Hayes Cx Comp Mechanical Disc Brake Review Amazon

Hayes CX Pro mechanical disc brake review

Our review

Great power with splendid lever feel but mud performance is disappointing

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The Hayes CX Pro mechanical disc brake offers outstanding power and control in dry conditions. A sleek design and ruddy anodized aluminum hardware give information technology an upscale appearance too

James Huang/Time to come Publishing

Hayes' brilliant Crosshair alignment system uses a pair of fix screws located against the caliper mounts for ultra-precise adjustments

James Huang/Future Publishing

The ane-piece aluminum body is notably stout, which contributes to the brake'due south first-class lever feel and potent power

James Huang/Future Publishing

Simply the inboard pad has a true contained adjustment (which needs to exist locked in identify with a separate set screw). The outboard pad is instead set via the built-in butt adjuster

James Huang/Future Publishing

Hayes makes a solid run at the loftier-stop mechanical disc brake market with its latest CX Pro model. The CX Pro reasonably light, powerful in dry conditions, and piece of cake on the eyes with its nighttime grey polished finish and red anodized aluminum hardware.

However, its performance degrades more than than information technology should when it's wet or dirty and information technology'south missing a couple of convenient adjustments.

• Highs: Excellent stopping power in dry conditions, not bad lever feel, very easy setup
• Lows: Disappointingly quick pad wearable, flimsy aluminum cable anchor commodities, missing a couple of adjustments

Many of the CX Pro'south nigh tangible benefits come directly from its sleek, one-piece aluminum caliper body. A tidy shape, extensive machining and a smattering of aluminum hardware keep the weight downwardly to a competitive 161g per caliper with pads: 2g heavier than a TRP Spyre, 3g heavier than an Gorging BB7 SL and 10g heavier than the Shimano BR-CX77.

Generously proportioned bridges connecting the two sides of the caliper give the caliper superb rigidity. Coupled with the torque arm's rather stiff (just not-adjustable) render spring and ambitious internal ramp geometry, this gives you a firm and very positive feeling lever plus highly predictable fingertip command with no discernible caliper flex.

The i-piece aluminum body is notably stout, which contributes to the brake's excellent lever experience and stiff power:

James Huang/Future Publishing

Although the pads are unusually small with little surface surface area, braking ability is actually outstanding thanks to the CX Pro's grippy semi-metallic pads. They also run impressively quietly with no undue squealing or grinding to speak of.

In dry conditions, this was one of our favorite mechanical disc brakes.

That all changed when conditions plough wet or muddy, though – just every bit they did during one of our races at the US Cyclocross National Championships on a highly technical course at Valmont Cycle Park in Boulder, Colorado. Nosotros fully expect whatever disc brake performance to degrade somewhat in those environments but we were honestly quite surprised at only how big the difference was with the CX Pros.

Only the inboard pad has a true independent adjustment (which needs to be locked in place with a carve up ready screw). the outboard pad is instead set via the built-in butt adjuster:

James Huang/Future Publishing

Power vicious off dramatically with little initial bite even after the rotors should have been scrubbed clean, and that one time their quiet running stopped and they turned into a pair of howling banshees. To make matters worse, pad habiliment was very rapid, despite the fact that semi-metallic pads generally fare much improve than organic ones in those environments. Our brakes were nevertheless functional after 45 minutes of racing but but simply barely, with both levers nigh pulling to the bar before there was any effect.

Hayes admits that the CX Pro's semi-metallic compound does indeed wear about as fast as some competitors' organic pads. More than durable sintered metallic pads will presently be bachelor but fifty-fifty and then, they're remarkably tiny with a surface area roughly half that of the BB7.

Unfortunately, the CX Pro's single-piston pattern also produces non-parallel and uneven pad wear, meaning we had to replace the pads completely in order to become things working properly. The pads are difficult to replace despite a clever magnetic retentivity arrangement, because of the micro-sized tabs and bottom-fed layout – not exactly great traits for a brake aimed at the cyclocross crowd.

Initial setup is at least extremely quick though, cheers to a rather ingenious picayune feature that Hayes calls Crosshair. Two small set up screws are situated perpendicular to the main caliper mounting bolts, pushing on them to provide ultra-fine positioning control that usually just isn't possible even for the most seasoned hands. Add in the adjustable inboard pad location, and information technology generally took usa less than a couple of minutes to ready each end.

Hayes' brilliant crosshair alignment system uses a pair of set screws that located against the caliper mounts for ultra-precise adjustments:

James Huang/Hereafter Publishing

Fifty-fifty so, we still missed the ability to independently adjust the outboard pad of the likes of Avid and Shimano. Hayes instead relies on the CX Pro'due south built-in barrel adjuster to adjust the cablevision tension, which in plough alters the torque arm position to move the pad. Hayes says that an independent adjuster was consciously omitted in club to simplify the mechanism and reduce the size of the caliper. However, adjusting the outboard pad in this fashion still strikes the states as a bit clumsy in comparison to the BB7 and BR-CX77, plus the CX Pro isn't any narrower than the Gorging caliper anyhow.

In improver, the non-indexed inboard pad adjustment allows for more precise pad aligning just it won't reliably lock in place unless yous snug downwardly a separate fix screw – not platonic for messy 'cantankerous conditions where someone might take to make a quick aligning before their rider comes through the pits once again.

As pretty as it is, we also took issue with Hayes' determination to spec an aluminum cablevision ballast bolt. The torque spec is a reasonable 6Nm but even Hayes admits that its in-house testing shows that this critical bolt will fail at but 9Nm (and we measured 8Nm with a CDI Computorq digital torque wrench). Given the minute weight savings the blend bolt offers plus the long-term effects of fatigue on aluminum hardware, we strongly recommend switching to a steel or high-quality titanium 1 instead. Hayes says it will supervene upon any broken aluminum cable anchor bolts for gratuitous but information technology's a problem that we'd rather avoid entirely however.

The verdict: The Hayes CX Pro looks nifty and performs very well in dry conditions with excellent power, control, and lever feel. The Crosshairs alignment arrangement is utterly brilliant likewise. Wet conditions take more of a negative effect on braking performance than nosotros'd similar though, and niggling details such as the choosy-to-replace pads, the flimsy aluminum cable anchor bolt, and semi-adjustable outboard pad position keep the CX Pro from being a top pick.

Production Specifications

Product

Available Colours	Grey Anodised
Front/Rear Caliper	Universal
Rim/Disc	Disc
Brake Caliper Blazon	Cable Disc
Comes With Rotor	Yes

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Source: https://www.bikeradar.com/reviews/components/brakes/brake-calipers/hayes-cx-pro-mechanical-disc-brake-review/

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