Review: Lewis LHP+ U4 Brakes - by Brad Kelly

Article From: https://www.instagram.com/p/DFCFrXwTM6u/

https://www.instagram.com/p/DB2UnFGC4fF/

I'm personally not a fan of cooling fins in general, for the reason they block your line of sight of the pistons behind the pads from the top, and just make it harder to set up and make the constant micro piston centring adjustments/advancements I like to make.

I thought I would give these new brakes the benefit of the doubt and just try them in stock form with the fins, but the very first brake I installed and set up caused me a bit of drama, as it turned out the pads fouled slightly in the caliper, and I couldn't see the pistons move separately behind the fins/pads.

In theory, I like the idea of having the extra 1.3mm aluminium plate (cooling fin plate) sit between the pads and the pistons for heat dissipation, but the fact that the cooling fins are "captured" and can't be removed without disassembling the caliper just makes it harder to access and clean the pistons properly.

I originally thought I'd just run these new LHP levers (which I'm loving) on LHT calipers, but I really like the aesthetics of these new calipers with more material.

So this is the solution I came up with. Local hardware sells aluminium plate. I purchased 1.0mm and 1.6mm, but even the thinner 1mm plate keeps the pistons retracted way more than most brakes keeping the pistons cleaner and more protected.

I haven't experienced heat related problems with any of the Lewis brakes, but I'm liking this idea of the 1mm plate which will only aid in helping them stay cool and also like the idea of being able to shim with different plate thicknesses to tune piston advancement.

Definitely a bit of extra time involved, and not something most people would want to do, but I like custom/tuning/tinkering and believe this is a good option for me and my preferences.

So far these brakes have been unreal, and I need to make up some more plates for more brake sets.
Assembled these are while ago and was waiting for a rainy week to install them.

Lewis LHP+ U4 with titanium pistons and hardware for a bit of extra bling.

I've also modified the cooling fins to be removable for easier access to the pistons for maintenance and adjustments.

If you remove the smaller cooling fin retaining bulge, you can remove the fins, but will need to remove the wheel, pads and retract the pistons to angle the fins out. I've gone 1 step further and removed both bulges to be able to remove the fins without removing the wheel, and it also makes removing the pads easier, as you don't have to fish the pads out from between the fins.

I've been running these brakes for a while now (the U4s) for over 1000ks on the Amflow, which has given the brakes an absolute beating and been the ultimate test for brakes, and they've been nothing short of amazing, even after running pads very low without realising, resulting in the fluid level in the reservoir becoming quite low.

Just as I've installed these, Lewis have yet again developed a new model of brake which I'm extremely excited about! I've been requesting this type of brake for many months now, and have a couple of sets on the way to test.

Watch this space for some crazy new brakes coming soon!