I’ve never seen a set specced on a bike. I’ve never bought a bike with a set fitted. I don’t know anyone that’s ever owned a set. I don’t see them in the sale forum. Yet there they are again, in the bottom of my screen on some kind of CRC sale bonanza.
They’ve been around for years. Who loves these things? Are they any bloody good or what?

There was a time when they were a brake of choice. Back when everyone had Kinas.

Had some 10yrs ago they were great. They were heavy compared to others but we’re strong and dependable. Not seen any since either.

I run a set of Stroker Grams – they’re relatively light, powerful, easy to bleed and have proved to be robust. Originally bought them ‘cos they were so cheap I thought ‘what the hell’ and I fancied being contrary…
No doubt I’ll just buy Shimano when they die though 😀

I still have 3 bikes with them. All bought 10 years ago.

Hayes Nines came on every other bike back when I started mountain biking. They worked very well, but were very “agricultural” compared with the much better engineered Shimano brakes that replaced them; I got sick of the pistons sticking all the time…

Remembering years back in Les Gets, both Hayes 9s failed on a hire bike I had, was going full tilt with no brakes whatsoever. One lever popeed out of the socket, and I boiled the other as a result. Had to jump off.

Every pair of Hayes brakes I ever owned had a strange habit of self adjusting the level pull grub screw so that by the time you got halfway down a particularly long dh track, the lever hit the bar.

Good riddance.

Had two sets of Hayes brakes

I liked them a lot more than the Hope and Formula I had later

Me in 1999.

I had a couple of pairs of HFX-Mag and HFX-9 brakes “back in the day”. They were very reliable and dependable with good stopping power in all weathers. I rode these brakes all over Canada and Europe with no issues, including much longer descents than you’d ever enjoy in the UK.

The brakes were fitted with Dangerboy CNC brake levers which much improved the lever ergonomics. The MC piston rod benefited from being loctited to the lever barrel to stop it migrating under vibration.

As with any DOT brake, after a season or two of hard use, the pistons would start sticking and the calipers would require a rebuild with fresh pistons, seals and high-temp silicon grease. Once done, brakes were good as new.

I was then unfortunate to have a set of Hayes El Camino which literally never worked properly. Neither myself or the UK distributor could get them to work, they were replaced with an early set of Avid Juicy brakes which were excellent.

I don’t understand how Hayes (even as part of the wider group) is still going as you never see their brakes, unless their automotive division floats the brake business and the MTB side is a small diversion?

got a set of 12 year old HFX-Mags on the singlespeed, reliable 1 finger braking (on 160 rotors) with great modulation, chunky enough to look like they came off a motorbike, what’s not to like.

Just taken some Hayes 9s off a bike as the adjustment grubs were knackered. Brakes still working fine on their original 2004 brake fluid, completely untouched including a few Alpine weeks!

4 hours once spent trying to bleed hayes 9s until 4am, i suspect the whisky wasn’t helping

gave up bought shimano

If anyone wants some pads to fit Hayes Strocker Trail I have loads left over and you can have them cheap

I have some, came on my Spearfish, which I then fitted to the Charge Cooker, Hayes Pro Expert. TBH, they’re fine and happy. I’ve run them at BPW, Afan, etc, they work well. They bleed with the same kit as the Forumlas I have and work not quite as well as them, but work perfectly acceptably anyway.

no complaints here from me.

Still running a set of Hayes Nines. They are getting quite tired now though and are due to be replaced with a set of SLX. I’ve been running them for 10 years and only had to bleed a couple of times. The worst incident was when the little rubber bleed plug came loose resulting in complete loss of one brake. Apart from that, faultless.

Just bought a new (Trek) CX and it came with a Hayes mechanical “CX disc” brakeset.

Some adjustment grubs:

I’ve got the CX mechanical ones on two bikes, way better than the BB7s they replaced! Also had a set of the Sole hydros that came stock on one bike, but they were terrible.

I have a bunch of old HFX9s that are 10 to 15 years old. They still work fine. Bit crude and lacking in modulation, but very powerful and reliable. I have El Caminos on another bike, they’ve been excellent.

Hayes are the HTC of the disc brake world, they did a lot to create the market and demand (at a time when v-brakes were the norm) only to be overtaken by the later entrants.

I put some on my hardtail when they were on offer at CRC. They have been brilliant, even more so if you consider they cost me about £15 per end.

HFX 9’s are fitted to my current bike, a 2012 orange 5. I bought them in 2006 and have swapped them over on each new build. They work fine and I have a load of spare pads so I won’t be changing them any time soon.
I am not some kind of Luddite, the same bike has M8000 XT 1×11 and a Reverb.
My Hayes brakes aren’t broke and don’t need fixing 😀

They were everywhere about ten years ago when the HFX9 came out and made reliable, powerful brakes affordable. Reliable was all relative- the levers did wind in but there was a time when people would replace Hope brakes with Hayes for Alps trips because Hopes would boil and Hayes were the only reliable brakes going.

While the brakes are less common they do own Manitou, Sun Ringle, Answer etc and a lot of that stuff ends up going as OEM equipment which presumably keeps them going.

My Hayes 9s were stolen about 4 years back off my bike. They were still working well, but I can’t imagine they were worth the time to nick.

Modern ones don’t seem to offer anything new or interesting and I never see them reviewed. With plenty of other decent options it’s hard to see why you’d bother.

They are made for the ‘Muricans. They flipping love them.

I suppose they have a backwoods charm the same way ‘Made in Barnoldswick’ does.

My Marin Wolf Ridge came specced with Hayes Stroker Trail brakes, which amused me as “Stroker” is a polite term for someone who’s one off the wrist in our house.

They were brakes. You pulled a lever and the bike stopped without fuss, feedback or fanfare. I did the decent thing and swapped them for M4s at the earliest opportunity, before passing them down to Stepson One for his DJ bike.

Hayes are the HTC of the disc brake world, they did a lot to create the market and demand (at a time when v-brakes were the norm) only to be overtaken by the later entrants.

+1

They were everywhere about ten years ago when the HFX9 came out

I think a lot of people are confusing 10 years ago with 20.

10 years ago was 2006, Saint was released in 2005!

But yes 15 years ago they were definitely the one and only brake that:
a) worked reliably
b) you could actually afford, although I still remember paying £100/end for them, I think the competition were in the order of £400+ for a set!

They were part of the Answer/Manitou group (or were at one point) which probably meant they lost out when the forks fell off the face of the earth with reliability issues and stopped appearing on OEM bikes.