Everyone loves a bargain, right? At around £40 for a set of these – front and rear callipers, with an extra set of brake pads thrown in – you certainly will get a bargain, so let’s delve a bit deeper.
Like most mechanical disk brakes, these have a piston on one side only. That’s not a deal-breaker – far more expensive mechanical brake callipers often have the same. It does mean that you’ll need to adjust these regularly, to allow for brake pad wear.
Do they stop your bike?
Brakes have ONE function, and one function only: through friction, they convert kinetic energy into thermal energy, and in doing so, slow you down. These Clarks brakes, when correctly fitted and adjusted, certainly do slow you down. In fact, it’s quite possible to stop rapidly with these. It’s equally possible to lock the wheels with these brakes.
That’s all good. Combined with the really low price, the relative light weight, and the extra set of brake pads thrown in for good measure, it seems we’re onto a winner here, right?
The bad points
Sadly, these brakes suffer from a design flaw. That design flaw can and often does lead to the brakes failing to release properly. I haven’t been able to figure out exactly why/where this happens, but it certainly does happen.
Imagine you’re approaching a tight turn on a descent, so you brake to slow down. The Clarks brakes slow you down quite well enough, but when you exit the turn, and release the brake lever, the brakes don’t fully release. That becomes very annoying, very quickly.
Admittedly, it didn’t do so every time, during my testing. Also (and I’m happy to be corrected here, should you know better) it seems to me the brakes fail to release mainly when at the extreme end of brake lever travel. More simply put, I never experienced this unless braking hard.
I accept that this may be influenced by the brake adjustment, and it remains possible that I failed to adjust the brakes perfectly. However, while no certified bike mechanic, I feel I’m reasonably competent working on my own bike, and I’ve never had this issue with any other brakes.
Verdict
Purely because of this, I’d suggest you steer clear of these, and instead spend more, on more reliable brake callipers.
If you found this review helpful, you’ll probably benefit from all the other reviews on WillCycle.