This is Shadow Dario. He does not adhere to manufacturer recommendations. He follows the whims of his impulses, however misguided they may be. Such ideas do not constitute advice, nor should they be taken too seriously. Seen here are the results of those fever dreams and runaway ideas, those intrusive thoughts.
You often hear people giving weak brakes the boilerplate excuse of "Ah but they’ll be okay on an XC bike." Historically, people have run some hauntingly bad brakes on XC bikes and still performed at the highest level of the sport, so today’s relatively reliable and powerful offerings should be more than enough, right? Coming from the gravity-focused lens of more is more , I couldn’t quite come to terms with this premise, and had to investigate for myself.
Instead of reasonably stepping up from a stock cross-country brake, I instead jumped in face first and installed the most powerful brakes on the market onto my XC bike. I felt I’d eked out all the performance I could from those stock stoppers, and wanted more. Well, not just more, all.
The Specialized Epic 8 has proven to be a very impressive little bike, both in traditional cross-country terrain and on harder trails, so it felt like the perfect test platform.
180mm front.
160mm rear.
Electrical tape, best friend of hurried experimentation.Gx0100080 seconds of 7 minutes, 12 secondsVolume 0%Two important caveats to gloss over before delving into this highly scientific experimentation in off-road bicycle performance: 1. I am not, nor have I ever […]
Continue reading the original article at: www.pinkbike.com