Assembly:
When attaching the housing to chainstay make sure to account for housing movement, when going through travel, I had to only use one zip hook, and use a zip tie halfway on the chainstay to avoid the linkage movement to case braking.
Pros:
Easy pad adjustment
The Spyke brakes offer one finger braking, as powerful as the Shimano m615 brake, but without the issues of leaks and impossible to get seals(without contacting Shimano).The Pad mud gives protection against stones and dirt, so stores can’t interfere the pad/piston movement, So this is a great feature.But like all brakes they only give protection for this, rotors and the inside caliper is exposed, so I still get sand &dirt in there in wet conditions, there is no way to protect the pad surface, things will get in the rotor and can get stuck and make noises, so to prevent crunchy brakes after ride, spray water on the in to the caliper, I do this in shower.
The pads are held in place by a threaded pin, with a clip, which makes maintenance easier.
Smart bolt & pin hold the pads securely in place.
Not Pro but not Con:
This might be a con for kids, or people with very weak fingers. not an issue I have, at least not now.
With the Spyke caliper, the lever is noticeably harder to press than with hydraulics, than a hydraulic brake, due to the stiff return spring. I noticed I my fingers got fatigued from braking after an ca 4-hour ride, but I rode so hard that I could not even pull a manual. After 7 months in March 2018, I Noticed my fingers got very fatigued by braking, I think this was due to braking a lot when riding on grocery rounds between several shops, and to home, a lot of stopping for traffic and, but I went back to hydraulic brake, and I was less fatigued.
But I am pretty sure most people will get used to the heavier lever feel, I went back to hydraulic brakes for a while, but Shimano brakes gave me trouble, so I came back to TRP Spyke in 2019, and I was much stronger, and the heavier lever feel was not a problem anymore.
I have been back on TRP Spyke for several months.
I have several of these calipers, due ordering from one shop and it going slow so I ordered from another, but it was not a mistake cus of those barrel adjusters, good I have spares, but I need proper barrel adjuster.
This means I had to take barrel adjuster form a un used caliper and put it on the one on the bike.
I found a video showing how to reduce the pull force:
But I recommend to stay away from modifying the brakes, I don’t know how safe this would be, and it voids the warranty. I think it’s pointless to do it.
Cons:
can’t remove brake pads from the top or without removing the wheel.
The barrel adjuster snapped on one of the brakes, I touched accidentally hit my hand on the barrel adjuster and it just snapped off, none of the other snapped off yet. Good, I had spares brakes. but the barrel adjuster is clearly weak, it was quite soft, A crash could probably damage it snap it.
Play in the pads, there is enough room for the pads to move with the rotor shortly.
Video: https://youtu.be/HMzM9Iah9WM
The bolts have quite good tolerances at the head, tool fit tighter and with much less play than with shimano bolts. Butt eventually some of the bolts got rounded off slightly, but the tolerances are not perfect with some of the tools I used, which is important, I used fresh park tool Allen keys, which don’t have the highest tolerances, most tools have similar tolerances, if the fit was tighter it would wear slower, but this might also be a material issue, I don’t know which alloy is used for the bolts. the bolt was loosened and tightened over 20+ times over from the end of summer of 2017 to March 2018. but the tightest fit was with TengTools bits, it was great, minimal play, any tighter it would be too tight.
The barrel adjuster on the caliper is weak, can’t handle the rear suspension. I managed to damage another barrel adjuster, this ttime not by hitting it with my hand, but due to just the rear suspension damaging the threads, and bending the barrel adjuster where the threads are slightly.
The threads were damaged, they were bent, had bumps, and were not turning properly, so I had take one from another un-used rear derailleur . Once I hit my hand on another barrel adjuster which resulted in it snapping in half. So I am sure if you get a hard impact on the barrel adjuster then it could snap off. The bolt does not seem to handle the suspension movement that moves the housing rocking the barrel adjuster damaging it, at least that’s my theory.
I eventually got strong in my fingers, and the stiffer lever feel was not a problem, this is a good caliper with one major flaw, the barrel adjuster is weak, fix that and you got a the whole package.
You really have to look after these brakes, you have to check if the pad adjustment is too loose, and add Loctite 243(or similar) if it is, which is easy to do, and does not take long to do, I check every single week, for some this might be too much hassle, for me it’s not a deal breaker.
Original review with pictures: https://wp.me/p60aTF-2rV
