Trickstuff Offer (Ever So Slightly Less Expensive) Blacked Out 'Stealth' Brakes
The Stealth brakes have come about because Trickstuff were being confronted by a familiar problem in manufacturing - what to do with technically perfect parts that have cosmetic flaws? A brake with less than perfect anodization will still work flawlessly. The demand on resources, both in terms of time and materials to make the brake, is the same whether the finished product is perfect or not.
However, Trickstuff wants to always deliver on the promise of quality and wouldn’t expect many customers to accept a brake with imperfections, even if only cosmetic. There would be the option of selling these brakes as they are to clear them from stock, but the brand doesn’t consider this a viable option.
Trickstuff also points out that the easiest thing to do would be to throw these parts away, but that this is not reconcilable with their ideas of sustainable and repairable products, and a record they take pride in. All parts are manufactured in Germany, their hose fittings are reusable and they’re in the process of switching all their packaging to paper and wood.
To have a part such as master cylinder housing made from aluminum that was extracted with processes that aren’t necessarily easy on nature, which is then CNC’d for 30 minutes and anodized to be just thrown away because of a small blemish is incompatible with what Trickstuff feel are their key values.
So the solution? Trickstuff’s Stealth brakes.
All Stealth parts are anodized a second time which results in the new matte black surface. This subtle and understated look is a way of providing functioning parts without the interference of aesthetic imperfections.
Range Details & Pricing
The Direttissima Stealth will have an RRP of €990 for both front and rear brakes. It uses a four-pot C41 caliper. A brake with a 90cm Goodridge hose weighs 278g, including pads.
The Piccola Stealth uses a C21 two-piston caliper and will have an RRP of €850 for a set. A brake with a 70cm hose and pads weighs a mere 158g.
There is also the Piccola HD Stealth. The HD combines the lever of the Piccola with the C41 caliper of the Direttissima. Again, a front and rear setup has an RRP of €850 and a brake with a 70cm hose weighs 193g, including pads.
Where & When are the Brakes Available?
By the nature of the Stealth line, these brakes will not be available for pre-order. Instead, customers who already have pre-orders will receive advanced notice when a batch is made. All brakes will be processed on a first come, first serve basis. So far there are no Maxima Stealth brakes available.
These brakes may well be cheaper but that doesn't mean they're cheap. They won't be for everyone and I don't think they aim to be. They're very premium.
For more information please visit Trickstuff.de.
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145 Comments
Personally I can never see passed hope for the right balance of quality and price
Its pretty much like dropping anchor if I need to.
Have a shout fork and rolling a 65 degree head angle.
Seated with my saddle dropped and leaning backwards the Piccola will still lift the back wheel and send me otb no problem.
And they are the lightest in the world give or take 10 grams.
But there is also the option to buy the Trickstuff levers only which us where the magic is.
In 69 years: These are my granddads Stealths, still have the original hoses. My dad only bled them once before he got married. See this scratch? He stopped so abruptly he flew into a cow!
-No. Mammals. But now they are extinct just like dinosaurier
And with all that money that you save you can buy a new bike.
The biggest problem, anyway, is the city model that we have, it creates a lot of mobility problems.
People buy new cars and say it’s “for the environment”, why don’t they stop lying and say it’s because they want more luxury and to make Geoff next door’s wife fancy you more, which is the truth.
Every new thing we buy that we don't need is a waste of resources.
If we worry about what world are we leaving for the next generations we have to start demanding reparability and longer life span of products to manufacturers..."but the economy?..." There is no economy without a place to live.
I think people pass over the Piccola and go straight for the DRT and Maxima.
But the Piccola are a bad ass brake and have plenty of power needed to send you otb but the modulation to make sure it doesn't happen.
It worked out perfectly.
Put them against trickstuff any day (except on a scale).
The expensive brakes don't make you stop any harder, because they get you to the limit just like a mid range good brake set. Once the wheels are locked up, there is nothing more that the brakes can do. Even 2 piston brakes with 200mm rotors can do this.
The less-than-full-force braking part in between is all control and personal preference. Shimanos are more on-off with less lever travel and more force modulation, SRAMS are the opposite, others I have no experience with. There is also heat dissipation design, but then again this is really not an issue as much as people think, considering a good portion of heat gets dumped into rotors. There aren't really reports of any modern brakes losing all power due to fluid boiling.
And if Shimanos and SRAMS are good enough for pros to win titles, then its probably safe to say that Trickstuff are not above the rest. They definitely feel high quality with smooth operation, but to call everything else garbage when you are FAR below the skill of riding that benefits from top of the line brakes is kinda pretentious.
Its the same old story with suspension. People go on and on about how spending x amount of money on suspension is worth it because its so smooth and supple over bumps, but what they don't realize is that the fastest bike setups out there all run very firm suspension for the much faster riding speeds and harder hits that the pros experience, and consequently have the fitness to deal with. Riding a pro bike will make you feel like the suspension is just set up too firm and not good, but in fact that is the setup if you wanna go fast.
MTB is really just a way to show off how wealthy you are these days to most anyway, so whatever makes y’all happy I suppose. But having $3k in brake sets for your various bicycles is nothing more than a flex on the guys with just XTs, who are probably riding faster and don’t care about your fancy brakes anyway.
completely rebuildable and the cost and beauty will pretty much ensure they dont end up in a land fill. Like my xt/slx brakes have.
ALSO and a major factor to me these are built by people paid a good wage. These brakes don't come from a sweat shop.
Also are we talking about the same pros who run gear other then their sponsors and then black out the label?
Go to the brake forums and look at ALL the problems people have with those brakes you say are just as good.
5 years from now Ill still be using the same brakes can you say the same?
TS Brakes are great but they don't deserve all that praise they manage to get via clever media/marketing campaigns and shortened supply.
I own Shimano, Hope, Formula and Magura brakes and riding buddies have Trickstuff, AvidSram and Hayes brakes.
With proper maintenance and careful setup and brake pad / disc selection you can make every mediocre brake great and without it every great brake can perform like utter crap. Looking at you, shimano.
With the saved money if non TS brakes you can buy sooooo maaaaany discs and pads to last for lifetimes.
Truth be told, their own discs and pads perform great and are adequately priced, and work well on my bikes.
Magura is prone to lever and housing damage. I would never place them on an Enduro. Some get along but I don't want a plastic brake. I am actually not far from their mt7 plant but naa man , Trickstuff all day. I actually replaced 4 mt7s with a set of Direttissima. Since 3 year's no defects but I smacked rocks with it. Even the bars did fail but not the brakes..
If you start from a fresh, empty set: fill the hose up like normal with the syringes on both ends, pressing the fluid back and forth (really making sure to get that suction on each end to pull through any air), then at the end orient the bleeder port on the caliper so it's pointed up and insert the plug.
Then, move to the master cylinder and start pressing down on the plunger and pull the plunger up to get vacuum on the system to get the air out. Repeat this a couple times. Finally, and this is the trick to prevent fluid from spraying everywhere: equalize the system by pulling up on the plunger until it passes the drilled hole. Once you've done this, slowly start pulling the syringe out of the bleeder hole. Just prior to the syringe tip coming out, put your finger over the hole to prevent the fluid from coming out. Put the syringe to the side and place the plug into the hole on the master.
Now you're done. I can get a perfect bleed on it every time, and while it's not as easy as SRAM's proprietary bleeder setup, it's no longer the monster as the first time I tried using their instructions.
I agree that most brakes can be grate.
But not Magura because of the plastic weakness they have.
Change the housing to some basic Shimano SLX or Zee body. Then you have a fantastic brake in my opinion. They are strong as the Direttissima it self and their bitepoint is crazy.
I also agree about the hipster life around Freiburg. Haha, I pay 1100€ for 80qm. A friend pay 2000 for 100qm because he is near the city center.
It's f*cking joke the rent around here..
I earn 300eur less than your rent costs, and pay 1/5th of earnings as rents, while getting groceries is roughly the same pricewise. Speaking of jokes...
Magura told me, no warranty if the internal seal is blown without leaking. 90 bugs to fix it. I bought instead two Zee housings for 21€ each with new hose and hardware..
Spend 50 in total because the other was also converted and had way better brakes. The stock mt7 leavers suck compared to mostly anything. The bitepoint of the Shigura is insanely good. Damage to leaver or housing? Pff, Zee's are way stronger then the plastic MT whatever. Seriously who the fuq thought its good to go with that?
You even screw your screws into plastic. For a brake housing worth 100€.
Sorry that's not quality that is just a lot of mark-up.
I am the quality controller here for 250 dudes and dudets. Shit like that would get send back to the drawing boards if I see the price tag.
If you want to use plastic for your high-end brakes, at least make the thread's out of threaded rivets instead of self cutting plastic screw's.
Always make sure you pair your brake pads with a high quality rotor. Cheaper rotors are made of alloys that like to glaze. Make sure your rotors are sized for your weight (larger diameter for heavier riders). Use tires that have compounds and tread that are matched for your trails.
Without those key ingredients, having the most powerful brakes is absolutely useless. To quote Pirelli "Power is Nothing Without Control."
If a brake can lock up a wheel, that is the max power that the brake can supply. Many brakes do this, even 2 piston ones with 200mm rotors. The main thing that varies from brake to brake is the percieved power based on the hydraulic leverage ratio.
If the leverage ratio is lower, that means that the brake lever requires less travel, more finger force for the same braking. Shimanos are like this.
If the leverage ratio is higher, that means that more lever travel is required to get the same braking force, but the force on the finger is lower. SRAMs are like this.
The difference between the two is all personal preference. Some people coming from moto background, especially with track riding on sport bikes, prefer Shimanos because on a sport bike, the brakes are usually very stiff once engaged, and force feedback on your fingers is much more accurate (which is needed for trail braking into a corner and not washing out the front end). On the other hand, people who started on bikes and are used to the higher lever travel of mechanical disk brakes prefer SRAMS since it "feels" like they are more powerfull due to lower finger force.
I’m also going to need a trickstuff bumper sticker for my truck. How else will everyone know that I’m a cool guy?!?
Black Sharpie markers "fix" scratches in black anodizing all day long too lol
The way i see it, I usually swap frames every year. The cranks and wireless drivetrain make that task a hell of a lot easier.
Having to source proprietary brake line and components in a pinch is not ideal, especially when they are coming from another continent. SRAM Code parts are stateside and readily available both locally and nationally.
I bought the levers first and combined them with the mt7 calipers. Callipers going bad and I decided to buy the rest of it. I never had a brake that trouble free. After 3 year's of riding..
There are other expensive parts like the disc's I just ordered. 130€ or 158usd
For each disc. Thicc boy's 223mm X 2,2mm.
Ok,I'll PM you my adress.
Thx.
I quit MTB that is too mutch!