Mainly the benefits are measured on the front.

On the rear you *might* see (well, you won't see it) a minute bit of savings if the omega fits closer to the bike and you can run the housing a bit closer to the frame. We're almost certainly talking <1w.

Is it worth it? Totally up to you.

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My Blog - http://leegoocrap.blogspot.com

I was wondering the same thing. I am extremely obsessive, so the idea of running two different brakes does not make me happy, then again, spending $180 on a rear brake just so I am matchy matchy does not sound too appealing either. Looking closely at my bike I can see how the traditional brake might stick out some (where the cable runs through) but that is in an area that has some really dirty air (right behind your moving legs).

My intuition says save the $180 and put the one on the front only. My insanity says must have two. Will be ordering soon as well.

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Ironman Certified Coach

Currently accepting limited number of new athletes

Why do we need 2 brakes, anyways?

Just put the Omega on the front and take the back off.



;)

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"Outwork your talent." Kevin McHale

Now we are getting aero!

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Ironman Certified Coach

Currently accepting limited number of new athletes

Just be aware that when you reverse the pad holders to use it on the rear, they stick out in the direction that means they can potentially hit the seatstays. So on the rear of a P2 I had to use quite a thickness of washers to move the brake backwards so the pad holders clear the seatstays. This makes it a lot less elegant as a rear brake than a front brake because it doesn't sit snugly against the frame. If the rules that you race under allow you to tape across the gap from the frame to the brake, it probably won't cause an aero penalty. If you can't do this I wouldn't like to bet on it being aerodynamically better than a normal sidepull brake.

Good point I hadn't heard/thought of before, thanks.

I have Omega's on my Look 596 on both the front and rear. The rear allows the brake cable to be run flat to the frame, whereas the standard brake required the brake cable loop to stick out a bit. Does it make a difference? Probably not (or very minor if anything...)... One thing I really like about the brakes is the braking power and modulation. They work extremely well!

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"Suddenly the thought struck me. My floor is someone elses ceiling"-Nils Ferlin

If you need to justify your insanity, look at it this way: Your front and rear brakes will operate in the same way, same feel, same modulation, etc AND you will save a bit on aero drag. That and it will look cool.

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Suffer Well.

Did you do any special tweaks with pads? What rim surface? I borrowed a front for about 10 days and tried the supplied pads and a set of Swiss Stop yellow/alums for my alum front track. It was certainly better than my Campy Delta back in the day, but not enough for my liking:( I even tried cinching down the pinch bolt with the caliper compressed on the rim bed as tightly as possible by another set of hands and just couldn't get the kind of performance I like...oh well.

Stock pads, not tweaking of the pads. Wheels are HED Jet 90 front/rear, HED Jet Disc rear or a set of Mavic Cosmic Carbone (using all wheels depending on conditions, but the Mavics usually end up being my training wheels...).

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"Suddenly the thought struck me. My floor is someone elses ceiling"-Nils Ferlin

I only tried mine on the trusty OpenPro front and just couldn't get it to stop the way I wanted. I'm probably 70-80% front brake though so will just stay with my Apex side pull. Glad you like 'em! If I had to rank center pulls I'd say the Campy Delta was the most useless front brake even invented, the TRP center pull is the best I've tried and the Omega was in between them tied with an Egg for performance. BUT for looks the Omega is a boner 1/2.....the tops.

If I were to acquiesce on the front brake thus far I'd probably go for the fashion sassy Omega:)

You mean other than the fact that the rules say you must have them?

please don't ever take anything I say seriously

;)


I've done plenty of races with only one brake. There may have been 2 on the bike, but only 1 worked. I know.

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"Outwork your talent." Kevin McHale

In order to get the right lever feel in my Omegas I had to be very careful to get some cable tension before adjusting the the pads inward. Once I got the right able tension the responsivness and lever feel improved greatly. Not a powerful as a Dura Ace caliper, but very, very good. I did this by moving the wedge out of between the outside lever arms, moving it up the cable a few mm and then tightening the bolt. I was able to move the wedge into a spot where I got more cable tension than I could when it was between the levers- a inline cable adjuster or brake integrated adjuster could have done the same thing. I then adjusted the pads inward to tune how much lever pull and tune the feel at the lever.

I'd suggest you re-try your brake set up to get the Omegas where you want them.

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Suffer Well.

I had a headset hanger with an in line adjuster......no dice. Just not enough braking for my likes.

Doesn't this open up the arms a bit (i.e. not flush with the body) in the rest position?

Nick reccommends against this BTW

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Just a few mm of adjustment upwards with the wedge made all the difference for me. But not so much that the lever arms stick out any. It is a small adjustment.



Recommends against it or says it is not needed? I read/watched his instructions and recall him saying that the adjustment came from the lever arm adjustment screw and an inline/in brake adjuster is not needed. I don't recall the recommended part, but it has been a few months and my memory kinda sucks.

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Suffer Well.

Nick reccommends against this BTW

You're right. He does. Not too sure why. I don't want to put words in his mouth, but you don't want to use the in-line adjuster to set the pad distance off the rim. You do that with the set-screws built into the arms that hold the brake shoes. But I found that my Bontrager TT brakes that have a barrel adjuster built in are ideal to remove that last bit of cable slack and keep the brake levers from rattling.

I just discovered on my new SRAM road group that you can also set up the Omegas with the brake levers at their maximum reach setting, then adjust the reach inward to take up slack in the system, eliminate rattles and make brake performance quite precise.

(OK ... after posting this, I heard from Nick over on Facebook. My speculation was spot on. Set pad width with the set screws on the brakes, but in-line adjusters are an effective way to adjust out the last little bit of cable slack. Don't use in-line adjusters to set pad width or as a quick-release.)
.

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Stay aero my friends.

I think you have said what I tried to say. There is only so much travel that the wedge can make, I think he doesn't recomend using the inline or brake adjuster to set the pad width, but having one makes setting the cable in tension much easier than a trial and error method. Once the cable tension is good, the pad width is set with the lever arm adjustment.

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Suffer Well.

How did you get the Omega to fit on the front of your 596? I had to use a lot of spacers, do you have pics of yours I could see?

I'm thinking of custom machining a spacer for the front omega on the Look 596.

USA Cycling rules do not require a rear brake for tts

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