TRP R960 Brake Review

Brakes are one of the components of a bicycle where we should probably focus solely on performance, but being the irrational creatures we are we tend to take less important things into consideration. This was indeed the case with my latest build. The logical choice would have been to simply use Campy brakes with my new EPS bike, but they are heavy, I don't care for the looks of them, they do not appear to be very aerodynamic, and did I mention that they are heavy and don't look very good?

I posted a review of the Planet-X Ultra-Light brakeset a while back and that set was a very solid performer (and excellent value) for well over 10,000 miles. The smart move would have been to go back to that set, but that would not be very exciting so I began the search for a new set.

If you are reading this review I will assume that the 960 is on your list so I won't spend a lot of time talking about why I went this direction, but in the end, I thought this breakeset would check more boxes than any other set that I was considering.

What matters to me:

1. Modulation
2. Functionality
3. Looks
4. Value
5. Weight
6. Stopping Power

Modulation:

This is one of those terms that I hear thrown around a lot like stiffness, that probably has different meanings depending on the rider. I'm sure there is some scientific quantification of the term using deflection, leverage, and many other terms that I barely understand so, I will share what it means to me. Simply put, good modulation means that I get a consistent increase in breaking power when I apply increased force to the lever. This does not mean a 1:1 relationship necessarily (I don't necessarily need to have the same force increase for every .5cm of pull), but that it is a predictable and consistent increase.

With this simple definition in mind, how do the TRP 960's perform? At this point in the testing I would say they are decent enough. With the stock aluminum pads I was very unhappy with the modulation. The brakes did not give me a lot of feedback through the lever and it almost felt like I would have dead spots in the pull where I would increase pressure on the lever and not feel much of an increase in stopping power. However, when using my Enve pads on a carbon rim (which typically perform a little worse than an aluminum rim) the braking was much better. Also, as the TRP pads wore a little, the feel became better. If I were to rank modulation on the last few sets of brakes I have owned I would rank them like this:

1. Dura Ace 7800
2. Planet X Ultralight
3. Campy Record Skelaton
4. TRP R960
1,396. BMC TM01 brake calipers

And I am not exaggerating on the TM01 brakes. While I have the TRP brakes low on this list in regards to modulation, with the right pads they are not bad, just not as good as some of the others out there.

Functionality:

I could list quite a few things here so let us start with setup. Installation of the brakes is very straight forward and not significantly different than most other brakes out there. I tighten the bolts on both sets so that I can still turn the brakes with a little effort. This is useful when you swap wheels often. The brakes are pretty simple to center, there is a grub screw on one of the brake arms that allows you to move the arms in or out making setup pretty simple. The cable is held in place by a 4mm hex bolt and secures the cable without any issues.

There is plenty of adjustability for the shoes/pad holders both up and down, but also with the angle of the pads (toe-in/out). I run mine flat, but I have had problems with other brakes where they were not adjustable.

  
Once the calipers are installed they are opened by pressing on a red plastic tab above the mounting bolt.

Much like Campy brakes, they are either in the opened or closed position, you can't hold them partially open like you can with SRAM/Shimano brakes. The mechanism is kind of goofy, but thankfully I run Campy shifters so this is a non-issue for me.

One thing I do like about the brakes is the adjustment barrel. It is very easy to get your fingers on and turn. I've had problems with this on other brakes that I have owned.

The springs are very sturdy and I think they could probably over power some cable rub to return to the open position. Again, I have not had good experiences in the past so this is not something to take for granted. It is one of the reasons that I did not go with Zero Gravity brakes as every set I looked at seemed to have really weak springs.

The brakes are wide enough to accept pretty much any rim in my estimation. I have tried it with 23mm rims and there is plenty of clearance.

However, there is a major problem with vertical clearance. 25mm tires on standard size rims simply will not work with the front brake, but I can run a 25mm tire on the rear. When I run the 25mm tire on wide rims (HED Ardennes) there is enough clearance to get them on.

For me this is unacceptable. This is the first pair of brakes that I have had this type of problem with and if I had known this there is no way I would have bought these brakes. I love 25mm tires on my Fucrum 1 training wheels and I have even run 25mm race tires on my Enve wheels, but that is not an option for me with these brakes.

Looks

I dig the looks. The finish is very nice, the color options are great, the machining looks well done, the only knock I have on them is the plastic release tab. The brakes also look to be reasonably aerodynamic. I have not seen any test data on them and I am sure there are better choices for aero considerations, but I think these would probably be better than Campy, Shimano, or SRAM.

Value

Meh, they are ok I suppose. The street price on these is probably going to be sub $300 for most folks. When you compare the to top-level brakes from the big 3 and most boutique brands, they are a fair deal. They can't touch the Planet-X brakes in the value department, but they are not out of the park either.

Weight

223 g was the actual weight with pads. Again, not too bad, lighter than the big 3, but heavier than a lot out there. Again, I have to compare them to the sub-200g Plant-X brakes. That being said, the fact that there is not a pinch bolt is worth a little more weight to me.

Stopping Power

This might seem like an odd one to have at the bottom of my list, but in my experience most modern brakes provide more than enough stopping power. If they do not, they are either a terrible design or the are not setup properly. At nearly 200lb, I am harder to stop than a lot of the cyclists on the road and I have only had two sets of brakes in 14 years that I felt do not provide enough stopping power. These are more than adequate.

Conclusion

I really wanted to like these brakes. They do have several nice features, but the tire clearance is a deal-killer. I simply can't comprehend why this would be an issue, now I have to adjust my tire selection to accommodate my brakes. The brakes are nothing special to start with, I would say they are 3-3.5 out of 5 star brakes, which is not bad, but there are a lot of better choices out there from both a performance and value perspective.


-Tony