Brompton 2018 brake calipers

[SoreTween]

Any opinion on these?
Brompton say they are more powerful and easier to set up but they would say that. The cynic in me sees something cheaper, it looks like simpler castings and they are now the same front & rear. Any experience? Are they lighter?
The mk3 looks much more elegant to my eye.

[chagzuki]

The main reason to redesign the calipers would have been to add a quick release imo, and so this looks to be a non-upgrade to me. A bit cleaner aesthetically with the inset nut thing (I forget the proper term), but you'd have to drill/ream out your fork and mudguard to get it to fit. I'm not so keen on the black, personally.

[Oxford_Guy]

The main reason to redesign the calipers would have been to add a quick release imo, and so this looks to be a non-upgrade to me. A bit cleaner aesthetically with the inset nut thing (I forget the proper term), but you'd have to drill/ream out your fork and mudguard to get it to fit. I'm not so keen on the black, personally.

I think the older ones look nicer, the brake callipers I have on my 2017 Brompton are a sort of gold colour (which looks nice with my green frame) and more curvy than the new ones. Looks like they've also done away with re-usable brake shoes.

My brakes stop fine, though I agree a quick release would be nice - even if it was at the brake lever end, like on Campagnolo shifters.

[1nterceptor]

Had my my 2018 S2L-X for a few months now. Brakes seems ok, maybe a slight improvement over my 2013 S6L-X.
But I wouldn't bother upgrading to the latest calipers based on performance.
Size Matters by 1nterceptor, on Flickr

[rogerzilla]

It'd be nice if they made the hardware a bit more rustproof.

[Jurek]

It'd be nice if they made the hardware a bit more rustproof.

Yup.
I've just shelled out on some Ultegra brake shoes / carriers as the bolts on my 2014 model brake block carriers look as they would if I lived on the west coast of Ireland.
For a premium priced product, rusting after a few years use (I'm still on my original brake blocks - to give you an idea of usage) in an urban environment, is a cheap shot which does Brompton few favours.

[rogerzilla]

A Brompton is basically a £300 bike sold for a grand.  You pay because of the unsurpassed fold, the spares availability, British labour and, no doubt, an enormous markup.

[drossall]

My son-in-law has just bought a Brompton, so I was able to compare (while static) his new brakes with my previous-generation ones. There's no doubt that his had the better feel - much firmer,although mine seem quite adequate. I've seen suggestions that replacing the blocks with third-party ones is the best upgrade?

I've also seen people talk about third-party brakes, the issue being that Bromptons feed their cables from below instead of from above. In the days of Weinmann brakes, of course, you just unbolted the fittings from the caliper, and swapped them, but I suppose that those days have gone.

[Kim]

I've seen suggestions that replacing the blocks with third-party ones is the best upgrade?

I swapped mine for Koolstop salmon on this basis.  It didn't make a lot of difference to braking performance (most of the improvement was in the wet), but apparently the stock ones like to eat rims.

[grams]

Any difference is feel is as likely down to everything being brand new (especially the cables) rather than the new design.

The Fibrax inserts are known for covering everything in black dust. I find the standard Shimano road bikes inserts are good and can be found pretty cheap sometimes.

[drossall]

Well my Fibrax shoes wore out, so I put in some Aztec ones, because that's what I happened to have in the spares box. We'll see how they go.

[Gattopardo]

Had my my 2018 S2L-X for a few months now. Brakes seems ok, maybe a slight improvement over my 2013 S6L-X.
But I wouldn't bother upgrading to the latest calipers based on performance.
Size Matters by 1nterceptor, on Flickr

Looks a bit volvoesque..  (volvo c303)

[Oxford_Guy]

Well my Fibrax shoes wore out, so I put in some Aztec ones, because that's what I happened to have in the spares box. We'll see how they go.

I highly rate the Swissstop Flashpro BXP pads for all brake shoes that can take road pads, they run quite clean too.

[drossall]

Gosh, they're expensive at about £18 for four. I bought some more Aztecs for my spares box at about a third of that price. SwissStop and KoolStop are highly-regarded, I know, but so were Aztec back in the day, which is why I bought them and not budget pads.

Good brakes are worth paying for, but are the SwissStops three times better than Aztec?

[LittleWheelsandBig]

Of course not. Once you get past the 'usability threshold', there is always decreasing value for money as cost increases.

[Shreds]

Used just about every kind of block going over the years including Koolstop, SwissStop, Aztecs, & Fibrax amongst many other.

Aztecs, & Fibrax doing the job well on two of the current bikes. No complaints.