Stroker Trails on one bike and Avid Juicy 3's on another. However, since I want as much British stuff on my bikes as possible, feel quite strongly about that, I intend to move over to Hope at some point.

getonyourbike

Yes, the very first model juicys were designed by formula but not the current models. That's avid's own cock up. they might be good for the money when they work properly but the rest of the time they're shoot. There really is no way that juicys 3 'are as good as anything costing £250 front and rear' You could brakes that work well and consistently work well for that much or even £10 more per end.

I don't know what K18 stands for but I assume not the size of the pistons as there's the K24s which are the same as the K18s but with more adjustment. So i don't think the naming is done on piston size.

nicklouse

TickTockTick wrote:

I've never tried Formula brakes. Having said that, the Juicy 3 was/is I understand designed and made by Formula.

Since you can get a whole set of Avid Juicy 3's for about £90 I still think they are best bang for buck. Or even a set of Hayes Stroker Trails for about £100 a set f n r. I'm a fan of Hayes. Ugly as sin, but good reliable stoppers.

Does K18 refer to 18mm pistons?

I have Hayes Stroker Trails on one bike and Avid Juicy 3's on another. However, since I want as much British stuff on my bikes as possible, feel quite strongly about that, I intend to move over to Hope at some point.

the original juicys were designed by formula. the current ones are made by a company starting with T.

the formula Oro (Gold) range was K18. K24. and Puro. think about it.

Hope shope Sorry over rated and over priced.

TickTockTick

nicklouse wrote:

TickTockTick wrote:

I've never tried Formula brakes. Having said that, the Juicy 3 was/is I understand designed and made by Formula.

Since you can get a whole set of Avid Juicy 3's for about £90 I still think they are best bang for buck. Or even a set of Hayes Stroker Trails for about £100 a set f n r. I'm a fan of Hayes. Ugly as sin, but good reliable stoppers.

Does K18 refer to 18mm pistons?

I have Hayes Stroker Trails on one bike and Avid Juicy 3's on another. However, since I want as much British stuff on my bikes as possible, feel quite strongly about that, I intend to move over to Hope at some point.

the original juicys were designed by formula. the current ones are made by a company starting with T.

the formula Oro (Gold) range was K18. K24. and Puro. think about it.

Hope shope Sorry over rated and over priced.

So does 18 and 24 refer to piston diameter?

Current Avid's made by Tektro? Wowser. Yet Tektro's own offerings are quite ugly in comparison?

Hope are British though, and that is important to me. Though currently I don't run their brakes, but have Hope everywhere else it is possiboe to have it.

ride_whenever

I quite like my clarks, they do take a while to bed in, and are certainly cheap.

Unfortunately they are a pig to live with, everything rusts and you very quickly get a lot of slop in the lever pivots or creaking when you tighten them to remove it.

getonyourbike

TickTockTick wrote:

Current Avid's made by Tektro? Wowser. Yet Tektro's own offerings are quite ugly in comparison?

Avid did the shoddy designing, tektro only manufactured them

nicklouse

TickTockTick wrote:

nicklouse wrote:

TickTockTick wrote:

I've never tried Formula brakes. Having said that, the Juicy 3 was/is I understand designed and made by Formula.

Since you can get a whole set of Avid Juicy 3's for about £90 I still think they are best bang for buck. Or even a set of Hayes Stroker Trails for about £100 a set f n r. I'm a fan of Hayes. Ugly as sin, but good reliable stoppers.

Does K18 refer to 18mm pistons?

I have Hayes Stroker Trails on one bike and Avid Juicy 3's on another. However, since I want as much British stuff on my bikes as possible, feel quite strongly about that, I intend to move over to Hope at some point.

the original juicys were designed by formula. the current ones are made by a company starting with T.

the formula Oro (Gold) range was K18. K24. and Puro. think about it.

Hope shope Sorry over rated and over priced.

So does 18 and 24 refer to piston diameter?

never bought some gold then?

all the Oro range are the same design just with extras.

TickTockTick

never bought gold no. are they really that good?

Northwind

They're very good. I'll just say it, you'd have to be mentally subnormal to buy a set of Juicys if you can get a set of Oros, they're inferior at everything- power, modulation, stupid pad fitting, daft tri-align thing so that you can get the caliper out of alignment in even more directions... There's nothing to recommend the Juicys at all.

TBH even if the Oros weren't such a huge bargain just now, Tektro's Auriga also kicks the bejeezus out of the bottom-end Avids.

Anonymous

TickTockTick wrote:

However, since I want as much British stuff on my bikes as possible, feel quite strongly about that,

I really wouldn't bother. If you were giving your money to some company who actually escelled, then fine, but as it is, you're bsically giving your money to rip off merchants with inferior goods. And not as British as you may like to think, either.
I think the K in the Oro range stands for Karat.

TickTockTick

yeehaamcgee wrote:

TickTockTick wrote:

However, since I want as much British stuff on my bikes as possible, feel quite strongly about that,

I really wouldn't bother. If you were giving your money to some company who actually escelled, then fine, but as it is, you're bsically giving your money to rip off merchants with inferior goods. And not as British as you may like to think, either.
I think the K in the Oro range stands for Karat.

Well I have been more than happy with my proII hubs/hope hoops, bottom brackets and headsets and skewers..

Northwind

I was with you til you said skewers, they're awful. But TBH it's not til you get onto brakes and lights that Hope really let themselves down. The rear hubs aren't perfect either mind.

TickTockTick

I think their skewers are great! real tight brass bush action.. grips tighter than a ten year old girls fanny.

I'm a big fan of Hope. It's about the only real British cycling company in the UK other than Brookes and Pashley isn't it? That deserves support. I like their stuff.

supersonic

Shimano skewers are far better, even the cheapest: use an enclosed cam, better action, and easier to judge correct tension. Also never die.

u05harrisb

ive got a set of the formula oro k18s, they bloody fantastic!!! absolutly brilliant! got them stock on my XC bike i bought 3 months ago. dont 700 miles on them so far and there still going very well, brilliant brakes!
Ben

TickTockTick

supersonic wrote:

Shimano skewers are far better, even the cheapest: use an enclosed cam, better action, and easier to judge correct tension. Also never die.

Without going to the box to get one of my skewers.. don't the Hope ones also use a cam? Surely all/most skewers are cam actuated?

I like Hope skewers. They are prettier than Shimano ones. Hope stuff is pretty.

Why so much Hope hating on here?

MB UK/bike radar should support its own.

supersonic

It's not about 'supporting your own', its looking at the individual products.

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/skewers.html

Anonymous

TickTockTick wrote:

supersonic wrote:

Shimano skewers are far better, even the cheapest: use an enclosed cam, better action, and easier to judge correct tension. Also never die.

Without going to the box to get one of my skewers.. don't the Hope ones also use a cam? Surely all/most skewers are cam actuated?

I like Hope skewers. They are prettier than Shimano ones. Hope stuff is pretty.

Why so much Hope hating on here?

MB UK/bike radar should support its own.

Supporting your own is pointless if your own is inferior rubbish, that does NOT deserve to be supported.
As it happens i like quite a lot of Hope stuff, but I'm not a blinkered, overly patriotic, BNP voting twonk. When their stuff is inferior, and/or overpriced, I'll go elsewhere.

Northwind

TickTockTick wrote:

Why so much Hope hating on here?

Some of what they sell is pretty poor, highly priced, but still sells because it's british. That deserves a bit of slagging IMO. I'm no Hope hater, I've got 3 sets of Hope Hoops, a headset, and some other bits and bobs but selling underperforming kit for high prices is bad service however you look at it.

sheepsteeth

Northwind wrote:

TickTockTick wrote:

Why so much Hope hating on here?

Some of what they sell is pretty poor, highly priced, but still sells because it's british. That deserves a bit of slagging IMO. I'm no Hope hater, I've got 3 sets of Hope Hoops, a headset, and some other bits and bobs but selling underperforming kit for high prices is bad service however you look at it.

yeah, but its english though.

Richie63

English :roll:

Anyway I've had some J 3's for the past couple of years on the hard tail and they manage to stop me fine. I'm quite happy with their performance.

And before you start I have Formula brakes on other bikes as a comparison.

sheepsteeth

Richie63 wrote:

English :roll:

i cant tell if that's a slight on the grammatical error of typing english instead of English or if its a slight on the fact i think Hope are an english as opposed to British company.

Richie63

Capitals for our dear country.

Nowt else insinuated

Northwind

sheepsteeth wrote:

yeah, but its english though.

Fair point, another black mark

nicklouse

TickTockTick wrote:

Why so much Hope hating on here?

what you see as hate is not hate just realism.

look ate the Pro 2 hub. a very poor "replacement" for what went before. yes I have a set of Ti bulbs. After the original Mini the brakes went downhill. yes I have minis. headsets well at least they have got rid of the stupid alloy crown race that almost always was trashed when removing it from a fork, Yes i have one of each designs of the hope headsets. the hed doc well I have 2 in my tool box.

Hope hoops so that just some Hope hubs and some rims from someone else.

while we are on it CK headsets. they have only just changed their design as they were not suitable for long travel forks.
they said they would never make any internal headsets..... guess what they do a compatible version now........

just cause something was good or is make "locally" means little.

But hey spend your money on what you want we did.