Hayes introduces the new Prime disc brake!

Feb 8, 2010
by Mike Levy  
Source: Hayes Brakes

Hayes releases new Prime disc brake! Details and specs inside.

Read on...It’s here. And it’s the first of its kind. PRIME hydraulic disc brakes feature industry-first technologies and offer more power, new components and a better ride. PRIME’s tool-free reach and contact adjustment, improved braking torque and feel and outstanding ergonomics are just a few of its many attributes. Plus, its ground-breaking, high-flow reservoir venting system has never been seen before. PRIME disc brakes are available in Pro and Expert configurations. If you thought Stroker was cool, you’re not gonna believe this.

Available Rotor Sizes: 140, 160, 180, 203, 224 (mm)

photo
Hayes Prime lever and caliper

• Improved Reach Adjust

Tool-free design that is independent of the contact adjustment. This feature has improved durability and aesthetics over the existing Stroker design. Additionally, mechanical advantage is fixed regardless of lever home position. This means you get the same power and feel with the lever set close to the grip as you do with it set further away.

• Mechanical Leverage Ratio

Increased throughout the entire lever stroke, resulting in a high power level later in the stroke. This promotes progressive braking that is more predictable (modulation).

• Hydraulic Power Ratio

20% increase in hydraulic ratio over the Stroker Trail. Higher clamp force on the rotor is reached with the same given input at the lever blade.

photo
Hayes Prime floating rotor

• A new four layer low expansion hose tuned for the Prime’s high mechanical and hydraulic ratios.
• New low noise and high Mu two-piece rotor. At 110 grams for the 6” version, it is also lighter.
• Nickel plated, titanium and anodized aluminum fasteners resist corrosion and maintain the high-end finish.
• New press fit Titacon CL 500 bushings are used in the master cylinder body.
• A new two-piece design that allows the master cylinder to be removed without affecting other handlebar components.

photo

Price: TBA

Visit the Hayes Prime site for more details!

Posted In:
Press Releases Brakes


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139 Comments
  • 15 2
 i ride trials
can you please make a brake thats in the "too grabby" area please and thanks.
  • 2 11
flag leocoylesmith (Feb 8, 2010 at 16:03) (Below Threshold)
 stroker trails? i find them 'too grabby' on my AM bike. It provides a strong instant force
  • 2 1
 saint 4 piston.
  • 2 1
 its more because the lever has so travel in it, its basicly on off
  • 4 0
 sticcck, they did, there called hayes 9
  • 1 0
 my stroker trails are grabby i ride dh oh them wnd they are fine i also use them for dirtjumps
  • 2 0
 if you ride trials why dont you use magura hs33?
  • 1 0
 ya true that
  • 1 0
 Haha exactly what i was thinking....

two options, period.

Hope Mono Trial OR Avid BB7 ( preferably old style )

Haven't seen anything else in my travels that can cope with how hard we push our brakes...

and to chris; maybe he wants some modulation / non squeaky brake / decent wet weather performance?
  • 16 5
 with hayes reputation so low this had better be good
  • 16 4
 ive had 4 diff sets of hayes over the years and theyve been less problematic than the numerous avids, and even unreliable hope's ive had.
admittedly the sole's werent so great, but at least they didnt need bleeding ever other ride or pads fell out or cost a f**king fortune to be very little better.
  • 2 1
 Out of curiosity did any of those Hayes sets of brakes happen to be Hayes nines?
  • 11 2
 My Carbon Nines have been going strong for three years. I've been waiting for them to die so I can get me some Formulas but the nines just won't die. They still brake like the day they went on - one bleed so far. Nothing comes off my bike until it fails - being superceded is not an excuse. Trying to consume less.
  • 5 0
 HFX-9s are, and will continue to be [because they won't bloody die], a great brake. Once you're used to the lack of modulation (frankly, I like the way it feels), they just get on with the job. The strokers, well, I haven't had much experience of them, except they seem a little fragile on the levers. Let's hope the primes redeem the lever style.
  • 5 3
 i like my stroker trails and the levers are actually quite strong to be honest and the stopping power is great
  • 4 5
 definately HFX-9s will never die coz they never do! but i have been using El Camino's on my DH bike for 3 years and there amazing never everrr let me down.. and have never needed bleeding
  • 5 4
 you are the ONLY guy in the world who would say that! el camino's failed on everyone i know, in every situation ever i'm happy for your fantastic good luck!
  • 3 1
 Well that's the problem. Hayes put out the HFX-9's and it was the best brake they ever made, not necessarily the most tech or the most expensive but they worked and were reliable. But Hayes cant compete with companies like Avid when it comes to a high-end brake for the money. They should stick to mainstream and provide reliable cheap brakes on stock bikes.
  • 3 9
flag chris (Feb 8, 2010 at 20:11) (Below Threshold)
 hfx9 is one of their worst. the best brake they made.. i would have to say hayes purple, or hayes mags
  • 2 0
 yep.. i got a set of mags.. were on the demo 8 when i bought it ..4 years ago.. went on my street bike after getting mono6 for the demo..
now the mags are ont the trek.. still performing great.. only changed pads once.. and the rear needs bleeding .. for the rest great brake.. modulation works fine for me to .. riding endo's ..what is differetn to do for/with every brake,.. with the mags.. its damm easy Razz
  • 2 0
 HFX9 worked and worked and worked and worked and are still working. cheap, slightly heavy, but for something that is nearly faultless i'm not going to grumble about a few grams
  • 2 0
 ^^^hfx nines r solid Smile had a pair since about 05/06 there still goin strong, been using stroker for 6month apart from the rear been damaged from day 1 (bent piston in caliper) shop replaced it they still goin strong no more problems imo powerfull and good modulation, also had sole although a budget brake no problems
  • 1 0
 i dont really understand how this dual piston can be more powerful than a stroker ace quad piston,sice the lever design is pretty much allmost the same Confused
  • 7 1
 so what happens the first time these hit the ground? Broken plunger, "tool free" adjuster breaks in half, lever blade rips off spewing fluid all over my bike?????? no thanks.
  • 8 1
 What is under the blurred out part of the picture?
  • 1 2
 I was wondering the same thing...
  • 30 0
 someone obviously drew a massive cock on them in the factory for a laugh. Wink
  • 2 0
 well... theoretically speaking, blurring out the "new Technology" I would guess
  • 1 0
 Suck's.. I wont to see
  • 3 0
 I'm riding the Stroker Aces and really like them. If the Prime is an improvement on that, they're doing well. The only thing the Aces are missing is the contact adjustment and it looks like they've picked that up on the Prime.
  • 1 0
 Looks great. Will be worth a go once it's been out a while. Not been a fan of Hayes so far as I've seen too many with problems, like leaky master & caliper seals, pad retaining pins breaking (good to see a different system on these)
These look a bit more hopeful though.
  • 2 0
 www.hayesdiscbrake.com/prime

in response to the blurred out part
if you look at the pics in the bottom right you can see a piece that looks like it adjusts the flow of fluid
  • 2 0
 THAT would be a worthy upgrade!
  • 2 0
 so they adjust throw kinda how the old Hope C2's did?
  • 1 0
 Although they look okay, how do they ride? We will see. They would have to be bloody good before these replace the Saint 8" levers and calipers on my rig.

The other issue is compatibility. Saint groupsets are designed to locate the brake levers in the correct spot, snuggled against the Saint shifters (if you like your set up that way). How will the Hayes Prime levers fit together with other groupsets?
  • 1 0
 I'm loving the shimano xt's
  • 1 0
 Hayes stroker's.....worst break I have ever used! I have used BB5's with better clamping force. They fade way to fast and require way to much to maintain, maybe I got a bad pair. bleeding, new pads, new lines...nothing helps them. I will stick with Avid/ Formula thanks.
  • 1 0
 amen.....
  • 1 0
 While I realize everyone above me has just trashed Hayes, I GOTTA do the same. Hayes, the nines you made were good, good enough, but after experiencing your latest trash lot, you can count on me NEVER buying anything you sell again. Harsh, but I dont support poor quality in an open market
  • 10 6
 god, with how much their other brakes suck, will this actually be a good hayes brake?
*shudders at the thought*
  • 3 4
 yeah! why that place is censored?
Hmmm....
  • 2 0
 wow, didn't expect that - the prime does look super sick! wonder how much they're gonna cost... does somebody have any info on when they'll be released or what's the price gonna be?
  • 1 0
 hayes 9's rule ....just bought some more, they are great brakes... my mates avids were rubbish in france, nothing but problems, my other mates old saints were not that powerful. i ran hope floating discs hayes 9s, hayes pads.. flawless braking with no fading.. got goodridge hoses this year as well...
  • 1 0
 this is interesting

because I heard Hayes were getting "out" of the brake market for good?


the Hayes MAG was "back in the day" a solid choice

but things progressed, with other manufacturers like Avid, Shimano, Hope and Formula stepping up their game, Hayes did not keep up

the HFX-9 worked - for a while - but generally developed long term problems with the caliper piston / seals, and the master cylinder in the lever (before you asked I have owned Hayes Mag and 4 sets of HFX-9s)

the El Camino was a TERRIBLE brake - no stopping power (especially in the wet!) and inherent problems with air leaks - I had the choice of El Camino or HFX-9 on a 2005 trip to canada, and chose the older HFX-9 as I knew they would stop me for the duration of my vacation

Strokers? Not bad, but many riders in the UK reporting long term reliability problems, vulnerability to brake lever crash damage, and lack of stopping power


Hayes? like Manitou in the UK? a big FAIL...no one cares any more


floating rotors? if you ask Hope about their floating rotors (and 6-pot brake calipers), they made them because of "demand" i.e. hype

if you ride a Ducati or Kawasaki road racer (motorbike) reaching 160mph then sure, floating rotors make real sense (as do 6-pot calipers)


but on a 45lb mountain bike? makes no sense at all, not needed...just hype
  • 1 0
 have to say K24's are a little better than the nine's I have but the K24's take two days to bleed and have to be done every third month. as said the nine just go on and on. If the reviews are as good as the chat by hayes then I think these could be the the ones.
  • 4 0
 Hayes brakes have always been good for me...these look nice.
  • 3 1
 not gonna jusdge em based on the strokers but i cant help but be a just a little skepticle on the design. probably gonna stick to my saints
  • 1 1
 i would stick with the saints easily
  • 4 1
 It would be great if it said "Magura" under the blurr. Wink
  • 1 1
 That would explain a lot.
  • 2 1
 i personally liked the strokers, and it looks like these will be a step up. Hayes has really been upping their game lately. just not a fan of those rotors though
  • 1 0
 Not a fan of the rotors? Why? They look great. Tons of venting. Aluminum carrier to reduce weight and increase stiffness. What's not to like?
  • 1 1
 they just look weird. plus they only come on the top-end model
  • 1 2
 yeah another Hayes brake that sucks to bleed, has poor modulation and adjustments that don't quite work.

Gimme Avid, HOPE or Shimano at this point please, Hayes you have had far too many years of terrible "innovative" designs.
  • 1 2
 oh wait I am sorry I forgot to mention the terrible quality of Hayes rotors as well. One thing I can say good, is that they are running a 224mm rotor, something that HOPE made possible for Fox 40 owners years ago.
  • 6 0
 yeah, and you've already tried the new prime, right?
cut the crap - still a new model, still untested. when the tests are over, you can talk bullshit again.
and the 224mm rotor - makes me wonder: if shimano doesn't offer more than 8' rotor, are they idiots and out of the league?
my personal opinion - hayes/answer/manitou are greatly underestimated. i had a hayes mag - nothing major, but it was still alive after several years of massive extreme DH bombing by the previous owner. now it's still being ridden by a friend of mine. tried a manitou travis - compared to it, boxxer 2009 bites the dust. soon gonna get me some new handlebars - probably's gonna be the new answer 780 DH. and after the handlebar - new brakes - options are saint/the one/stroker ace. now the PRIME is a choice as well.
my suggestion to you - be more open minded and try stuff.
  • 1 0
 Dude, hayes suck to bleed? What planet are you on. My nines take about a min to do, unlike the avid stuff that you have take 10 min to get all the bubbles out.
  • 1 0
 hitarpotar- Nope, going off of past experiences with the camino and hfx lines. I have installed hundreds of brakes, and used more brakes than I am sure you have ever heard of. It is ok though. I understand how it could be hard for you opinion to be almost rendered meaningless. Manitou forks suck, the dampening is terrible, and the majority of them don't function out of the box case in point when the Nixon came out a couple years back, we got 10 in out of those ten brand new forks, only one worked properly. BTW the Boxxer 2009 did kinda suck, the totem was good, the 40 rc2 was better. ETC. If you do end up getting a Travis make sure you stock up on parts and seals Wink And the 224 kinda pointless for a 4 piston brake (ie Saint), especially the newer version, however for the primes it makes sense. BTW I am not hating on Hayes for no reason like many of the 15yr olds on here do, I am going based on customer experience (mine, and customers of mine) over the last 10 years ( I have been in the bike industry since age 15)

Knife- you must be doing something terribly wrong that it takes you that long for the Avids...jk I believe that there should be no disc bleed that takes under ten minutes, chances are pretty good that you have some bubble still in you lines. Do you bleed cylinder to lever then lever to cylinder? WHile tapping the lines upward and downward to make sure that any and all bubbles that are hung up in the lines make their way out? Didn't think so.
  • 1 0
 sorry, probably you're right about trying far more brakes than me. i personally am running an elixir R and a juicy 5 and i find them almost perfect - absolutely no problems what so ever, no need to bleed them despite 1,5 years of use already, great stopping power as i'm heavy - i did burn them down 2-3 times on DH courses, but i'm pretty much happy with them. what i meant is - old hayes brakes were total crap according to many people. the stroker lines are a huge improvement when you check how much more people like them compared to the old ones. that's my logic - the next step is the prime - probably's gonna be even better.
about the manitou - yep, heard that before as well - older models are crap. but not the travis 2008 - i ended up with a SINGLE one. i haven't been able to get it out for a ride yet as weather here is awful and we have a lil more than half a meter of snow. but i've tried a friend's travis triple and another friend's travis single (like mine) - they do their job flawlessly, absolutely no problems till now, after more than half a year of riding. i've compared them to friends' forks as well - boxxer team 2007, boxxer team 2009, boxxer WC 2009, domain 318 2008 (used to be mine), Mz 66 RC2x 2007, Mz 66 RC2 ETA - the travis beats them all in terms of doing its job.
the 224 - well, if saint with 203mm rotor has the same stopping power as the prime with 224mm, may be i'd choose the prime - a bigger rotor is always more beautiful. but, gotta admit, saint is saint - pure sex. Big Grin
what i was saying is - just stay open minded. the same way a company can f*ck up its products, the same way it can correct them or improve them to be even better. (beer)
  • 1 0
 Gotcha, I played around with Cedric Gracia's Manitou Dorado, with the TPC, and custom one off dampening a couple of years ago. That felt amazing, he had a shim stack in it, and some other mods (drilled out compression holes) The bigger rotor does look great, I had it on a 40 a couple of years back with hope M6 pots. I miss that setup. We could throw Magura into the mix, but the Marta SLs are even worse than any hayes, put it this way we went through around 6 sets per bike to get a set to work properly (up to our standards)
  • 1 0
 :0 Smile Smile Smile Smile Smile Smile
  • 1 1
 Looks like a higher developed Stroker. Hayes really have to come out with something good to come back in the competition. Currently Avid, Formula & maybe even Hope, are further in the lead.
  • 1 0
 It looks like a response of hayes to the avid´s elixirs. I would like avid introducing a floating rotor, i never try one but i really like how it looks! AVID POWER !
  • 1 0
 there is an avid G3 floating rotor already. but it doesn't have a 203mm version... yet i hope.
  • 1 0
 Will it be possible to set it up so that the pads don't rub on the rotor for a whole wheel rotation??? And before anyone mentions Avid's CPS thing... it's crap.
  • 1 0
 yep, anyone with technical knowledge on the subject knows that you are right ^^^, bike companies come out with new "cool" and completely useless shit that is a huge gimmick
  • 1 0
 I'll pass! Hayes isn't terrible, but i am looking else where for myy next brakeset.
  • 1 0
 There is always "hope" for better brakes , no hayes for me....the nines where ok , the rest.....
  • 3 1
 Looks really smart, wonder how expensive it will be mind
  • 1 0
 $180 USD for the Expert, $210 USD for the Pro
  • 2 0
 i love my strokers looking forward to reading some reviews on these!
  • 1 0
 I like the look of those rotors!! If Hayes wanted to let me test their brakes i would in a heartbeat!!
  • 3 0
 224mm rotor? 'the f*ck?
  • 3 0
 you can stop a car with that
  • 1 0
 Yea seems slightly excessive. Ohwell could be cool...
  • 3 3
 All Hayes brakes suck. Once you go hope, you don't look back.

Any time a brake had problems at the shop, 9/10 it was a Hayes.
  • 2 2
 I think you mean "9/10 it was a Magura." Older Hayes brakes were actually made quite well, but once the Hayes/Answer merger happened, all their brakes went to shit.
  • 2 2
 this better be good. or hayes is done for
they do sound good though.
but they haven't mentioned how it matches up with shifters. thats important
what do you think seraph?
  • 1 1
 Hmmm... not too sure about Hayes these days. Be interested to see how these are though. They look nice. Doubt if they'ed be as good as my Elixirs though.
  • 2 0
 i think this brake actually has hope Smile
  • 2 0
 exactly buy some HOPEs.... Smile
  • 1 0
 was waiting for somebody to say that
  • 1 0
 why did i just buy the ones.
  • 1 0
 I think you just bought The Ones because they are not even in the same league as these new Hayes 'Pinto-pimped-up-to-look-like-a-Cadillac'!
  • 1 0
 Avid sux, Hayes Rocks. My Ace's rule over codes any day. -R
  • 3 3
 Check the site, it 'hints' at it. Just looks like a poncy stroker. Mine were crap. Not a fan of the looks at all.
  • 1 0
 sorry, seems like little improvement not worth upgrading
  • 2 2
 Agreed, thinkin that nothing hayes will make can ever surpass shimanos or avids
  • 1 0
 Meh, no so much that but that avid to me will always be on the "too grabby" side shimano in the middle and I like where hayse sits as the softer one. It seems that (according to their graph) all they really did was give it more power and the other new things don't seem that important...now they've only left me wondering what's under that blur.....
  • 1 3
 i like avid and hayze for dirt jumping but for dh i would only use saints
  • 2 0
 Only saints for DH? yea there a good brake, but you could easily be fine with an elixar or formula. even i think XT's
  • 2 0
 oh ya but im not crazy for elixers maybe it wa because the one i tried needed to be bled or what not but i have just had the best sxperiences with saints i hate codes and i havent gotten the chance to try formulas
  • 1 0
 yeah... but how does it compare to the stroker ace??!!!!
  • 2 1
 cool more crap ready to be discontinued in under a year!Smile Smile
  • 1 0
 looks so sick
  • 2 2
 let's hope they are better than the stroker's
  • 1 1
 look like a shimano brake with the reservoir turned sideways
  • 1 1
 I hate Hayes. The stroker is powerfull but u have to reach soo far.
  • 1 1
 jó kis brake...
  • 2 2
 i want one!!!!!!!
  • 10 12
 another flexy lever'd underpowered pos from Hayes?
  • 5 2
 and what do you ride?
  • 4 1
 Hayes, so speaking from first hand experience here
  • 2 4
 price ?
  • 3 0
 from hayes prime's facebook group:
The Pro will hit the shops with an aggressive MSRP of $209 USD. The Expert will have all the same tuning features and guts, minus the titanium bits, graphics and two piece rotor, at $179 USD.
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