SRAM Guide R vs. RS vs. RSC calipers

applause

Hi

Let's say I've got a bike with a pair of SRAM Guide R brakes. Would I be able to buy a set of Guide RS or RSC levers and get the same overall brakesystem as if I bought a RSC set in the first place?

Is there any difference between the calibers of the R, RS and RSC versions of the brake?

Chunkers1980

What does the SRAM website say? They're so new I doubt any one would have direct experience of them all given that no matter how good SRAM stuff may now be they need to try really hard to win people back from their previous shite.

applause

Chunkers1980 wrote:

What does the SRAM website say?

As far as I can see the only difference is that the RS gets better bearings in the lever and the RSC gets contact point adjustment. It says nothing about the caliper.

kingflamethrower

The short answer to your question is "the R, RS, and RSC all use the same caliper", If you are asking because you want to convert your R to RS, then there's more to the story (keep reading). Converting R or RS to RSC will require a new RSC lever assembly which isn't what I am interested in. I was hoping for an inexpensive way to salvage as much of my OEM R's and replace some internals with RS. The answer to my question is "it might be possible, but I can't find all the parts and buying new RS lever assemblies to use with my R calipers isn't cost effective enough to warrant the conversion".

Here is all the info I found that led me to my answer.

1. Sram is introducing a revamped "S4" caliper that will give the R, RS, RSC the Bleeding Edge bleeder port the Ultimates currently have. So, if that is of interest to you, then revamping the 2015/2016 Guide R to RS is not worth the effort. Here's the write up from the Sram website (as of October 4th, 2016) - "Now featuring the World Championship-winning S4 caliper with Bleeding Edge™ and Heat Shield technologies." (https://www.sram.com/sram/mountain/products/guide-r)

So the rest of my comments apply to the 2015/2016 Guide R, RS, and RSC brakes. Idk if they were offered in 2014 because my bike has 2015/16 version so I didn't look into that nor did I look at the Ultimates .

2. The Guide caliper (and tubing, pads, and bleed kit) is the same on the R, RS, and RSC options. The lever, cam, and lever internals are all different between the R, RS, and RSC.

3. The lever body is the same for the R and RS, but not the RSC (it has the bite point dial).

So to convert the R brakes to RS, what is needed is an RS Lever Blade and Cam kit and an RS Lever Internals kit. Finding the RS Lever Internals kit is easy, but I didn't find a reliable source on the internet for the RS Lever Blade and Cam kit. The Lever Internals for the RS are available at most online bike shops (one example: http://www.edisoncycleco.com/product/sr ... 2946-1.htm), but other than a sketchy Amazon product offering (which had one review and it was bad https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00LA ... stoppic-20). The closest I came to finding an RS Lever Blade and Cam kit that looked like it included all the needed parts was listed as "Call for Availability" (http://www.edisoncycleco.com/product/sr ... ions=12559), but they do have the RS Lever Internals (http://www.edisoncycleco.com/product/sr ... 2946-1.htm). I did find a couple reliable sites offering the entire RS lever assembly, all assembled so it would replace the entire Guide R Lever assembly (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00L2 ... stoppic-20), but its getting pricing (apx. $90-$100 per lever assembly) to the point where I'm inclined to wait for the new Guides to come out whenever that will be (the ones with the revamped caliper and Bleeding Edge bleeder port).

So, I'm going to hold off and see what happens over the next 6 months. Hopefully this info helps and if it doesn't make sense or if I missed something, please let me know.

I used this site (http://www.peterverdone.com/sram-guide-insanity/) to uncover some of the details that were not obvious. It has links to the R, RS, and RSC Service Manuals which have exploded views of the lever/master cylinder assembly and the calipers. It's worth checking out.

The Rookie

Great post, but I'm sure the OP's sorted his brakes in the last 18 months!

applause

Thanks for the thorough answer "kingflamethrower". But as "The Rookie" suggests I've since moved on and dropped the idea of upgrading my Guide R brakes in favor buying some XT's. I've grown quite tired of fluctuating bitepoint and general inconsistency with the Guide R. And they a very hard to bleed. This might be solved with the updated version but I've must admit I've lost confidence in the product.