i have some trp spyre mechnical brakes on my diverge, i put in some shimano B01S pads when i got it a year ago, in the last few ride outings the front brake has felt non existant, so i had a look this morning the pads still have a good 1.5mm (even wear), i put new ones in and sure enough the extra width of the pad is back working superb again

the wire doesnt look to have slipped, i’ve undone the bolt and the wire looks ok and retightended it back on, when i move the bar the pistons move in and out but not very far.

is this expected, i’m used to shimano pads on hydraulic brakes on my mtbs that pretty much wear down to the backplate.

Not clear from your post, have you tried adjusting cable tension and the pad adjustment on the wheel side?

There may be a point in the actuation mechanism beyond which the pads don’t extend any further or much further for additional lever movement. Did you try taking the wheel out and seeing if manually moving the lever arm made a difference?

Alternatively… Contaminated pads from winter road grime or riding through diesel spill or similar?

You have to adjust them as the pads wear. They don’t self adjust like hydraulic brakes do.

That too – the MK2 version used hex keys or a torx bit to adjust the pads in. Do it evenly on both sides.

i knew i’d get some ideas, yeah i took the wheel out and manually moved the gar arm with the pads out,

i dont think they are contaminated, although they are muddy dusty, from riding offroad the other day.

cable tension feels ok,

i’ll have another look later @ghill @cp / @simondbarnes, i guess they may need adjusting inwards like the old rim block style brakes.

at £5 a set its not bad pricing over a year of 1-2 rides a week, but being a tighten yorkshireman i’d hate to throw away the pads,

Strip, clean and grease them up, makes them work much more betterer. There’s a printed how to on the internet somewhere, it’s easy enough.

If you look on You Tube there’s a instruction video on how to adjust them.

Search for TRP Spyre adjustment

Are the levers pulling back to the bar?

If so you’ve not adjusted for wear (the barrel adjuster is the easiest option; the piston adjusters can also be used, you’ll need a 3mm Allen key).

If not, then is the actuator arm hitting the cable stop before the pads contact? If so you need to adjust the pistons as above (and you may have set it up badly in the fist place).

If neither of the above are the case then something’s wrong.

Strip, clean and grease them up

I found they needed this fairly regularly.

manually moved the gar arm with the pads out,

as as others have said, the pads themselves can be adjusted, not just the arm

cool thnaks guys, i’ll have a go at regreasing over the weekend

There is a 3mm? adjuster in the centre of the pivot on each side, they do seize/round out easily, use a good allen key.

I have had them on my road bike for 3 years. In short…they’re balls. If you’ve got them set up so that you can come to a stop in some sort of controlled fashion then be happy.

I need to regularly adjust the 3mm adjustments on each side of the calliper and the cable tension. I’d say I need to do this around every 100km to keep a sharp feel. Decent quality resin pads also help, I’ve gone with the Shimano ones.

First I tried fitting a better cable set, some sort of Goodridge one and that made them a bit better. I swapped this recently for the proper TRP cable set with the metal housing for the bars. A bit better but far from great. Regreainsg and cleaning helps.

They are, however, balls even at best. The only thing making me keep them is the cost of ditching 10 speed and going hydraulic.

Mine have survived a whole winter with just occasional tweaking to account for pad wear. They provide enough power to lock the wheels up & feel fine.

They are, however, balls even at best.

I could do stoppies and skids with mine. Plenty powerful.

I can lock up wheels in good conditions with new pads and well adjusted but the performance drops off thereafter. Hydraulic brakes on my mtb don’t do this. I’ve got mechanical hayes discs and avid bb5s on other bikes and they don’t have the initial power of the Sypres but seem to maintain their level of performance with minimal tinkering.

Strip, clean and lube (as Busta said look on the internet for instructions), then put some compressionless cables on them, use Superstar Kevlar pads and adjust them to they’re close to the discs and they’ll be great!