Specialized Gravity – the team of Loïc Bruni, Finn Iles and Jordan Williams – and Italian brake manufacturer Brembo have given BikeRadar additional details about their new eye-catching brakes on a visit to their factory in Bergamo, Italy.
The brakes have so far only been seen on the World Cup DH team's bikes, and although Brembo remains tight-lipped on the full details, it looks as though the brakes are approaching a finished product, even if we were told they're still in a "learning phase".
Development started during the Covid-19 pandemic. However, this was being done in collaboration with brands that supplied large rental fleets, who wanted to bring automotive tech to bicycle brakes on a large scale.
However, this development process didn't work out and, 18 months ago, Brembo pivoted to creating high-performance DH racing brakes.
Having purchased suspension brand Öhlins, there was a clear path to working with Specialized, with its Gravity team using the Swedish suspension.
Extensive lab-based testing has been carried out, while the brand has tried to translate rider feelings into technical numbers.
Once the initial brakes were created, riders were able to give feedback and changes were made.
Brembo downhill brake details
The brakes are downhill-focused. The calipers and levers are larger than most, especially the lever bodies, to enable larger hydraulic fluid volumes, something that should aid consistency on long, hot descents.
Inside, mineral fluid flows from the lever to the four pistons in the large caliper.
At the two-piece caliper end, the pads squeeze a 2.3mm-thick rotor. We've heard comments suggesting the rotors are mounted 'the wrong way round', with the arms of the rotors 'pulling' the braking surface round. However, Brembo said this was how the rotor was designed.
At an operating temperature of up to 400ºC, this orientation is best able to prevent the rotor from bending due to heat and torque.
Brembo tested 35 brake pad compounds, both sintered and organic, and has settled, for now, on an organic brake pad.
The lever itself is a large unit, bigger than most options on the market.
Three dials are present, giving lever reach, free-stroke and ratio adjustment – how power is developed through the arc of the brake lever.
This ratio adjustment means that Bruni, Iles and Williams can run the same brakes, but have different-feeling setups.
Can I buy Brembo's mountain bike brakes?
Brembo's engineers and product leads weren't giving anything away when it came to the prospect of the brakes being available to the public.
As an engineering project, the brand suggested learnings from the development of the new DH brakes might make it into future eMTB-specific brakes, or the world of motocross bikes, for example.
However, as yet, there is no public timeline for the DH brakes to enter the market.
