Luis García, developer of Ride Panzer, has launched a new brake pad brand; Less Brakes. Offering a range of sintered, organic and ceramic pads, the brand differentiate themselves from competitors with their “discipline-specific” compounds covering eMTB, Downhill, Enduro, XC, Gravel and Road.
Less Brakes
Investing in top-quality aftermarket pads is a very effective way of squeezing more power from your brakes, and it’s the cheapest way. Less Brakes are throwing their hat in the ring with a range of pad compounds for use across almost all disciplines of cycling.
The new aftermarket brake pad brand has launched with three compounds; sintered, organic and ceramic, respectively labelled Powerful, Balanced and Progressive. All are offered for SRAM, Shimano, AVID, Formula, Hope, Magura, TRP and Trick Stuff stoppers.
All the compounds are backed by a steel base plate treated with an anti-corrosion coating.
Powerful
The Powerful pads are, unsurprisingly, their most powerful offering. They are a sintered compound, recommended for eMTB, Enduro and Downhill applications. Their claim is that the pads provide maximum braking power at any temperature and at any level of humidity. The resin is USA-made composed of bonded abrasive products with lubricating additives.
Balanced
The Balanced pads are the semi-metallic/organic compound option, rated for a wide range of disciplines including XC, Road, eMTB, Enduro and DH. They call it their “all-terrain” compound, said to feel highly reactive and powerful even at low temperatures.
Progressive
The Progressive pads have a ceramic compound, said to be the longest-lasting of the range. They claim to be very quiet and very progressive. The compound should provide consistent braking over a wide temperature range, limiting heat transfer to the calipers, preventing undesirable performance fade.
Less Brakes Pricing & Availability
Luis García’s new brand is set to launch in March 2021 in France, Spain, Chile and Finland. Compounds are priced as follows:
- BALANCED 11.90 €
- POWERFUL 16.90 €
- PROGRESSIVE 19.90 €
Cool pads- literally, especially the ceramic ones. Shame about the lack of North American availability right now, and the environmentally unfriendly looking packaging.
I can never think of a time in which I’d prefer “less stopping power.” When speaking of brakes, of course. I’ll take POWERFUL, if you please.
If you’re on a road bike with 28c tires, your braking will be more limited by traction than someone using a knobby mountain bike tire on dirt (not to mention that road bike terrain is generally less steep than mountain bike terrain). So, in the case of a road bike, more power from a brake & pad just means that you have the ability to lock up and skid at an earlier point when you hoss on the lever.