Posted on July 27, 2022 by Ron Frazelle

Polarizing opinions aside, cable-actuated disc brakes aren’t going anywhere. And frankly, in many circles, these types of disc brakes actually seem to be more popular than ever.

As you may have guessed, I for one am a big fan of the mechanical disc brake. Mostly, just for the simplicity of ’em. There is no denying that they’re easy to set up and maintain.

Plus, if you ride your bike in remote, faraway places, like on a bikepacking trip, an adventure-filled long day ride, or even a double century, cable-actuated disc brakes are easier to repair on the fly as any ol’ brake cable will work in a pinch (plus you can easily carry a spare cable).

Also, most mechanical disc brake calipers on the market, including the Growtac, use the most common types of brake pads (Shimano K04, K03, K0s-RX). These types of brake pads will, more than likely, be available at any bike shop you might happen upon in your bicycle travels. All reasons why you might want to check out mechanical disc brakes. Specifically, the new Growtac Equal disc brakes.

I received the pair of gold (and I mean gold!) Growtac Equal brakes from Igor at Velo Orange. Velo Orange is, as of this writing, the only place you can buy these brakes in the USA.

These brakes were destined for my Masi, so I received the flat-mount version of the brakes. But they do come in post-mount as well with the additional color of purple (exclusive to the post-mount version).

Displayed like fine pieces of gold jewelry.

All the goodies are underneath!

The box that these brakes came in was a bit extravagant and large. But to be fair, the box was designed to “display” a pricey set of brakes and hide all of the goodies that come with them underneath. You don’t just get the brake calipers when you purchase these, you get everything you need to install the brakes except new rotors. I was impressed with the fact that they came with both front and rear compressionless (stiff) and non-compressionless (flex-a-mundo) housing, front and rear brake cables (for both road or mountain bikes), housing ferrules, cable ends, a bunch of different size hardware for the rear brake and the front flat-mount adaptor.

Equal caliper (with pad) comes in at 137 grams.

The weight of the Equal brakes with the pads installed was only 137 grams per caliper. That seems very respectable.

TRP Spyre-C coming in at 135 grams…with pad (although not much of it is left).

I thought it would be a great idea to compare the weight of the TRP Spyre-C caliper that the Equal is replacing on my Masi. I thought the Spyre would be heavier, but it was two grams lighter… but I noticed that there is very little material left on the Spyre’s pads…easily 2 grams worth. So, I am going to say that they are approximately the same weight.

The Paul Components Klamper comes in at 182 grams (no pad).

OK, because I know that you’re all gonna ask… and also because I’m in the middle of doing a comparison review of the Klampers vs the Equals on the same bike and I have some of the Klampers on hand, I decided to do a weight comparison of the two… you know, just to whet your appetite.

The Paul Klamper caliper came in at 182 grams without the pads. I was a little surprised that the Klamper was 45 grams heavier. But, that being said, as much as these brakes are similar, it’s not quite an “apples to apples” comparison and the weight difference is not the end of the story on the Klampers vs. the Equals.

You’ll have to stay tuned… sorry (not really).

Lookin’ sharp! Gold chain + gold caliper = golden!

As I mentioned earlier, I am installing these brakes on my Masi Rando bike with Shimano 105 brifters. The Equals are only available in a short pull version, so they will work great with drop bar levers or cantilever brake levers.

The brake calipers are compact and light. I would say the finish on the calipers isn’t as elegant as the Klampers, as there are a lot of visible “machine markings”. This in no way was a big deal to me, but at this price point, it could be for others. I personally like the aesthetics and angles of the calipers a lot.

Having the actuator arm on top of the caliper instead of the side helps in keeping the caliper tight, small, and tucked in on the chain stay.

You can see the rubber plug has been removed to adjust the outside pad.

Set up was really simple. There were more steps than I’m normally used to when setting up my brake calipers to the rotor… but the result was a little better than I normally get… so take that for what it’s worth.

After looking through and following the instructions, which were really good BTW, Growtac suggests using the compressionless housing for best results. They included the non-compressionless housing likely in case the housing routing on your frame has you making some tough turns that the stiff stuff can’t make.

Once the caliper is on the bike (finger tightened) and the housing is cut and fitted, turn the barrel adjustor out 1 to 2mm, and turn the silver nut to lock it there.

Take the actuator arm and push it to the left completely to allow easy passage of the brake cable onto the arm and through the set screw. Once it is through, let the actuator arm back to its resting place. Pull the cables slack out and tighten the set screw.

You can see the “rotor-centering notch” right under the “D” of the model number on the caliper.

Then, using a 3mm Allen key, adjust the inner and outer pads to pinch the rotor. There is an actual “rotor-centering-notch” on the caliper to help you center the rotor “inside” the notch. You will pinch the rotor until the rotor is centered in the little centering notch, then tighten the caliper to the frame to the required torque. BTW, this little notch was super helpful in lining the pads up, and centering the rotor in the caliper.

Once the caliper is tightened to the frame, Growtac suggests squeezing the lever hard three or four times to seat the housing and end caps, then loosen the set screw and remove the extra cable slack. At this point, it’s time to adjust the pads back out, away from the rotor.

Once the pads are out, and the wheel spins freely, adjust the inner (fixed side) pad to where it is close to the rotor but no rotor contact is heard when the wheel is turned. Now adjust the outside (actuating) pad to match the amount of lever throw you find comfortable. Once that is determined, you can now turn the barrel adjustor to eliminate any further cable slack.

Blammo, you’re done and ready to ride!

Once this is finished, I found the result was a snappy and fluid lever feel that was easily adjusted to how I like my brakes to feel. That’s it. I know, when writing it out, it feels like a lot, but it’s really quite simple and easy to get it right the first time.

Pad wear gauge on the actuation arm of the caliper

Another cool feature of the Growtac Calipers is the brake pad wear gauge on the actuator arm. The first three lines (left to right) are marking healthy pad usage….but, then at the flat line and triangle around the exclamation point (all the way to the right), that’s when you enter the Danger Zone, and you need to change your brake pads. Nice attention to detail.

I will get right to the point. These are the strongest cable-actuated disc brakes I have ever ridden to date. The brake’s strength was very impressive. I was able to pull an effortless, seated, on-pavement, skid with very little effort. I know that’s a weird, non-scientific thing to say, but I’ve never had a mechanical disc brake that was able to do that, effortlessly I mean. My Spyres have gotten close, but not without me helping them along by unweighting the rear wheel.

I already know that this is a very ad-hoc litmus gauge to test braking strength. To be transparent, I am a large human being, weighing in at 245lbs. To me, being able to throw down a skid, effortlessly while not aiding it, showed me something these brakes could do that other mechanicals I’ve owned couldn’t.

I guess the short story here, is that these are some strong-ass brakes!

Another thing worth mentioning is that these brakes have remained completely noise-free from the initial shake-down ride… not a peep.

The Growtac Equals are a good lookin’ and quiet set o’ brakes.

The brakes were reviewed on a sufficiently used set of TRP center lock rotors, but they didn’t seem to be phased by that at all. And the Growtac’s pad break-in period was short and easy.

They performed very, very well on long paved descents. They seem to have great heat dissipation, suffering zero fading, or glazing of the pads. They were fantastic at stopping a 30-plus pound bike with a 245-pound rider from a speed in excess of over 40mph, over and over again.  This may be a surprise, but I don’t race, and I am not bombing all of the hills out there… but I feel that these brakes wouldn’t have an issue stopping you in either of those situations (racing or hill bombing).

One descent that I rode during this review has a few, really fun, twisty corners and one fast hairpin. When diving into these corners, and attempting to feather the brakes, was the point that I felt the lack of modulation came into sharp focus. Make no mistake, I knew there would be some modulation issues. Up to this point in the several weeks that the brakes were under review, I had noticed some of the lack of modulation already.

Remember, this is typically any cable-actuated brake’s nemesis….modulation, or the lack of it. And these brakes were no exception. Maybe swapping out the pads to a different compound or swapping the compressionless housing for the non-compressionless housing would help with the “feel” of getting some modulation. I’m sure the lever feel would be affected and not feel as snappy… but that aside, maybe it would help.

I want to emphasize that this is nothing new here and not exclusive to the Equals. Lack of modulation is or seems to be, the bane of all cable-actuated disc brakes. It’s also, in my opinion, the only argument for hydros over cable-actuated brakes… even then, it’s a weak argument. I personally feel the cable-actuated brakes’ benefits far outway the one negative. And for most riders not doing crazy, technical descents, it’s not a negative at all.

I found that the Equal’s lack of modulation was completely manageable and easily dealt with and compensated for on all of my rides with these brakes.

Equal brakes are developed and manufactured in Japan. And like I mentioned earlier in the post, are only available through Velo Orange!

They come in these colors:

What’s included in the box:

* Please note that if you are mounting these brakes onto a frame designed for a 140mm rear rotor without adapting, but plan to run a 160mm rotor, you will need a rear flat mount adaptor.

I really liked these brakes. As I have them set up on my bike, they are a tremendous cable-actuated disc brake set and for sure one of the best I’ve tried. In the varying applications that I used these brakes in over the past several weeks, it is my opinion that the Growtac Equal disc brakes are plenty strong for most (almost all) braking applications.

They are easy to set up and the lever feel is crisp and snappy instantly. The actual braking felt great almost immediately after the initial set-up. The lever feel has stayed consistently sharp and responsive throughout the review period, with a very solid and confidence-inspiring contact with the brake pads.

I do love that you get everything you need (sans rotors) to set up your bike for $175 a wheel. I know that’s not “cheap” and it’s about $100 more (per wheel) than the TRP Spyres. But, for a high-end brake caliper, machined from aluminum, that comes with everything you need (again, sans rotors), with the massive stopping power these brakes have, that price seems reasonable to me…plus the bling factor of the gold is off the charts!

With the lack of modulation feeling that the brakes have, it did take some getting used to and I eventually learned to work with the brakes. And in all fairness, maybe if I had spent a little more time with them, it would’ve been something I could easily get used to. It’s hard to say. Since the Growtacs have so much to offer in the braking power department I think I would gladly trade off a little less power for a little more modulation.

All and all they are well-built brakes that seem to be very high quality and super strong… I would definitely recommend these brakes to any lover of the cable-actuated disc brake.

Ron Frazelle is the Cycling Lifestyle Editor for Bikerumor, he has been writing about bicycles and the cycling way of life for 7+ years. Prior to Bikerumor, he worked in the bicycle industry, living and breathing bicycles since 1995. He is based in Anaheim, California, Frazelle is an avid cyclist of all disciplines, camper, father to 6 children, husband, musician and self-proclaimed retro-grouch.

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At $350 a set I would have expected a dual-piston rather than single-piston mechanism.

The internals on dual piston cable brakes have to be miniaturized so that the inner half of the brake fits in the small area next to the spokes; smaller ball bearings hold up less well to the stress of repeated braking. One piston brakes suffer from no such problem, as there is no complex mechanism getting crammed into a tiny area. That in short is the reason both boutique cable brake makers (Paul and now Growtac) have stuck with single actuation. Paul even extensively prototyped dual piston brakes and gave up on them.

At the same time, many cars use essentially a single-piston design in their disc brakes too.

In a sliding or floating brake caliper, only one piston is actually being moved by hydraulic fluid; the other piston is fixed. When you apply the brakes in a car so equipped, the brake caliper slides on pins such that when the one piston moves, both sides of the caliper clamp on the brake rotor.

The dual-piston mechanism you see on the TRP Spyre or any bicycle-use hydraulic brake is closer in concept to the “fixed” brake calipers used on performance cars.

I have to agree though: The price on the Growtacs (and by extension the Klampers) is definitely steep. I quite literally bought my Shimano ST-RS685 + BR-RS785 bundle on eBay for a lot less than the price of a pair of these brakes alone.

As I recall, there was at least one faux two piston MTB cable brake with the design you mentioned. It was made by IRD. Not sure why that design never took hold in the MTB world.

It’s great to see some new life being breathed into cable brakes, this is the first really high-end cable brake to hit the market since 2015 (when the Klamper arrived); it’s great to see a major publication take the time to do a good review of them.

Long live cable brakes! I’ve been on the same set of BB7s since 2003 and will soon replace them with these. I do think saying “lack” of modulation is a bit much; I don’t know which noun I’d use instead, but in my experience the difference in modulation between dry and wet brakes is small but noticeable. I’ve ridden cable brakes down the steepest and scariest stuff I’ve ever done, stuff where you need to very, very nearly lock up the wheels, and I’ve never thought that extra smidge of modulation would have made a difference. Much looking forward to the Klamper vs Equal mano a mano (freno a freno?)! Thanks for the review, Ron!

Thanks, good review. I’ve been curious about these. Personally I’m just a little miffed these Growtacs got released only just now, after I had upgraded from TRP Spyres to Shimano BR-RS785 hydraulics. Had these released four years ago I may have taken them into serious consideration.

Any issues with hand fatigue on longer descents? That, along with the heat soak from the Spyres on very steep slopes, was the main reason why I made the hydraulic switch.

Will wait for your comparison with the Paul Klampers.

Would love to know how these compare in power to the Juintech F1’s. if these were $250 then i think they would do better. single piston and $350 is pretty ridiculous to be honest. more choice is always better but this is like THM releasing another 1500 crank set. does not really do much for the average rider.

Dual piston sucks. The moving parts all have to be super tiny to fit between rotor and spokes. There’s a reason that only one company of note makes dual piston cable brakes, which is again that they suck. As for the price, it is indeed high, but does include both ordinary and compressionless brake housing as well as, FWIW, a good range of colors.

I too have a Masi Giramondo with the same dual piston TRP brakes; I have had zero problems with dual piston disk, and I use the bike for loaded touring. I have found the TRP brakes to be very powerful and easy to modulate. Also both the pads and rotors are still original after 11,000 miles. This bike did come with 180mm front rotors and 160 rear, the new Giramondo have gone to 160 on the front, not sure why they did that, I think I prefer the larger rotor on the front for better cooling and stopping power?

Nice to see continued innovation in this space however I think $350/set is a bit of a reach. Comparing these and say, 105 STI levers to the 105 Hydro setup shows a price gap of about $100/set. While these sound like they perform very well for a cable actuated brake I doubt they’re as good as a full hydraulic setup. I guess I’m wondering what the take rate will be at this price.

If one is fine with buying older 11-speed hardware and Post Mount calipers, the ST-RS685 + BR-RS785 bundle is pretty good value for money especially now that it hasn’t been the latest and greatest for a few years. I don’t imagine it would be a chore to swap the calipers for Flat Mount versions if the frame needs them, either – CMIIW.

The idea that hydraulic fluid is magical and that using it automatically gives the best possible braking is, judging by comments in the internet at least, nearly universal. In my personal experience though, the performance gap between a hydraulic brake and a well set up cable one is noticeable but small; I’ve ridden a lot of brakes, both hydro and cable, and find the performance gap between the two to be noticeable but still small. About the price of the Equals… it is high, but it is a niche, boutique product made by a small company. Right now there are three cable brakes for flat mount- Paul Klampers, TRP Spyres and now Growtac Equals. The Klampers are great brakes, but they are really at heart a heavy duty brake that is overkill for road use, while the Spyres and Equals are pared down to near the minimum possible weight. The Equals occupy a small niche- light weight, boutique cable brake; they’ve carved out a near monopoly for themselves and the company is taking advantage of that. I do think the price is a bit steep, but were I the owner of Growtac I’d likely be charging something similar.

Nothing to do with these brakes, but I love the chain holder on the frame. Once a staple now a rare sight but oh so helpful when needed

Agreed, I once looked into getting a custom Mosaic built and one condition is I wanted to get a braze on chain holder. The shop I was working with told me Mosaic won’t do that because I guess people kept forgetting the chain was on and pedaling away with the chain on the holder damaging the frames and crashing. Not sure if it was total BS since I moved on to a different brand and frame material.

Bought a set of Equal’s from Gentle Jaunt in Germany for a Giant Revolt Pro build.

I have some experience of cable pull disc callipers as I have used TRP Spyre’s which were poor and hard to get a good brake. Juin Tech F1. They were Ok but not brilliant and then failed with oil seal and were ditched. I am running a set of Paul Klampers on a Ti Gravel bike and they are awesome. Very powerful and very easy to take a part and service.

I am hoping that the Growtac Equal will be as good or maybe better than the Klampers . I love the fact that I can use any groupset that I fancy and because its a cable set up I have lots of great value options. I am using Dura Ace 9000 11spd cable brake groupset for the rest of the build when the frame finally arrives in France in early August.

Dumb question but what is the actual appeal for products like these over hydro disc brakes? I have Spyres on one bike and 105 hydro on another and the Hydro is far less of a pain to get set up, is lower maintenance and offers, superior performance on the road, the spyres are great but mostly I bought those because of cost and having a nearly new R8000 groupset. There must be some appeal over running hydro with some RX4 calipers in whatever hope anodized color you like or the stock shimano/sram/campag offering. Always wondered why you see Klampers and stuff on high end bikes, is it just for travel?

I think it’s a few things, somewhat alluded to in the article:

That said, I prefer hydros and find the difference to be much larger… especially on the RX4s I have on my “rowdiest” gravel bike (the SRAM version, fwiw).

On the RX4s: they are absolute overkill (that bike has a dropper, MTB gearing, and big tires… the perfect tool to ride 5-10 miles to a trail and underbike your way to miles of smiles). They are well made, though. The downside is that, like most Hope brakes, they are a bit of a PITA to maintain. Initial setup requires a lot of work to make those finely machined pistons move, and they don’t like doing that… even after thousands of miles and many bleeds. As a result, they can get noisy quick. I put them on for fun and looks, but would not recommend them. Way more brake than you really need, to boot. I have a less “rowdy” gravel bike with Red hydros that are much more my speed.

I tried to make this comment yesterday, but it seems to have disappeared into the ether.

Clamping a brake cable using a set screw is poor engineering. It should use a pivoting cable clamp, as seen on dual-pivot/side-pull brakes, to lessen stress on the cable.

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