Power, control and adjustability; Hayes El Camino On Test

Hayes has finally unveiled the long-awaited replacement for its venerable Mag series of hydraulic disc brakes. The El Camino offers up a variety of new features, and James Huang takes a look to see how well the new brake stacks up.

Does anyone even remember anymore how long Hayes has been in the bicycle-specific hydraulic disc brake market? If it seems like forever, that's because Hayes was the first widely-accepted disc brake on the market and one of the first to gain OEM spec on new bikes. Those early products offered then-unprecedented stopping power in a durable and relatively compact package.

Unfortunately, that original design has carried over largely unchanged from the late 90s all the way to last year's introduction of the new G2 calliper design. In spite of the new calliper, though, Hayes hydraulic brakes still suffered from a bit of 'on-off' modulation woes and the ergonomics were never quite spot-on. For 2006, Hayes is looking to retake the disc brake throne with the introduction of the all-new El Camino.

For James Huang's complete review of Hayes' El Camino's, click here.

MTB stuff in New Arrivals

In this week's New Arrivals, we feature several MTB products: the White Brothers Magic 80 suspension fork, Lake MXZ301 winter MTB shoes, and SQ Lab 735 grips.

For full details of the February 1 New Arrivals, click here.