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Limited Edition Alchemist eeBrakes in Gold & Silver

Written by Tyler Benedict
cane creek limited edition alchemist eeBrakes
12 Comments
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Cane Creek’s twice-per-year tradition of cutely named limited edition colorways continues with the new eeBrake Alchemist. Blending bright gold and silver anodizing, these use their same multi-linkage design to provide power stopping if you’re still on rim brakes.

The caliper was updated in 2018 to handle wider tires and has seen a rainbow of options like Miami Vice, El Diablo, El Platino, and El Chulo, among others.

closeup details of cane creek limited edition alchemist eeBrakes

The gold conveniently matches the gold ano on their headsets and bottom brackets, too. Claimed weight is 80g per wheel, excluding pads. Available while supplies last for $779.99 per set.

CaneCreek.com
Tyler Benedict
11,282 articles

Tyler Benedict is the Founder of Bikerumor.com, where he’s been writing about the latest bikes, components, and cycling technology for almost two decades. Prior to that, Tyler launched and built multiple sports nutrition brands and consumer goods companies, mostly as an excuse to travel and ride in new places.

Based in North Carolina, Tyler also loves the Vanlife & family adventure travel and is always on the lookout for the next shiny new part and off-grid adventure.

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12 Comments
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Mitch
Mitch
9 months ago

I could be remembering wrong but these used to claim to be made in the USA, and now all mention of that is gone. I have a pair of AliExpress knockoffs of the Miami Nights color and to my shock they’ve been fantastic. Is fit/finish as good as Cane Creek? I doubt it. But they were 1/6th the price and get just as many compliments.

1
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nick the brick
nick the brick
9 months ago
Reply to  Mitch

you got that right Mitch

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Rupes
Rupes
9 months ago
Reply to  Mitch

Congratulations?

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Brent
Brent
9 months ago
Reply to  Mitch

Indeed, they are not manufactured in the US (confirmed by the brand), yet, I have seen a pair of those copies brakes and after 2 months of use in winter here they already developped play making them vibrate more than they should (and they screw don’t support a lot of use).
I have a Gen2 that I yet don’t understand how they manage to be so smooth when I haven’t touched them in almost 4 years.

Then it is down to what moral standards you have.

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Tim
Tim
8 months ago
Reply to  Brent

The implication here is that someone’s moral standards are lower if they purchase the cheap, presumably made in China knock-offs rather than the expensive, no longer made in the US (but probably not China) originals.
If we’re talking labor conditions, the Cane Creek ones are *probably* the winner.
If we’re talking IP, then I would ask if the Cane Creek brakes are protected by a patent. If not, then there’s a cheap copy. So what?
If we’re talking quality, then the originals probably win.
Price? That’s up to businesses to decide. Personally, I think that asking over 700 bucks for a pair of brakes is a near guarantee that there will be knockoffs.

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WhateverBikes
WhateverBikes
8 months ago
Reply to  Tim

You lost me at ‘knock-offs’.
The very idea of a knock-off is that you let someone else do the hard work (the initial idea, the design, the prototypes, the refinements, the production, the marketing, the customer service, all that is needed to make a product a succes) and then copy it to grab a profit.
Even if the originals are not patented, or the patent has expired, the above is still true. The only difference is that in the latter scenario it is not forbidden.
Do you honestly not see a moral difference there?
If a company takes an idea and does it’s own thing with it, as in a different design, different materials, improvements in function etc., then it is another matter.

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Tim
Tim
8 months ago
Reply to  WhateverBikes

Fair enough- “copy” is more accurate, although if other posters’ reports about the copies qualities are true, then “deceptive copy” is better.
If it were a really good copy with the same quality, I definitely wouldn’t laud it.
Reality: if you make a brakeset costing nearly 800 dollars and they’re selling well, someone is going to copy your product. There just isn’t much way to justify that price. I think the copying is bad, but I just don’t have a visceral, disgusted reaction here.

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Rupes
Rupes
8 months ago
Reply to  Tim

Spoken like a true low-cost consumer. “There just isn’t much way to justify that price.” You’re kidding, right? You have no idea what the BOM is or where they’re sourcing materials. You have no idea how many hours went into design, development, or production. You have no idea how large the production run is. Saying it’s not worth the cost and then buying a copy is literally admitting you don’t value other people’s work.

WhateverBikes has it exactly right. If you can’t or won’t justify the price of a product, just don’t buy it. If you pay someone else to make a cheaper version of it (which is exactly what you’re doing buying replicas) you’re stealing the hard work of everyone involved in bringing the original to market. If it’s a proper duplicate like we’re talking about here, you’re also clearly saying you think the product has value because you want to use it and be seen with it, so you know you’re taking from the people that created it. That’s garbage behavior.

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Tim
Tim
8 months ago
Reply to  Rupes

@Rupes- I completely agree with you in what you said about people who buy cheaply copied products; you express that idea well.
However, you seem to have assumed that I bought the copied brakes, or am inclined to buy them. I didn’t buy them, and wouldn’t, although that probably isn’t apparent from my first post. Looking back on my many purchases of bike products starting in 1994, I can say I have never bought a copy or knockoff product.
When I say that the high price of the real deal product means someone is going to copy it, I am not saying that’s a good thing. I’m saying that’s reality. Reality often sucks, and in this case it does.
I will venture to say that what differs between you and I is not our sense of right and wrong, but rather how upset we get by the fact of people acting badly.

2
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Rupes
Rupes
8 months ago
Reply to  Tim

Fair enough. I think I was mistakenly conflating your comment with Mitch’s original comment where he proudly states he’s running knockoffs and likes the attention they get specifically because they look like the originals.

Having had a more than a few projects I’ve contributed to get knocked off over the years, I guess I get pretty touchy about this subject.

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Bumscag
Bumscag
8 months ago
Reply to  Rupes

Kind of weird and disheartening that people are upvoting the comment from the guy running replicas and downvoting the comments calling him out

2
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JoeS
JoeS
9 months ago

Hahaha

0
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