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Cane Creek EE brakes13.jpgFive cool things coming soon from Light and Motion, Cane Creek, Barbour, Sportful and Trek
Another week, another hardcore week of tinkering and testing to the max from road.cc's review team. Here are some of the highlights of the gear we've seen pass through recently...
Barbour X Brompton Bromley wax jacket
£299
Yes it's nearly 300 quid, and yes it looks more at home on the shooting range than on a bike, but this collab between Barbour and Brompton is specifically made for the needs of urban cycling with easy-access pockets and a dropped back tail to keep the grime off your backside. A 100% cotton lining, reflective tape and zipped vents on the rear and sleeves make this a very classy Christmas present in theory (plus it's reduced to a bargain £210 on Barbour's website currently) but what will our tester Caroline Dodgson make of it? Her review is due soon.
barbour.com/uk
Light and Motion Urban 1000 FC
£139.99
The Urban 1000 FC packs, you guessed it, 1000 lumens into an impressively light 122g package - in fact Light and Motion say it's the most compact light you can buy that delivers an output this strong. A simple rubber mount, additional side lighting for extra safety and a one-touch toggle for ease of use make for an impressive sounding beam, but does it trounce the competition in the £100-£150 price bracket? I'll be giving you my tuppence worth later this week.
madison.co.uk
Sportful Luna Softshell jacket
£100
This women's jacket is a 'simple yet elegant' number according to Sportful themselves, with a fleece-lined softshell construction to provide adequate warmth and wind resistance in chillier temperatures. A back panel with ThermoDrytex Plus and silicon elastic hem completes the garment. Emma Silversides is your tester, with a verdict coming later this week.
sportful.com
£1900
The 2018 version of the Trek Emonda has got even lighter still, and our test model with Shimano 105 groupset weighed in at 8.5kg - pretty feathery for a bike at this price point. Trek's 500 Series Ultralight OCLV carbon frame takes BB90 and has full internal cable routing as standard, with direct mount brakes and a tapered head tube. Is Mat Brett loving the lightness? Check back for a review next month.
trekbikes.com/gb
£599
These high-end calipers are self-proclaimed as setting a new standard in high performance road braking, at half the weight of their competitors. No tools are required for pad centering and every detail has been meticulously thought through in these USA-made beauties. Can the big price tag really be justified? Jez Ash is applying some pressure to them right now...
extra.co.uk
For all the latest road.cc test reports, head to our reviews section. If you need more advice before splashing your cash, check out our buyer's guides.
Arriving at road.cc in 2017 via 220 Triathlon Magazine, Jack dipped his toe in most jobs on the site and over at eBikeTips before being named the new editor of road.cc in 2020, much to his surprise. His cycling life began during his students days, when he cobbled together a few hundred quid off the back of a hard winter selling hats (long story) and bought his first road bike - a Trek 1.1 that was quickly relegated to winter steed, before it was sadly pinched a few years later. Creatively replacing it with a Trek 1.2, Jack mostly rides this bike around local cycle paths nowadays, but when he wants to get the racer out and be competitive his preferred events are time trials, sportives, triathlons and pogo sticking - the latter being another long story.
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19 comments
Out in the wet last Sunday and I was impressed. It looks like a dry Sunday this week, but I'll still try and get out to Hope Mountain and see what they're like there.
Much better already as they actually stop me.
Should make a difference still - especially with the pads etc. Been out on them yet?
105s.
That's right, dangle your fancy brakes under my nose just after I've bought some calipers in my quest to improve the braking on my winter bike... Grrr!
Ultegras?
I'd be more interested in their performance as brakes.
Supposedly as good as or better than dura ace
EE's have been around for years, the original design circa 2010 I think so not sure how these are 'new'. They have a lot of devotees among weight weenies. Far too rich for my blood though - I went for TRP R970sl's in a recent upgrade - a little bling and very effective braking considering only 230g.
You can keep your discs, thanks all the same!
I'll take your AX Lightness at 800 euros & raise you to THM Fibula €1230 or £1100 from UKBYK - 120grams....
http://www.ubyk.co.uk/thm-carbones-fibula-brake-set/70428?gclid=EAIaIQob...
Those brakes don't have pads... that's got to be a further 80grams to go on that 170grams straight away.
My groupset weights 1.3kg (when weighed without cranks), does it make it the lightest groupset in the world?
It's actually about 25g, you can buy them with pads, but there is no point adding cost for a carbon pads if people are using aluminium wheels and vice versa.
Also at this price most people do have a preferred brake pad
People are idiots if they are falling for that.
For the cost of the callipers, which as alluded to already, are not made of anything particularly exotic, including both aluminium and carbon pad options as standard would surely be reasonable.
I'd even be happy paying £30 more and having both sets of pads included.
I get the price... its a mix of licence agreements and covering the cost of R&D and production costs which will likely be high due to the low volumes produced... but lets not be fooled into thinking there still isn't plenty of fat in there!
Those brakes may be light but they're not pretty.
Fugly. Wouldn't put them on a hybrid, let alone my road bike. Looks like they're wearing a brace.
Eye of the beholder and all that. Not convinced that 'pretty' is the right word but I love 'em, looks like something the engineering department whipped out whilst the marketing guys were on holiday.
Me too, would look awful on any of my current bikes, but something a bit more industrial... Performance has to be top-notch for that money, though.
Well exactly. Strong items with the same material are made when you increase cross section perimeter. A 1m 1kg solid bar will bent easier than any 1m 1kg tube of the same material. So when they increase the dimensions of the perimeter they end up with these brakes. But they do look awful for 95% of cyclists and if it wrote Jang-Jing cycle parts on it and costed 30 quid a pair (that is the cost to manufacture and still be profitable) the other 5% wouldn't like them either.
£600 for a set of rim brakes?
What in Cribbins are they made of? Unicorn horn impregnated with truffle oil?
They weigh approx 170 grms, Dura Ace weighs 325grms. Cane Creek bought the rights too use EE Cycleworks design.
Guess that's why you're paying a premium, same as Lightweight wheels and all that flyweight stuff, it's always cost big bucks.
From reviews they work quite well, unlike a lot of lightweight stuff. I can't afford to buy them to test them for real.
AX Lightness calipers, if you can still find them, were in excess of 800 euros. 130 grams.