jt profile

Kona was WAYYYY ahead of that curve.

Rad, but more rad is the answer to, "How long before we see the design ideas applied to the Slash, Remedy, and Fuel EX?"

The system lubricates the pistons from the inside-out. Applying fluid externally can lead to inadvertent pad/rotor contamination or too much piston slip. See DMVancouver's bit below. FWIW, I use a chunky pad spacer (the old Hayes ones work a treat). Leave one pad on the piston, insert pad spacer, and pump the brake lever until the piston without the pad on it contacts the spacer. Remove the spacer and pad, push the piston back in, and repeat the process 2-3 more times, then do the same thing to the other side. This works on 2 or 4 piston brakes regardless of manufacturer, and has taken care of much of the wandering bite point issues I had on one set of my SLX brakes and my GRX ones as well.  My other set of SLX's required a bit more work and tinkering as the problem reared back up worse on a night ride in 0F temps.

Super good point on that, and it applies to the phenolic units most big co's use as well. I will add the voice of, "However..."

If you look around on other mass commercial websites, you can find phenolic caliper pistons for much of Shimano's line up, even the 4piston jobbers. You will of course void your warranty. You can ask me how I know in a DM :D

Big plusses for the third paragraph. I've found that exact trick to remedy most of the Shimano wandering bite point issues on their brakes using the white ceramic pistons (SLX and up on MTB, GRX/Ult/DA on Road. None too sure about the 105). Even if it doesn't 100% remedy it, it does a good enough job to make it less of an issue.

Lubing pistons decreases piston retraction. The piston requires a bit of friction with the seal to have the proper amount of retraction. Lubing the piston decreases the friction between the 2 parts, resulting in the piston sliding through the seal too much. This goes contrary to a lot of comments on forums. Conversely the opposite is true. Too much friction prevents the piston from slipping properly, resulting in a mushy/poor bleed feel at the lever.

That temp thing is a REAL interesting bit. I've thought about it before, but mostly at or below the freezing point for the frozen days on the fat bike. You know, those days when your brakes feel like your applying blocks of wood to your rotors. I hadn't considered what warmer temps do to tire performance outside of motor racing. Color me intrigued for the follow up.

Great Crom! Where was this article two months ago?!? The things I had to learn by trial and error, esp. the cam lobe alignment. Great tear down, AJ!

A pal of mine has been bemoaning the Fox on his Fuel 2020 EX 9.8 since he got the bike, and I've been leaning on him to get on one of these for the tunability alone, much less being able to service it easily. Really, the bang:buck ratio is stupid high for this unit. Regarding side load on shocks from misalignment, I've had it on several bikes, most notably my SB66 (though MY 05 Bullit wasn't near straight n true either). The SB was so bad I measured the offset diff and ordered the spacers to correct it. The bike took on a bit more sensitivity because of it. Crapper to have to do it, but better than not doing so. The force vector alignment and range of options at the drops make Banshee high on my 'potential new bike when I decide 26 is dead', and the Suntour reviews keep pointing towards their boingers being on the bike.

Yep, yep, yep. I have a lull period between when the 27.5x3.8's come off and the sus fork comes on where I 29x2.5s on the winter/rigid fork fork before the trails turn to better than 'rideable'. If you wanna ride faster in summer, ride rigid in off seasons.