Interview: World Cup DH Brake Tech with SRAM

In part two of our World Cup tech interviews, we stopped by to chat with SRAM. If you have ever been to a World Cup before you will have seen the massive SRAM service truck in the pits helping keep UCI elite teams and privateers going throughout the race weekend.

I spoke to Evan Warner who was right in the middle of a Boxxer fork service (sorry about that Evan). Evan is the man to speak to when it comes to SRAM service at a World Cup. It was good to hear what he had to say about how they keep the world's fastest riders running at their best.

Have you seen any big changes the riders are making to their brakes here at Val Di Sole?

Yeah, we're just getting into elite practices, and we did the junior practice yesterday. Over the years, we typically expected Val Di Sole to be the most brake-intensive track of the series. So yeah, this track definitely stands out. Typically, it feels really hot here. That's one reason it's very steep and very fast. There's always dust everywhere too. It's kind of like a perfect trifecta storm of all the stuff brakes hate. So we usually come here and tend to find that all the downhill athletes are going up a rotor size. But generally, fresh pads and rotors for this round are pretty key.

Do you see a lot of brake pad compound changes too?

Not typically, although I shouldn't say typically as it changes from rider to rider. But I would just say we start fresh mostly. If we can start off the weekend on the good foot, like with fresh pads and rotor, we are in a good place.

Has this intensive block of racing changed the issues you're seeing?

Yeah, for sure. We have had an intensive block with 3 World Cup races close together and Crankworx in between. The people who didn't go to Crankworx may have gone to Schladming or Morzine, which are also tough on brakes. So we have done a lot of brake bleeds and just flushed some new fluid in there, starting fresh from there. It's a lot like what we do for suspension where we do a lower service and stuff at the beginning of the week. We tend to do the same here for brakes. We use new rotors and give a good flush of brake fluid. It's just as much as you can do to get your bike working well before you start practice. That's why we were very busy during track walk yesterday.

What's the most common kind of issue you see here at the World Cup?

It's a lot of simple stuff, like that guy who just came in. He changed pads but did not change his rotors, so he needs to go and do that too. It's all about getting to the fresh starting point like I said. I think a lot of times, we see some setup issues more from the privateer side. It's not on purpose, but maybe they didn't have the right bolts or the right adapter. Even just the most basic things like, I went from a 200 to a 220, I didn't have the right adapter. So I tried to bodge it with this 203 adapter, and now I'm not getting full contact. So even just the setup stuff, I mean, obviously not with the pro elite teams, but in terms of a privateer aspect, just the basic setup of like, oh, I had this 203 rotor, I'm trying to use it on a 200 post mount. Stuff like that, we're like, well, that's not gonna work. Ideally, having spare parts and the necessary parts to start fresh, as we were saying, is key. Because it's the one thing that as a rider, as an athlete, pro team or privateer, you can't control your bike, you can't control the weather, you can't control the track, but you can at least show up with your bike working right. I think the key here is just starting off really good and fresh.

What do you think is the key to getting brakes perfect for World Cup racing?

For me, it's knowing your setup, having spent time playing with the reach, playing with the pad contact, even trying pads that you may not like, such as organic versus metallic pads. Understanding the power differences between the 203 rotor and 220 rotor, having all that figured out before you show up here. Because, again, we don't think of brakes as suspension that you can tweak and change, but you can. It's good to know what a 200mm front rotor and 220mm front rotor feel like or what an organic set of pads does and what a metallic set of pads does. Do your homework and know the pros and cons.

What's your advice to your average rider who wants to set their brakes up better?

I think for me, typically, it's just general maintenance. Brakes aren't necessarily something that you can set and forget forever. I think regularly bleeding brakes helps so much as well, especially at this level. I'm not trying to say overdo it, but definitely don't let your pads wear down too much. Like the poor little guy who just came in. His rotor was just glazed over because his pads were worn. It's just paying attention to things like that, that helps keep contamination at bay. Also, be conscious that you don't want to spray a lot of stuff when you wash the bike. That's a big one. I make that mistake, but it's something to be even more conscious of at this level. You don't have a lot of practice time, so you have to maximize it. You're not going to do yourself a favor if you contaminate your brakes by not cleaning them right and cost yourself track time. So, just think of the brakes a bit like suspension at home, where it needs some maintenance and attention to detail.


After seeing the guys at SRAM, I headed round to the Trek pits and had a chat with Reece Wilson about his brake set up.

So Reece, do have any kind of must haves when it comes to your brake set up?

I am fairly particular with brakes set-up but mostly I would say how in board I run the lever, so the actual lever and blade. If you look at the front of the bike, its close to grip and into the stem than most people. I never really thought about it being for leverage but I guess that's one of the benefits of having it there. You get a little bit more leverage on the end of the lever as well as not having to squeeze as hard I guess is that is outcome of that. I think I do just because I've got really big hands though for being a reasonably small guy and I think that I just like them having my fingers turned inwards a little bit and it just feels nice on my wrists and elbows. So yeah, that's the one thing that I'm super tight on.

Do you have a big pull on your brake lever?

I have a very short pull. Yeah, again I don't know. That's not something I really thought about in order to have the setup but now that I've had the set up since the start of me riding mountain bikes, I guess the way I look at it now is the closer your hands are to being a full fist, the stronger you are. You know, so I like to run the levers pretty close to the grip. The downside to that can be if your brakes fade, then you don't have any room, so I guess it's a bit of a high risk set up but luckily for us having mechanics to work on the bike every single run, it's not too risky. Also these new brakes with thicker rotors, actually SRAM brought us a new two millimetre thick rotor now, and that just disperses a lot more heat and gives you a lot more consistency with the brake feel and it doesn't fade as much, so that has meant my brake setup is working pretty well now.

What diameter rotor size are you running?

I'm running 220mm rotors right now. As soon as the 220mm rotors came out I wanted them, as they help keep the least amount of heat you can have in the rotor as possible.

If there's one piece of advice you would give to people about dealing with their brakes, what would it be?

For me it's getting the pad as close to the disc as humanly possible, so that you allow yourself as much wear without the lever changing too much. So if you have a lot of, what I guess some people call it a free float, cutting that down and having the lever as sharp as possible so the bite is almost instantaneous and that gives the brake just a really solid feel. So that's one thing to amateurs I would say try and get that pad as close to the disc as you can get it without it rubbing and you're going to get a much more solid brake feel. Some people will go against that. I think there's tests being done now with the brake sensors being brought out, it says that people drag the brake but I think there's a difference between that sense of being engaged because the levers move, then you actually applying forces. Us athletes are pretty good at braking and you kind of know when you're braking even if it's a fine drag you probably want to.

Here is probably the most challenging place all year on brakes traditionally, do you do anything different for here brake wise?

Not really no, like I said our brakes are pretty solid now. It's been a long time since we've had a complaint about a brake at a race. So no I don't do anything I set and forget with the brakes levers staying where they are. I'll click them here and there and maybe move them up and down on the bar ever so slightly depending if we are fitting new bars and maybe just a little bar roll here or there, I’m not overly particular with that I will sit and faff with it, but now they're solid.

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In part 3 of our dive into brake tech at the DH World Cup, we will speak to the guys at TRP about their brakes.

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