superslomo

+1 more gazillion

umd

per wheel...

briscoelab

The fact is, Zero Gravity brakes work just fine if you take the time to set them up correctly. They have more than enough stopping power and good modulation. They also are one of the places on your bike where you can save a good chunk of weight for not a ton of cash. (considering how much a set of Record or Dura Ace brakes retail for)

However, if you are sloppy with your installing, these brakes aren't for you. Cable length and torque on the mounting bolts are critical, as well as setting the pads up the correct distance from the rim. Screw these up and you won't be satisfied.

jrennie

Sorry that wasn't very clear
TRP 920(also sold as the new cane creek) 130g/caliper
KCNC 160g/set

chzman

How much stopping power does a person need??

Pretty much any brake system will lock a wheel up at some point during the pull, and because of the small surface area that actually contacts the pavement on a road bike, you are at the mercy of the tires (and your balance) stopping you in a hairy situation.

JeffS

About as entertaining as your implication that running ZG over DA is going to result in road rash...

Smorgasbord42

Here's a sales blurb on the Neg-g's from Competetive Cyclist. One snippet:
First, it's interesting to note that they say Neg-g arms "flex much, much less" than the Zero-g arms. I might speculate that the arm flexing of Zero-g is part of the bad reviews. My own experience with 2006 105 and Ultegra brakes is that the 105's felt better and stronger. The LBS mechanic said that's because Shimano went a bit overboard trying to save weight on the Ultegras and machined away a little too much material, so they flexed more (supposedly fixed for 2007).

Also contributing to the reviews could be the variable leverage, which makes setting up these brakes somewhat trickier - if the pads are too close you'll not get to the full mechanical advantage, and if set too far you'll get to it too soon. A constanst mechanical advantage brake won't have this issue.

Finally, I found it kind of amusing that CC touts Zero-g's lack of forging as an advantage. I guess they have a point, but I've always heard that forging produces lighter and strong parts, at a higher cost.

Super Guanche

I see you started a thread about this over at Weight Weenies as well.

agilis

Yeah I wanted to see what the weenies would think as well as the crew at BF. Since zero's are a weight weenie component... thought it would be interesting to get from both sides.

rmfnla

At 3X the price "just as good" ain't good enough, at least IMHO.

rockabilly808

dura ace breaks are superb why change em out with something new and more or less unproven

umd

Just as good, but half the weight... welcome to weight weenie-ism

New? Unproven? I've had mine for over two years. Like them or hate them, I think they are quite a known quantity at this point.

Strong Bad

I was responding to the DA folks.
The TRPs perform with the best dual pivots, and can be found for $140 or less.

miket

I stopped reading the reviews once they were on my bike. I did over 20 races on them last year with no problems. Set them to the right torque, use a spanner to center them, and that's it. They're light, look way better than DA, and they work like brakes should.

I'm getting Negative G's for my other bike so I try both out.

patentcad

I have raced often in Brooklyn. Stopping is never necessary there, only crashing. The Zero Gs work great for that. I descend screaming Hudson Valley hills where deer can pop out at any moment. Stopping is more crucial here, hence my insistence on Dura Ace.

Surferbruce

herein lies the real silliness of it all...

chzman

Have you ever had to stop in an instant because of a deer or other furry animal?

This isn't about stopping a four wheeled race car, where you do not have to worry about laying down the vehicle if the wheels lock up, where you do not have to worry about flipping over the bars on a steep decent... is it that much more difficult to pull, say one to two more centimeters, to get the same or greater mechanical advantage?? I think actually screaming on the decent would be better insurance against hitting those pesky deer.

All that said, DA calipers are better. Zero-G's are nice, but next time, I will shave grams on the frame, fork, or wheels first.

lotek 

If I want better looking brakes I'll dig out my old Campy Deltas.

JeffS

I'm surprised that cyclists buy in so fully to the idea that calipers control braking distance.

Friction areas stop the bike... Asphault against tires, pads against rims. So the brake caliper flexes... squeeze a little harder. Given the same friction components, stopping distance is going to be virtually identical between Sora and Dura Ace.

Yes, there are "feel" issues, but this is not an issue in the emergency stop situation being described. If people were that concerned with stopping distance, we would hear more (any) discussion of tire braking performance, coefficient of friction numbers for brake pads, etc.

markyore

Interesting discussion, I currently use DA calipers and find them to be really excellent, best I've ever tried. Recently I bought some ZGs on e-bay. I haven't put them on the bike yet but when I do I willl be intersted to see how they perform. From what I hear pad choice is critical so I'll put my Kool-stop salmon on the ZG brakes for fair comparison.

Still, I think I'will hold onto the DA for the time being just in case I got a good deal on the ZG so I will be able to sell them on without losing money.

ProFail

You guy's suck. All of you.

Disc brakes a man's brake, no matter how much more they weigh.

Mellowman

you need to check your weights again. This time add pads, you'll need them. More like +2/3's the weight, even less difference compared to Record.

Don't forget ZG, and NG's can't handle wider tires or rims. May not matter to you but it does to a lot of people.

in the end, it's a fad (i.e. single pivot fronts in different designs to save weight at the cost of performance) that even a lot of the OG WW are done with.

umd

Look, the debate about how good they are, how they compare to dura-ace, etc. has been going on forever. We will never agree. It is like Shimano vs. Campy, Mac vs. PC, Canon vs. Nikon. My point is, that the topic of this post is silly--honeymoon over? what honeymoon? It's been like this from the moment they came out! Can you only imagie the endless debates we would have gotten into had they actually released their cranks!

miket

Actually, I've never crashed at Prospect... or Floyd Bennet... or Central Park.

In fact, I've never crashed due to inadequacy of my Zero Gravity brakes, only because of the ignorance of stupid drivers. There is not a brake manufacturer in the world who could have saved me from those crashes.

I have both ZG and DA brakes on different bikes, and I think they work equally well.

Dubbayoo

yes, it is old news. Why link to a review over 2 years old? Here Pez reviews the Negative G, which is an improved Zero G. He calls the Negative G braking equal to D-A, which means he agrees the Zero G was worse than D-A.

I can't tell why these links have different dates; looks the same.

https://www.pezcyclingnews.com/defaul...lstory&id=5175

https://www.pezcyclingnews.com/defaul...lstory&id=5177