Afternoon all. Anyone running the new Road hydraulic shimano disc brakes? How do you find the stopping power?

I am 12 and a half stone and find the front requires a lot of force to stop quickly. Almost all the power in my fingers (on drops).

I have changed the pads to race matrix and have also tried swapping my XTs over from my other bike. Again even swapped rotors over to ensure contamination is not an issue.

Lever is firm with around 10 speed mm of travel before bite. Have reverse bled the brake just to be sure.

Apart from trying a 180 rotor I am not so sure I can get them better. This is my first Road bike and am used to XT / slx and deore mtb braking power.

I can easily lock the front wheel up and lift the back wheel on all my other bikes… But the feel of the road brakes is totally different (and maybe normal?)

I am worried that I am having to use so much force on the lever to get decent braking power…. Is it possible to damage the piston or seals in the lever?

And yes all pads have been bed in properly as per uber / shimano guidelines.

Thanks all

Lever is firm with around 10 cm of travel before bite.

Are you sure? 😉

More seriously, contamiated pads?

Ha thanks…. Ninja edit!

Doubt contaminated pads…. I have swapped over two rotors and three sets of pads from other bikes. All feel the same. So rules that out I think.

They do stop OK but I have to really yank the lever hard…worried about breaking something internally!

Don, mine are fine, they feel just like my XT and SLX ones. I have the free stroke at minimum although they came that way. Lever travel is about halfway in and they go solid pretty quick.

I can lock up from the hoods

Hi iain…. Thanks. I can lock the back up easy from hoods. No way the front. Front wheel won’t lock up with full force (not that I actually want that to happen mind you).

I am 12.5 Stone… Probably more towards 13 with kit on and belly full of pizza 😀

Lever is rock solid so pretty sure it’s not a bad bleed.

I do run 40 mm marathon supremes which have great traction so perhaps harder to lock up too.

Don – I am 3 or 4 pounds heavier and have the conti cross speed 35’s on. Front will lock in dry from hoods, so does sound like yours isn’t quite right.

Contaminated pads or disc?
Brakes need a bleed?
or need proper setup…
If you havent got a hayes alignment tool.. get one

Plenty of power on mine – front and rear easy to lock up with one finger from the hoods.

Mine are sufficiently good to scare me. Can lock up with one finger braking from the hoods.