Growtac Equal Brakes Review: Without Equal

Additional photos by Logan Watts and Justin McKinley

“The faster you can stop, the faster you can go,” he said. An online group chat of bike nerds, including me, was in a heated discussion about brakes.

“The SRAM defender has logged on.”

“I’ve had several close calls with the realm opposite of living because of those.”

If there’s one thing cyclists are passionate about, it’s how they stop. It’s a universal and necessary ability but one that varies from drivetrain-oriented counter motion to multi-piston hydraulic actuation. Much like the bikes they’re designed for, there is no shortage of ways to stop. But, having spent the last three years on both the flat and post-mount versions of Growtac’s Equal brakes, I have my own passionate claim in the argument.

Mechanical Might

As someone who spends a lot of time watching cycling-oriented content on YouTube, I get introduced to a lot of opinions that sit far outside my typical cycling circles. Chief among them is that mechanical brakes are effectively worthless. I’ve heard it in a number of videos and podcasts and even read it in various articles. It’s something I didn’t understand even before my time on the Growtacs. While we all adapt to different standards of braking, I never quite understood how so many—particularly in road- and mountain-centric circles—could be so dismissive of mechanical brakes. For the record, I spent much of my nascent cycling years on Avid BB7s and TRP Spykes/Spyres. Neither were particularly impressive in their stopping power, but they did the job. I felt underserved in the braking department when I purchased cheaper, direct-to-consumer bikes with unbranded brakes or really anything from Tektro*.

*TRP is obviously a Tektro offering, but the distinction between high-end TRP and entry-level Tektro products is stark.

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Ultimately, a lot of this comes down to what we value. Before I had an ever-increasing fleet of test and personal bikes, I hated when my sole bike wasn’t rideable. Wrenching on my own bikes has become both a practical skill and something I massively enjoy. After hours of frustration and messing up more than a few pads, I learned to dial in my mechanical disc brakes. Through the process of self-adjustment, I came to understand how these systems work. Mechanical brakes are pretty simple. A lever is attached to a brake caliper via a steel cable. Actuating the lever pulls the cable, now attached to an arm on the caliper, where it compresses one or both pads onto a rotating disc rotor. Bada bing, bada boom; you’re stopping. What’s going on at the lever and inside the caliper is more complex, but mechanical brakes illustrate the simplicity that has made me fall in love with bikes. You’re pulling a metal string to stop. It doesn’t get more cut and dry than that!

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Hydraulic brakes, for whatever superior qualities they were said to maintain, presented something of a black box. Though I had some understanding of how they functioned, the bleed process, in conjunction with the cost of fluid, a bleed kit, and the added complexity of the system, didn’t seem all that worth it to me. Hydraulic brakes utilize some pretty simple physics to their advantage. Where mechanical disc brakes are dependent on the leverage and strength of the cable pull in addition to the mechanical power of the piston within the caliper, hydraulic brakes use hoses and the fact that a liquid—at least in terms that apply to the dimension in which we live—can’t be compressed to actuate the pistons within a caliper.* This allows hydraulic calipers to be smaller because they generate more force than mechanical systems and create power that mechanical brakes can’t match. In layman’s terms, pulling a steel cable to actuate an arm will never be as strong as the power created through a closed hydraulic system.

*On an atomic level, liquid can be compressed. However, it requires such a force that when speaking to systems humans actuate, we may as well consider it incompressible.

Stopping Specifics

We often judge braking power on deeply individual sensations. As referenced in my introduction, disagreements about which brakes are up to snuff are pretty common among those who care to nerd out about the specifics. To some, the squishy sensation of one brake isn’t indicative of a lack of power in the same way that the bite of another isn’t a signifier of their ability to stop. From different riding styles and experiences to preferences in setups, braking often isn’t the objective measure we tend to imagine. Obviously, there’s a floor for sufficient stopping power, but if you’ve ever thrown a leg over a friend’s bike, you’ll know how different even the same brake can feel.

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I like a strong, hard bite almost as soon as I compress the lever, and I usually ride drop bars. The lever I’ve spent the most significant amount of time on in the last few years is the TRP RRL drilled lever. When not testing an indexed system, I tend to run a friction setup, so these make the most sense. From my experience using the Growtacs on a number of different levers, I feel it’s important to note that lever sensation plays a massive role in the feel of a brake. The RRLs, with their thin aluminum construction, almost amplify braking feedback. My bulkier Microshift Sword levers, however, dull the same sensations. Same brakes, same rotors, same bike, different feel. We’ll get onto flat-bar levers and their effect on the Growtac Equals in a bit, but the Velo Orange Grand Cru levers also offer a fair bit of braking sensation through the lever ends—something I quite liked.

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Speaking of rotors, due to my frugality and a desire to keep reviews as relatable as possible, I’ve used these with the cheapest brake accouterment possible. The stock Growtac pads are resin, which aligns with my budget-oriented desire to use the exceedingly cheap Shimano SMRT30 resin-specific rotors. They’re not the greatest rotors in the world, as they sometimes warp under excessive heat, but the stopping power on this bottom-of-the-barrel setup has been exceedingly good. Resin systems are also said to be quieter and, per Shimano, offer a “ramped” sensation, which gives a feeling of greater modulation—a property said to belong solely to hydraulic brakes. Despite the variance in feedback between lever setups, the performance I’ve felt out of the Growtacs has been nothing short of exceptional. With a seamless setup process out of the box, the calipers have a phenomenally strong bite—especially when coupled with compressionless housing. That said, I have run the calipers with regular housing as well, and while dulled, they still provide the most responsive braking feedback I’ve ever felt from a mechanical brake.

Biomechanical Boon

Typically, converting any compatible system from drop- to flat-bar levers increases the strength and sensation felt through the braking system. For example, the TRP Spyres never overtly impressed me in drop-bar mode. However, they felt significantly more potent when I swapped over to a flat-bar system. To try and quantify this change, I reached out to lead designer Clint Boyer of Velo Orange, as I figured his background in mechanical engineering would illuminate the mystery. “The difference in strength of braking between drop bar levers and flat bar levers is more to do with ergonomics and biomechanics than brake strength. You take advantage of your body’s leverage advantage when braking on flat bar levers vs the awkward open handed braking position on brake hoods. I think the braking position from the drops is pretty similar in grip to a flat bar, but this position isn’t always set up to be useable on drop bars. ”

A lot of that tracks, as the nature of a mechanical brake largely depends on how well the user can pull the cable. When I rode my Velo Orange prototype in flat-bar mode, the Growtacs felt absurdly good. Less than half a single-finger lever pull would completely lock the wheels up. Compressionless housing also plays a big role in braking strength, as it eliminates any axial* losses that standard housing tends to fall prey to.

*Axial load simply refers to any force that is occurring across the axis of a structure, aka the brake cable being pulled. Standard brake cable housing can compress or flex when the cable is under tension. Compressionless housing uses a different construction such that there’s little, if any, flex to the housing—even when the cable is pulled.

Without Equal

So, with all that understood, why are these brakes so strong if their design differs from other tried-and-true options on the market? According to Growtac, it’s down to a few things. The primary design difference is in the placement and actuation of the mechanism within the caliper. Where most mechanical brakes—such as Spyres, BB7s, and even Paul Klampers—use a system that works horizontally from the bike’s axis, the Growtac Equals use a vertical cam and cable routing placement that’s more in line with the bike. The benefit is that the bend of the cable is less likely to be stark and thus mechanically weakened, irrespective of how that specific bike has its brake cable routed. Their manual gives some examples, though the comparisons shown are a little gratuitous in favor of Growtacs.

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Either way, the placement of the cable is such that it aims to reduce any losses in mechanical leverage by maximizing the most efficient cable position. As stated earlier, this is a good portion of the battle when it comes to how well a mechanical brake performs. The other aspect of the Growtac Equals’ strength has to do with the mechanism that actuates the piston. Any cam, regardless of shape, is a mechanism that converts rotational motion into linear motion. The Growtac Equals use a semi-flat, cylindrical cam system to actuate the piston directly from the arm. In this setup, there isn’t much frictional loss in the transition of force like in other mechanisms, with the system benefiting from the basic physics of a cam.

Physics-based concepts are better illustrated than spoken to, but the basic idea is that the variation in the shape of the cam (the object rotating and thus pushing the “follower”) is such that it ramps up in mechanical advantage as you actuate the brake lever. In other words, it gets stronger the more you squeeze. This is the other groundbreaking element of the Growtac Equals: the brake leverage adjustment function. It’s patented by Growtac and allows users to change the point at which the cam starts actuating. Cams differ in shape just as their followers do, but, as shown in the video above, there is a ramping effect at the more exaggerated end of the cam’s shape. The brake leverage adjustment system simply makes it such that the starting point is much closer to the ramping point, depending on what point the brake arm is secured to the cable. This allows for more powerful braking performance and provides a sense of modulation due to the cam’s shape and the deflection of the static pad.

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Without being hyperbolic, it’s pretty genius and speaks to the level of engineering that went into these brakes. In effect, the brake is so powerful from the standpoint of mechanical leverage that it can literally break itself. Hence the “danger zone” indicated on the caliper. If you set it up such that the brake benefits from both the maximum mechanical leverage of the lever pull and the cam, the caliper will harness too much mechanical leverage and break the mechanism. That’s bonkers.

Questioning Klampers

The obvious and immediate question whenever people see that I have Growtac Equals is, “So, are they as good as Klampers?” While the Paul Klampers deserve their own review, the benefits the Growtacs possess over the Klampers are as follows. The Growtac Equals are the lightest and some of the smallest mechanical brakes on the market. Where both Klampers and Growtac Equals use a single-piston design, the Equals manage to squeeze similar performance out of a significantly smaller caliper. Their smaller size aids in ensuring the cable is as efficiently routed as it can be on as many frames as possible. By contrast, some frames simply will not be able to benefit from the full power of the Klampers because of the size of the caliper.

From a design perspective, the Paul Klampers seem to utilize a well-trodden idea and maximize its potential by ensuring the highest-quality parts are used. Paul Price explains the magic behind the Klampers design in the video above, which use many principles and manufacturing standards that make sense. Consistent with a lot of what the storied US company has made, they ensure every aspect of the mechanism is manufactured and machined such that the maximum gains are extracted from their bearing-oriented actuation. However, Growtacs looked to change the game, not elevate it. The rotating cam design is truly distinct from what anyone else is doing, and the brake leverage adjustment system offers a degree of “modulation” often missing from mechanical brakes. Klampers, while excellent in their own regard, are simply markedly different.

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Exhausting the Equals

For all the good in the Growtac Equals, there is some bad. First and foremost, while the mechanism’s strength is impressive, the fact that there is an accessible “danger zone” for a $365 USD caliper set seems less than ideal. It’s clearly denoted, but it’s a potential point of failure that doesn’t exist on any other mechanical brake. To that end, the nature of the mechanism operating at or near said “danger zone” is such that it can wear the pads faster than normal. This is largely just a trade-off for the stopping power, but I’d be remiss not to mention it.

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The other minor qualm in their design is with the single-piston actuation. Though most engineers agree that a single-piston design makes more sense for mechanical brakes because of the actuation of mechanical systems, the nature of having a moving and static pad makes it such that there will be some deflection in the rotor. Essentially, a pad pushes the rotor onto the static pad, which can warp cheaper rotors like the ones I usually opt for. It’s minor and hasn’t caused much warping to even the cheapest rotors, but it’s worth considering if you are particularly sensitive to some negligible brake noise.

There’s also the simple fact that these are mechanical brakes. After spending quite a bit of time on some sets of hydros via review bikes, I get it. I understand why most people with the means simply opt for hydraulic systems, especially if they don’t care to maintain their own bikes. Consistent pad adjustment, much like what’s needed for any other mechanical braking system, is just part and parcel for these to work at their best. However, in comparison to both BB7s and TRP Spyres, necessary adjustments are far less frequent with the Growtac Equals. Mind you, the frequency of adjustment hasn’t increased much in my move from Florida to Appalachia, and the pad adjustments required for both BB7s and Spyres were far more bothersome in the flat, swampy plains of my home state. The step-less adjustment of the Equals is also more precise in comparison to that of the BB7s and Klampers, which use a stepped system.

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The other issues concern their competitors. Though relatively uncommon, the benefit provided by the modularity in both the design and purchase of the Paul Klampers is second to none. Customers can buy one caliper at a time and purchase replacement parts to run different pull lengths. It’s some of the most pro-consumer behavior on record and something for which Paul Components should be heavily commended. Allowing customers to buy a $33 USD arm kit instead of charging them for an entirely new caliper flies in the face of an industry constantly inventing new ways to close the loop and trap consumers in a single-company ecosystem.

In that same vein, the value provided by the Growtac Equal set comes with a trade-off. Though it’s not a common problem, committing to one brake standard can be limiting. One of the first bikes I used Growtac Equals on was the first-generation Crust Bombora, a bike with a post-mount fork and a flat-mount rear mount. All I needed was a post-to-flat-mount converter, but it’s an alteration you don’t need to make with their main competitor, the Klampers.

The final negative is with their supplied brake kit. Though the kit includes everything one might need, the recommendation for ideal fit is a little nonsensical. Because the provided housing is so stiff, they recommend using a short length of compression housing for the tight bends commonly seen on drop bars. This weakens the braking performance and could be remedied by using a different compressionless housing supplier, as I’ve never had to alter the makeup of my cable housing while using Jagwire compressionless housing. It’s slightly pedantic, but suggesting such a complex solution to something that could be a non-issue seems odd.

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• Model Tested: Flat and Post Mount Growtac Equal Brakes
• Actual Weight: 136 grams (per caliper) Flat and Post Mount (4.79 oz)
• Place of Manufacture: Japan
• Price: $365 for Flat Mount, $405 for Post Mount at VeloOrange.com
• Manufacturer’s Details: Growtac.com

Note: Though Velo Orange, Growtac’s sole US distributor, has limited stock as of writing—they’re set for a complete restock in a week’s time.

Further Reading

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