SRAM Force, Yokozuna Cables + SwissStops – Get the Best Brakes for Big Mountains

Why Good Brakes and Cables are Important

Similarly to cars, your brake (including brake cables) and tyre (and suspension) performance are probably the most critical and fundamental safety aspect of a safe bike. There are other things that are important for safety of course, but being unable to stop at 80km/h down a big mountain is pretty fundamental, I think.

So it's important you have a brake, cable and brake pad setup you can be 100% confident in.

How they Perform

My personal choice is coupling SRAM Force brakes (SRAM Red is a nice to have, but is overkill on price for most of us) with Yokozuna Reaction Cables and SwissStop brake pads. I've been using this combination for a while now, and in addition to being absolutely bulletproof, they have incredible stopping power.

The Yokozunas' stopping power is absolutely phenomenal; when coupled with SRAM Force Brakes and SwissStop pads, you're looking at a lot of stopping power.

As well as being a huge plus in criteriums, road races and bunch races as you can stop VERY quickly, they make arresting your speed whilst careening down the big mountains much easier.

No more brake fade and arm pump for you my friend, these babies will stop you with less effort than any other brake combination I've tried. These cables are *just about* compressionless which is a huge plus. If you fit these to your current brakes, you will notice a huge improvement from these cables alone.

Trust me, when you're doing 100km/h with the sheer drops of the Galibier on one side, you're going to want NASA-spec brakes – these are it.

Longevity

My SwissStops have a lot of kilometers in them on mostly dry roads, but with many, many thousands of meters of high speed descending in them.

The Yokozunas I have on my bike currently, have lasted a long time. Whilst they don't have the same level of protection as Gores (more suited to all weather training and commuting), they're still good.

Fitting Them

About the only niggle I have with any of these products is the Yokozunas. They have very stiff cable housings which means they can be very tricky to fit as they have a bigger bend radius than standard cable housings. My local bike shop mechanics always battle with them. They're not impossible to fit, they just need a deft and practiced hand – my mate Craig can fit them easily.

Be aware, Yokozunas do not play nice with Shimano Ultegra 6700 and Durace 7900 and you'll have to muck around with them to get them fitted, possibly compromising their performance. Keep them happy and pair them with SRAM brakes.

Fitting brakes and brake pads is easy.

Travelling with Them

As I mention above, the Yokozunas are quite stiff. This makes packing them for an overseas trip in a bike bag like the EVOC (check out my EVOC bike bag review) quite awkward. You may need to wrangle the bars into place (lots of twisting) and could rip your bar tape (these cables are *tough*!). If you are travelling with a Scicon AeroComfort Plus though, you'll be fine, as you don't need to remove the handlebars in a Scicon AeroComfort Plus (Scicon AeroComfort Plus review, Bike Bag Shootout).

Where to Get Them

You can get all these parts at Wiggle and CRC.

For carbon rims, get the yellow pads. For commuting/training, get the black ones and for aluminium rims and high performance, get the green pads.

Wiggle:

• Yokozuna Reaction Cable System
• SRAM Force Brakes
• SwissStop brake pads (the green ones are boss)

Chain Reaction Cycles:

• Yokozuna Reaction Cable System
• SRAM Force Brakes
• SwissStop brake pads (the green ones are boss)