Lewis brakes on the Intense race team bikes

I hope the OP is getting paid for this.

I hope Lewis kept the receipt.

ethical” reasons are pethetic.

Ethical = IP protection and supporting UK manufacturing (as per my posts on the original thread where you could have bought Hope for the same money). UK manufacturing also equals fair human rights and environmental responsibilities.

If you worked in UK manufacturing you’d realise the importance of these points and that it’s hardly pathetic but you are free to stick with your Alibaba / AliExpress knock offs and taking money out of the local economy and handing it to China.

I don’t think people have commented on them not being good. IIRC it was the fact that they looked like Chinese knockoffs of Trickstuff brakes AND that they were still a lot of money to spend on an unknown brand of Chinese made forks AND that all the YouTube and social media ‘reviews’ of them looked mighty suspicious.

They might well be great, but a year ago £335 was a lot of money to spend on an unknown and untested make of brake (when an extra £130 got you Hope Tech 4 V4s and Shimano, Hayes, SRAM, Formula, etc were cheaper) that appeared to come from a Chinese company that mass produced knockoffs of other stuff. Also they looked very much like many other brakes on AliExpress.
No one knew (or knows) what the customer support/warranty would be like, how long they would carry spares and parts, would they honour warranty, would they dissolve or fail at a critical moment.

Only the OP knew all of these things apparently.

a year ago £335 was a lot of money to spend on an unknown and untested make of brake

Still is given that a set of SLX 4-pots is about half that.

Still is given that a set of SLX 4-pots is about half that.

The price always did seem a  bit steep for knock offs, no matter how well made they are

I love a bargain , but Id rather spend a bit more on Hopes(which I did) , if I want cheap and cheerful the Deore M6120 4 pots on my hardtail are pretty amazing  and they are £200 quid less!:

https://www.merlincycles.com/shimano-deore-m6100-m6120-front-and-rear-disc-brake-set-213641.html

being honest my hopes are not 2.5x better than the deores, but Id buy them again because I know the support Ill get from the Hopes is pretty much lifetime & I love having some Hope brakes on my bike and Im not even sure they sponsor a DH team

The Lewis spamilton gag almost made this 2 pager worth reading.

matlockmeat
Free Member

And to the person that mentioned closure, yes, it’s given me closure. I was over the moon when I saw Intense running them, because it was clarification I was right and the folk that won’t try these brakes for “ethical” reasons are pethetic.

This is not healthy. I still feel bad for having argued a bunch with a person on here who always seemed like he was just an arsehole but in the end turned out to be deeply unwell, with hindsight it should have been as obvious as it is here.

A good point Northwind.

current average team rider ranking, 160th

That’s because the brakes are so powerful!

Are you astroturfing?

a neighbour of mine had a terrible lawn. Full of weeds. They replaced the grass with astroturf. Now the weeds only grow around the edge of the lawn.

I just don’t fancy having anything called Lewis on my bike.

Although to be honest, having brakes with ‘Hope‘ written in big letters on them sounds a little optimistic ;o)

I was riding in Samoens last week, it’s proper steep and a rocky rooty mess. I’m 105kgs and my Magura MT5’s we’re amazing, and they only cost me about £160 for the pair!

With this development, my opinion of Lewis brakes hasn’t changed. But my opinion of Intense has gone down.

I heard that the Intense team were using Trickstuff brakes. They were just paid to put Lewis stickers on them.

Bit like every dh team back in the day with the M1

The name lewis ….for anyone who cares comes from high end road bike brakes from them70,s

Rather boutique and we’re very sort after and the Lewis bought the rights to use it and use the original logo on the paper card packaging

Lewis or anyone else for that matter could make a similar brake and seek the relevant licensing and pay trickstuff a fee ,aka pivot do this with Atherton bikes .

Dt swiss (trickstuff owned) didn’t want to get involved and as the patents and design had elapsed Lewis or anyone else can use the design

I don’t have a problem as there’s quite a few design improvements been made and no one moans when aldi lidl blatantly rip,off recognised branding food and make millions doing so

I personally don’t care but when people get on there high horse about copying a design of a product you can rarely buy anyway whilst often quoting China this china that all whilst on there iPhone that’s made in china

Whilst eating a lorry wheel drinking cola cola

Eating a lo

aka pivot do this with Atherton bikes

Both, and others, do it from Dave Weagle. They all mention who the original idea came from. As did everyone who used an FSR Rear end for 25 years.

This is just exploiting others hard work.

Funnily enough, on Monday Bikerumour did a piece about how DT Swiss/Truckstuff are now making the brakes freely available. No more 2 year waiting list. Now in various black or silver combos with kevlar hose.

Wonder if that’s really why this thread popped up again

They all mention who the original idea came from. As did everyone who used an FSR Rear end for 25 years.

Paid a licence fee to Horst Lietner / Specialized

Where can you buy Trickstuff in the UK? A quick google makes it look like you can only get them from abroad, from most of the shops that wont ship to the UK anymore…. unless i am missing something?!

All the bikes had a sticker on saying it was an FSR rear end though. Most used it as a selling point, same with all the various DW iterations.

The more these sorts of threads keep popping up, the more I’m thinking copying TS look was purely to generate attention, nothing to do with performance. If they looked different to everyone else’s, they wouldn’t have had 10% of the exposure they’ve had so quickly, regardless of how good they are. No such thing as bad publicity and all that.

Where can you buy Trickstuff in the UK? A quick google makes it look like you can only get them from abroad, from most of the shops that wont ship to the UK anymore…. unless i am missing something?!

I haven’t looked for a while, but I think most German sellers sell to the UK if over £135? Which TS orders tend to be?

It highlights there are some very sensitive indivuals who can’t scroll past a post if they have nothing positive to say.

I have bo

HTH

If somone is too pig headed to try them, then that’s their loss.

I would try to explain to you the difference between pig headed and principled but………. 🙂

Well you learn something new everyday…..

I thought they still ran TRP brakes!

Even though I blatantly missed them when I was looking at their bike at Fort William (just looked back through my photos) ……

I received a barage of abuse

I work in a school. If you think the original thread here is abuse I suspect you haven’t been in a school for quite some time.

At the garage getting my over tight wheel not sorted the other day the apprentice ( 5″4, maybe 16) couldn’t undo a bolt. A (6″ 20 something muscly) bloke did it for him. The apprentice got a barrage of good humoured abuse. All of which would have seen people get a ban on here.

Reading the original thread back, I can’t see anything anyone has said that looks abusive.

Glad you are enjoying your brakes.

How far have your ridden on them, have they needed a bleed in that time?

Well to add some context Intense Factory Racing actually disbanded and had no plans to go racing in 2024.

Joe Breeden was left without a team and quickly threw his own program together.

Once he’d accomplished this and had a team ready to go on Intense frames, they were adopted and rebranded as ‘Intense Factory Racing’.

It’s not like Jeff Steber personally hand picked all the components. For all we know the Lewis brakes were a last minute Alibaba purchase for Joe who was desperate to keep racing world cups.

^ ah, that’s interesting @sharkattack. I couldn’t figure out why they’re listed as a GBR team, it (sort of) makes sense now.

So where did the race truck come from?

Intense, or something Joe Breeden put together?

So, how are Sick! Bikes doing these days…?

Is that a reach, or is there some link?

They all mention who the original idea came from. As did everyone who used an FSR Rear end for 25 years.

Paid a licence fee to Horst Lietner / Specialized

IIRC apart from Nicolai as Karl actually invented it when working at / for Leitner.

Is that a reach, or is there some link?

No, Jordan’s in the low/no alcohol craft beer game now.

I was wondering about this, as I was sure Aaron Gwin had some affiliation/part ownership of TRP. I hadnt seen that he was not with Intense anymore, so I assume he’s taken TRP with him to his new team.

Although saying that, Gwins new bike is pretty much a Santa Cruz rip off, so maybe the Lewis brakes would go nicely….

They all mention who the original idea came from. As did everyone who used an FSR Rear end for 25 years.

Sorry, my irony meter just went out of calibration due to the needle bending off the scale.

There’s a whole lot of controversy around who actually originated that idea between Horst, Dave, Tony and Mike, and the answer is Mike has the best lawyers, Tony throws the worst tantrums, Dave gave up begrudgingly and joined up with the other Dave, and no one talks about how it all looks like Mert’s design anyway but he was working with Yeti, motocross bikes and para-athletes and too cool to get involved in the arguments.

I was wondering about this, as I was sure Aaron Gwin had some affiliation/part ownership of TRP. I hadnt seen that he was not with Intense anymore, so I assume he’s taken TRP with him to his new team.

TRP is the posh division of the gigantic Tektro. Turns out people won’t pay top money for Tektro unless you hide the name.

Speaking of… is anyone making Trickstuff top caps for Lewis brakes yet? Asking for a friend.

Is that a reach, or is there some link?

I’m merely taking the piss.

No, Jordan’s in the low/no alcohol craft beer game now.

Where I’m sure he’s absolutely got a product developed, scaled up and ready to go – and not just a load of ripped off marketing, ancillary merch and superficially convincing flannel…

It was on sale at Bespoked. The “Beer” that is, not the tat

organiser said they weren’t aware of the connection. 

TRP is the posh division of the gigantic Tektro. Turns out people won’t pay top money for Tektro unless you hide the name.

Yeah, I know, but I’m sure he was doing some developement work with them for brakes and drivetrain stuff I think. I could well be completely wrong though!!

It was on sale at Bespoked. The “Beer” that is, not the tat

organiser said they weren’t aware of the connection.

Strange that Jordan didn’t mention his previous work within the industry – it would have been a great ice-breaker.

I have zero affiliation with Lewis Brakes and they have never paid me a dime but…

“Lewis Brakes are the best in the world, i cant believe how good they are. Take two brakes into the shower? not me. Its Lewis brakes all the way for me now. And they are a real bargain too”

Lewis McLewison (not a robot)

So, how are Sick! Bikes doing these days…?

Heady days.