Gone are Codes. Ditto Levels. Here is the new mineral oil SRAM Motive. Here’s our verdict on the SRAM Motive Ultimate disc brake.
- Brand: SRAM
- Product: Motive Ultimate Expert Kit
- Price: £585.00 for kit (F&R brakes & 2×180 rotors & 2x160mm rotors & bleed kit & 2xspare pads)
- From: ZyroFisher
- Tested by: Benji for a month
Pros
- Code power with bit less weight (264g Motive Ultimate versus 314g Code RSC)
- Improved bite feel and no brake rotor judder under hard braking
- Mineral oil; less nasty and not prone to damp ingress
Cons
- No bite point adjustment
- Kit only available in Teal Splatter
First of all, you dopn’t have to get these brakes in this colourway (Teal Splatter). This is just the Expert Kit colourway (kit contains: two brakes, two MMX Clamps, two 20P-1 mounting brackets, two 180mm CL-X rotors, two 160mm CL-X rotors, rotor bolts, rotor carrying case, Pro Mineral Bleed kit, four barbs and four olives, two pair of steel-back metal sintered pads).
You can just get the SRAM Motive Ultimate on its own, which is the same brake tested here but in silver-grey (same anodised finish with polished machined edges etc) and costs £270 per end not including bracket and rotor.
You can also get the sleek black £220 Motive Silver and live with the hardship of not having a carbon lever blade and titanium bolts (Silver blade is aluminium and stainless steel bolts). And if you’re really not that bothered about such things you can opt for the matt black £170 Motive Bronze and have aluminium blade and plain steel bolts. Ugh, can you imagine? More significantly, the Bronze Motive goes with a bushing in the lever pivot instead of a bearing, so may develop play and inconsistency over time.
The brake lever is the same familiar blae shape as SRAM have used for a while now. Not as hooked tip as Shimano or Magura for example but a very effective and neutral shape.
There is tool-free reach adjust on all of the Motive brakes whichis nicely indexed and positive in operation. There is no more contact bite-point adjustment. Which is a good and bad thing: good because it’s more to go wrong, bad because it means it’s harder to get both levers to lie-at-rest in the same position whilst both having the same bite point. To get the bite points both exactly the same I had to dial out the levers to lie at slightly different positions. To be fair, a lot of brakes are like this. And most of you are probably not that bothered.
The body sits closer and parallel to the handlebar now (ie. ‘Stealth’) which again is a good and bad thing; good if you want it to pass into internal cable routing ports nicer and sit pleasingly against SRAM wireless AXS drivetrain/dropper controls, bad if you get annoyed by hosing clicking against handlebars whilst you ride. (Internal cable routing – so much to answer for).
All the models in the SRAM Motive brake range are 4-piston caliper, just like the brand’s Maven and DB range.
In terms of weight differences (no clamp, no mounting hardware, no pad, no rotor, nobolts): Ultimate is 264g, Silver is 273g, Bronze is 279g. To compare to out going SRAM Code RSC brakes which were around 314g or more. As SRAM put it, the Motive is SRAM Code power with SRAM Level weight.
The Motive fiurthers SRAM’s move away from DOT fluid to mineral oil. Most people will welcome this move (I do). Mineral oil may well have a lower boiling point than DOT but brake fade doesn’t seem to be an issue for the vast majority of riders/riding. The only downside to mineral oil is that it’s usually a bit more expensive than DOT.
FYI SRAM states: “our mineral oil was co-developed with Maxima Racing Oils to optimise the consistent performance of our seals regardless of temperature and bleed interval. Mineral oil for the win.”
I have not tried the bleed the brakes yet (I’ll update and re-publish this review as and when I do though). Suffice to say the Motive caliper uses SRAM’s Bleeding Edge port which in my experience is much of a muchness as any modern disc brake ie. perfectly fine and not overly messy.
In a nice note, all SRAM brakes now use phenolic plastic pistons – all the way down to the SRAM DB4. So no more sticky-prone aluminium pistons in lower end SRAM disc brakes. Kudos SRAM.
Enough about the nuts and bolts, how do the SRAM Motive Ultimate brakes perform on the trail?
Basically, we are currently living in something of a golden era of disc brakes. Every brake released in the past couple of years or so has been excellent. And the Motive is no different.
I”d say that the Motive has more of defined bite-moment than the previous Code and a firmer lever feel. The amount of power is hard to quantify but it felt at least on par with a decent Code. These aren’t diet Mavens. I have only ridden the Motive with 180mm rotors (200mm on the way) but even so, the Motive felt like a really, really nice Code.
The rotors are new to me SRAM CL-X rotors. Essentially a Centerline with floating spider. I didn’t really think a great deal about the rotors during riding (usually a good sign) and only when riding a bike with some other SRAM Code brakes and rotors did I realise the lack of warble and pulsing of the Motive/CL-X combo.
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Review Info
| Brand: | SRAM |
| Product: | Motive Ultimate Expert Kit |
| From: | ZyroFisher |
| Price: | £585.00 for kit |
| Tested: | by Benji for 1 month |
