Brakes for Zipp 404's?

[uber]

New bike being built, and will be using the 404's. I will be using Sram Red gruppo, but have enjoyed Zero Gravity brakes on other bikes. Saving weight would be good, but not at the expense of stopping power. What would be the best choice for these wheels between Red, ZG's, TRP's or any other brakes? Thanks.

[EDS]

I think the brake pads you choose will have more of an impact than which brand of brakes you use, particularly at the price point you are considering.

[firerescuefin]

I think the brake pads you choose will have more of an impact than which brand of brakes you use, particularly at the price point you are considering.

EDS is spot on. Your Zero G's are very capable brakes for any application. I ran the SwissStop Yellows for a long time....and the nice thing with those is that they work with aluminum as well as carbon wheels, so there is no need to switch out pads if you throw your training wheels on (do make sure the pads are free of debris though). Pez mentioned that he thought the new Reynolds blue pads were the best carbon specific pads...and I just put some on and they work great.

[Charles M]

I wouldn't use the same pads on carb and alu... Even if the stopping were ok, the pads pick up metal and will harm your rims.


Are we talking 2011 zipp 404 firecrest or an older model?

The rims for fire crest are Very wide and will require the low profile pad holders from ciamillo. That said, the negative g brakes are better in every way performance wise to zero g.

tRP will have no issues and will adjust wide enough.

Red work fine.

Ee brakes are the best aftermarket brake available when you take weight and performance into account. And they will adjust properly.

Far and near are a good new option and work with firecrest...

And the only pads I use now for carbon are the cork/fiber/rubber mixed pads like the zipp tangente, Reynolds barradine , bontrager, they are better than swisstop yellow in most all performance aspects. Swisstop would be a 4th choice but not a bad one.

[Z3c]

I too think that pads will offer a more notable difference than brakes themselves. After using a few brake pads on carbon rims over the years I recently ended up on Bontrager cork pads and have been very impressed with how well they work. No more ugly yellow pads for me. In the last year or so, Enve has also introduced a new pad that works well.

[norcalbiker]

I think the brake pads you choose will have more of an impact than which brand of brakes you use, particularly at the price point you are considering.

+1

[garth]

Saving weight would be good, but not at the expense of stopping power.
Of your choices, I'd skip on the Ciamillos and get either the Red (black edition) calipers or if you want to spend $$$ get the TRP 970SL/eebrakes. I've tried numerous lightweight calipers and while they all stop the bike, the more robust calipers do it faster.

I saw a video of a test that Shimano did showing in slow motion how the various lightweight calipers would flex under the load of braking. I'll try and find it and post it up here.

[Charles M]

pads make a dif, but there is absolutely notable differences in modulation between different brakes...

The Negative GSL are a far stiffer set up than standard Zero G. The EE and TRP and Gravitas and Far and near all put more power to the wheel for a given effort and earlier in the sqeeze than Zero G or KCNC cb1.

Some folks actually like lower power transfer and the requirement to squeeze harder before wheel lock up though, so it's really a bit of a personal pref thing.

[oldpotatoe]

New bike being built, and will be using the 404's. I will be using Sram Red gruppo, but have enjoyed Zero Gravity brakes on other bikes. Saving weight would be good, but not at the expense of stopping power. What would be the best choice for these wheels between Red, ZG's, TRP's or any other brakes? Thanks.

DA, 6700..if you want good braking. Red, Force...

[jgspin]

I have the KCNC cb1 for a whole 2 weeks now. Although both calipers combined weigh less than the front or rear Ultegra calipers they replaced I'm braking a little sooner just to make sure I don't need to brake so hard later, cause when I do, I see the arms flexing. I'm just using the included pads so I haven't tried any of the other pads to see if they will stop better/faster.

[jonnyBgood]

I just built a new Orbea Orca Gold and have the Zero Gravity Negative G brakes. I got the new cam for the Negative G's when using the 7900 levers and the brakes work FAR better than when using them with the old cam and 7800 levers. Not sure how they feel with the Sram levers though.

I use Bontrager pads for my Shimano Dura-Ace 7850 carbon tubulars and the stopping power is pretty damn good. I have used the SwissStop pads as well but I think the Bontrager pads work a little better.

[uber]

I will be using the new Firecrest 404's, and it is either stick with the new Sram Red Black or upgrade to a set of aftermarket brakes.

[Charles M]

It depends on what you call an upgrade. You'll want ciamillo low profile pad holders if you have the firecrest 404 and zero g.

[jonnyBgood]

I Demoed a set of the 404 Firecrest recently and had no issues with the Zero Gravity Negative G brakes BUT I am using the low profile brake pad holders.

[jonnyBgood]

It depends on what you call an upgrade. You'll want ciamillo low profile pad holders if you have the firecrest 404 and zero g.

You beat me to it. :D