Did anyone else think it would have been interesting to see a "control" pad used? Some pads were sintered, some were organic. I'd guess two manufactures would use two different compounds even if they were both sintered.

Some brakes might have been accused of low power but actually have excellent pad life and possibly more "power" with a softer pad.

Just a thought.

Good idea. Read a copy of MBR recently with a test of £1000 full sus bikes, and they used a control tyre & even control handlebar grips on the bikes to reduce the variabilities. Would make a lot of sense to use a control pad from a recognised manufacturer, what about breaking in time & conditions though?

As they used a lab at Fibrax for the testing, it really does look like a missed opportunity.

A lot of the people who slammed it just didn't like the results IMO. Lots of "Deore can't possibly be more powerful than Hope" nonsense.

there no more power to be had anyway, the limiting factor is always going to be the friction between tyre and the ground.

Anything else is a combination of mechanical advantage (and how it varies through the stroke) and any give in the system.

poor test control, poor magazine.

its not all about power anyhow, how about ease of maintenance, pad change, bleeding etc.

my current favorite brake: Hope Tech V2

In my experience of the going to the alps for 2-11 weeks a year for the last 5, the only brake not to have problems and to maintain a constant lever feel (original V2 admittedly)

I'll let you know about the tech v2s this year, have them on my zesty and transition

oh and I live in France and work in Geneva now, so proper mountains are my local trails 🙂

juras to the left of me, alps to the right

I'll confess to being a bit of a Hope fan boy but that test did bug me a bit. as said above, it's not about max power. Bit like buying an F1 car because it has the best top speed and then finding you can't control it in the supermarket car park. It's about usable power and control. I think the very linear nature of the Hopes was neglected somewhat.

I've got old E4 brakes with 205/185 rotors F/R and sintered pads. I'm actually considering the Tech V2 and dropping down a rotor size. I think that will not cost much in terms of weight and maybe offer a bit more power.