the time has come to get rid of these aliexpress brakes so a quick rundown of events a few weeks
ago i found this group set online it's 12 speed it's carbon and it was 300 pounds of aliexpress
it includes brakes chain cassette almost everything you need to get a bike rolling
and so far it's been pretty good shifting has been smooth and nice both on the front and the rear but
there's one thing that hasn't been very good and that is the brakes now the brakes are mechanical
discs but they're not made by the same company as the derailleurs and shifters the duration shifters
are made by sensor and if you buy a group set like this from the official sensor store on aliexpress
you end up with these brakes made by nut to be fair to them the brakes are functional they stop
you can lock out the rear wheel if you squeeze really hard but the modulation and how they feel
to ride is not very good and i have to explain here i have been ruined my brain has been ruined
by using high-end bike paths for so long like it turns you into a bit of a snob and obviously
entry-level parts don't feel as good as high-end parts and if you've been riding them for a long
time it's kind of hard to switch back but the rest of this group set is 12 speed it's a performance
group set really it looks like it's made for racing and riding fast and brakes don't match up
with the rest of it so today i'm going to change the brakes to something a little bit better and if
my calculations are correct it's not going to cost you that much more money than buying this package
as a whole from aliexpress anyway in steps the dreamtech f1 exquisite technology perfect
performance big claim so these are brakes you can buy from aliexpress and amazon i got these ones on
amazon and paid a bit of a premium for it when you order stuff from aliexpress it comes direct from
china so it can take like six to eight weeks to arrive i wanted these quicker because i wanted to
make a video about it so i paid a little bit extra i paid around 130 pounds but you can get these
for less than 100 pounds on aliexpress depending on the seller now these are a very popular choice
when it comes to brakes for a cable actuated disc brake system because these actually have
a hydraulic reservoir which means there's hydraulic fluid inside the caliper which is
controlled by the pulling of a regular cable this should mean they have more power and it should
mean they feel a lot nicer now i actually know people who use these and say they're very good
harvey from sterka he uses these on a cyclocross bike he was telling me the other day they come
with a cable tied on sorry disc rotors you can choose what size and your different length
mounting bolts they also come in different colors i went for black because well black isn't it just
to give you an idea of where they sit price-wise 120-ish pounds maybe slightly less on aliexpress
you can get z-race brake calipers off aliexpress as well which are about 60 pounds all in with
rotors and then named brands trp high roads they use the same kind of technology so a hydraulic
reservoir inside the caliper all of these are a similar design but you're going to pay about
240 pounds for trp high roads significantly more expensive but potentially better customer service
and you'll be buying them through more known retailers online so if you need a return maybe
it's going to be easier the z-race ones i actually have on order from aliexpress so stay tuned for
a video on that in the next few weeks they're just taking a while to arrive like everything
does from aliexpress really probably read this safety label but it's in uh chinese the weigh-in
314 grams that's both the calipers with no bolts and the nut ones
439 grams significantly heavier you can also see how much more if it matters aesthetically pleasing
the durian tech ones are these look cheap they're the kind of thing that you get attached to your
box standard electric scooter kind of just a bit industrial looking whereas these are slick
and sleek and racy looking no rotor do not press mineral oil from the instruction manual which does
have some english on it mineral oil and disk pads compatible with shimano do not use dot fluid with
the system mineral oil inside of the calipers won't deteriorate easily and there's no need to
bleed them regularly which indicates you could bleed them if you need to once set up there's a
small adjustment wheel on the calipers which you can adjust by hand to adjust how tight the cable
is therefore how much the pads are squeezing on the disc definitely a plus compared to hydraulic
brakes because pretty much unless you know how to do a brake bleed you need to take them to a bike
shop to have them adjusted whereas these probably do yourself now i guess one nice thing about cable
actuated brakes is that uh they're very easy to switch over so all i'm doing here is using the
same length bolts as i was for the other calipers undone everything using the same outer and inner
cables as before because they're fine they were new a few weeks ago and then bolting them on and
hopefully they'll just work now i'll be honest i really want these to be good because it's the only
big flaw that the group set has or that i have noticed just leave that a little bit loose so get
the wheel in and straighten it up so brakes are installed first impressions not fantastic cable
routing there uh you can see how the cable has to bend right around the frame to then connect to the
caliper maybe we could have done with a little bit extra outer cable there to make things smoother
but that's what was in the frame so i'm going to deal with it for now other bike frames obviously
have different position holes for the cables to come out of so this might just be an issue with
my scott foil it still works it definitely feels strong and grippy on the stand in fact both of
them feel a lot less spongy than the nut which is what i was expecting now let's take them outside
for this segment of the video i've matched my jersey
to the june tech box gonna keep the continuity right
oh
these are strong like properly you can lock up the wheel without squeezing that hard they
better than rim brakes i would race these that's how good they feel right now longevity can't
comment on i literally have just put them on my bike so i can't comment but first impressions
good very good so i set these up with just normal brake housing and the difference is significant
between the nut ones and these there should be considering the price difference and there's
definitely more gains to be had if i started experimenting with stuff like compressionless
housing although that gets more expensive as well i should also mention the performance should get
better over the next couple of rides as the pads bed in now what about the calculations that i was
talking about at the start of the video well this group set cost me 300 pounds but you can just buy
the shifters and the railers for around 200 pounds then you could spend around 100 pounds on a set of
these and the only thing you're then missing is chain and cassette based on today's experience
i would recommend doing that because the nut ones are just not very nice especially if you're used
to using or have previously used hydraulic disc brakes those nut ones just don't feel
premium whereas these do i mean it even says on a box perfect performance i mean it's certainly not
perfect and it's definitely not even in the same league as hydraulic brakes the sram red ones that
i'm riding on my gravel bike the magura ones that are from the rotor group set that i had on this
bike before the dura ace ones for my old bike and the grx ones even the cheaper grx outperform these
significantly but you're always going to have a bit of a compromise when you're using a cable
actuated system so overall a good experience with the junetex i'm really enjoying experimenting with
all this aliexpress stuff i have some more stuff on order and uh if you would like to see anything
specifically put them in the comment section down below and maybe we can test it on my lovely scott
foil i feel sorry for him please subscribe and all of that stuff and i'll see you guys soon