TRANSFORMERS – HAYES LAUNCH NEW PRIME BRAKE

So Hayes first launched the Prime brake almost a year ago with a dedicated microsite and even an active Facebook site to boot, so where has the brake been? Well production delays in Taiwan have delayed the actual release of the brake but with Hayes now embarking on their ‘Haseing’ marketing campaign the brake is now out there. We’ve just received some of the first test sets off the production line and boy do they look sweet. Hayes brakes were once the top of the pile and the go-to brake in the early days of bicycle discs but the El Camino pretty much killed it for Hayes and their reputation. The massively under-hyped Stroker has done a pretty good job earning some cred back and early indications are that the Prime is going to finish the job and get Hayes back in the game. So the Prime sports a bunch of new features for Hayes, like top loading pads, a sweet looking two piece rotor, a nice little anti scuff/rub doohickey on the cable and the biggest is the Poppet cam (see the red circle). The Poppet cam is essentially a pad contact adjustment/dead stroke adjustment. Either way it’s pretty tech. The Hayes Prime micro site has some funky videos and in depth descriptions on how the whole Poppet system works but essentially it changes the amount of dead stroke by rotating it 180 degrees, and unlike other brakes you can adjust it on the fly (with your thumb). Combining the Poppet Cam with Hayes’ new Top Hat reach adjuster makes the Primes a pretty dam customisable brake.

Like its predecessor the Prime is complete with a two piece clamp but features a new lever design optimised to place zero loading on the lightweight titanium push rod.

The two piece rotor, familiar to Hope and Shimano users (and a few SRAM ones) provides better heat dissipation and reduces noise (plus it looks sweet).

We’ll be adding these brakes to the Butcher long term test bike so I’m sure Leif will post his first impressions once he has had a bit of time on them…