RoadCycling.com - Cycling info as it should be

| news and results | video | product reviews and tech | interviews | training diary | training and health | forums | cycling search | | Roadcycling.com gear | link to us | about Roadcycling.com | VeloEmail.com | Roadcycling.mobi Roadcycling.mobi - Road cycling when you're on the move. Log on with your mobile phone |

RoadCycling.com Bike Shop

Shop > Bike > Brakes And Brake Kits > Road Bike Brakes >

 

Shimano Dura Ace BR-7900 Road Bike Brake

Our Price: $199.99
Buy Now

Review this product
 

We've been accused of over-interpreting things in the past, and maybe that's exactly what we're doing here. Bear with us, please, and allow us to start with a question: Has anyone here ever had a headache of note with a set of Dura-Ace brakes, regardless of the generation Sure, we remember the 7700-series brakes that came with terrible pads back in the Michele Bartoli-era and we all upgraded to salmon-colored Kool Stop pads to achieve better stopping power. But except for that one now-forgotten incident, would we all agree that Dura-Ace brakes are pretty much phenomenal In our minds, this isn't controversial stuff.What's interesting, then, is the fact that the folks over at Ciamillo Components who manufacture the ultra-lightweight Zero Gravity brake calipers seem to have a bit of a bullseye on Dura-Ace. Visit their site here and find the page titled "Powercam". On this page they make an argument that Zero Gravity brakes are superior because as you pull more brake cable they provide intensified braking power. By virtue of this argument, they suggest that Dura-Ace brakes are inferior because they provide equal braking power no matter how much cable you're pulling.We're not engineers. We're bike racers. So the first time we read this page we asked ourselves whether predictability is a good thing. When we're buzzing down the road at 30mph in the middle of a 60-man field, fighting for wheels, tapping our brakes -- is this a circumstance where we're aware on a moment-to-moment basis of what Zero Gravity calls "% of pull/arm travel" Maybe we should be, but we're not. Our experience is this: Whether we're touching the brakes or grabbing them, we want to know how much stopping power to anticipate. We don't have time for slide rules and quadratic equations, and we certainly can't define at any given moment whether we're at 20% or 60% of our allowable lever pull. Without this info, Zero Gravity suggests, we can't properly anticipate how much stopping power we'll experience.

Thank you for supporting Roadcycling.com!

Bike
Climb
Hiking & Camping Gear
Kids'
Men's Clothing
Shoes
Ski
Snowboard
Surf
Trail Run
Travel
Women's Clothing

RoadCycling.com Training Diary and Training Plans
Username
Password

| news and results | video | product reviews and tech | interviews | training and health | training diary | forums | cycling search | | Roadcycling.com gear | link to us | about RoadCycling.com | VeloEmail.com | Roadcycling.mobi Roadcycling.mobi - Road cycling when you're on the move. Log on with your mobile phone |

RoadCycling.com - Road cycling magazine presenting cycling news and cycling info as it should be
- in partnership with NBC Sports, msnbc.com and msn
Roadcycling.com is committed to doing our part to protect the environment. Roadcycling.com is hosted and produced on carbon neutral facilities.

Copyright 2011 Roadcycling.com - a part of Seven Sparkles International.
All rights reserved. Roadcycling.com is a trademark of Seven Sparkles International.
Contact us | Advertising info | Privacy policy