Three, sorry, four things to try with Spyres that might save you £300 and give you a pretty decent set of stoppers:
1. If you haven’t already, fit different pads. The TRP ones are rubbish, but they’re a standard Shimano pad, 515s. You can also grind or file off a small amount of metal on the later XT pad and fit that instead, better clearance with floating rotors, less pointless coverage of the ‘spoke’ sections of the rotor.
2. Fit compressionless brake housing. It really does make a significant difference.
3. I fitted a 180mm front rotor to my cross bike which was a real improvement.
4. Adjust the pistons so there’s minimal clearance between the pads and rotor. Use an appropriate allen key to wind them in to contact the rotor, then back them out by one quarter turn. Makes a big difference again.
I’d still rather have hydraulics, but given that I’m running nine speed still, I baulk at the cost of a new rear mech, cassette and levers/shifters that I’d need.
