Best brake caliper for road bike

Triathlon Forum
1

hello all
my trusty old steed need new brake calipers (the springs have rusted away so it does not go back away from the wheel after braking)
until now my OLD 2006 trek 1000 has had shimano sora brake calipers on it worked ok, but now that i have to buy some new i am wondering:

  • is there any difference in brake modulation/ stopping power comparing shimanos models within them selves and comparing against brands like sram, trp etc??
    -if yes
  • which one has the greatest stopping power? given that all of the brakes use the same brakepad (swissstop gxp)
  • any recommendation on a good set of fairly priced brake calipers, weight does not matter :slight_smile: but please let them be cheaper than the tririg omega brakes.

i have already been looking at shimano 105, planet x forged and random chinese brakes, and so far it looks like they are all the same…

thanks in advance

2

the new Ultegra model has excellent stopping power. I think its 6800. not sure though

3

Not answering your question, but it’s worth noting that set-up is a key part of brake performance. Good cables and housing, good pads (Kool Stop salmon is very good for aluminum braking surfaces) and good installation - including making sure the housings are cut very square.

Also, this is worth looking at in terms of lever-caliper compatibility across brands/models:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beSUvIIwOto

4

I’d recommend getting some old Ultegra calipers off ebay. 6500 model. Very nice and should be cheap.

5

I just built a road bike with Shimano 5700 brakes bought at Performancebike.com for ~$80. Much better than random Chinese brakes you find on some bikes.

If you are looking for stopping power from the lever then you may look at the Dura-Ace 7900 BL-TT79 Brake Levers. I put some on my Felt DA and am really happy with them.

jaretj

6

the brake levers i already have are 5700 shimano 105 so they are not getting switched any time soon :slight_smile:

but thanks all. it seems like i will look into 5700 and 6500 since they are cheap and sounds like they are good.

7

I have the 5700 levers on my road bike too. I’m happy with the braking power and the shifting as well.

jaretj

8

You will want to make sure and not get the newer Shimano calipers. They changed the pull ratio and will not stop your bike effectively with your old brake levers. I have had really good luck getting used calipers of the same generation off of ebay for really reasonable prices. Put new pads on them and set them up properly (there are plenty of videos on youtube that show you how) and they should stop great. Shimano brakes are the bar with all others are judged. For the most part the higher level brakes will just be a little lighter than the lower level, my price tolerance is usually at the Ultegra level, yours might be higher or lower, but the braking performance should be really similar across the range.

9

I don’t have any experience with the newer Shimano stuff, but I have Ultegra on a couple of bikes (main roadie and TT bike) 105 on another roadie, and RX100 (I think) on my fixie. Braking performance on all 4 bikes is prety much identical, as long as the pads are in good shape.

Never saw a reason to get anything but Shimano brakes though. I switched away from Campy years ago, hated it…