Lewis Brakes LV4 First Look - by Deven McCoy

Article From: https://www.bikemag.com/gear/lewis-brakes-lv4-first-look

Those familiar with Trickstuff products will likely be aware of a smaller and slightly more infamous brand from the Zhejiang Province in China. Lewis Bike has been making waves in the last few years with an interesting approach to brake system development, which has rightfully caused them to receive a lot of criticism from the community and broader industry. There is no getting around the fact that Lewis has clearly copied the design and processes of the Trickstuff brake offerings, but the way they have done this is a bit different.

Lewis isn’t hiding that they have borrowed ideas and used similar design language in their products. Rather than hide the fact that they have taken what Trickstuff is doing and expanded upon the concepts, it is an admirable approach, but it’s not about who did what and why. It’s about the products brought to market.  Youtuber Dale Stone has an incredibly insightful video that dives deeper into the history and origins of the controversy surrounding this brand. I suggest you hear what he has to say about the brand and the LH4 brakes.

I will likely never be able to afford or justify purchasing a set of brakes from Trickstuff. Their least expensive offering is just shy of $1,200 USD, and while I don’t have any doubts that the price reflects the R&D, testing, and manufacturing processes, that is a substantial price tag for a set of brakes. Looking at the options available from Lewis, you see a very similar product but a price tag that is much, much easier to digest as a consumer. $459 USD per set seems almost too good to be true for something eerily similar to the bespoke offerings from Trickstuff. Still, if you are a frequent patron of Aliexpress or Alibaba, you’ll know there are ways to find products that mimic these high-end components at a fraction of the price and quality.

Quality

When I unboxed these LV4 brakes I was very impressed, but not entirely surprised. The quality in question is an interesting topic when looking at cloned alternatives, and in the past, I have rolled the dice on several cloned products to save some coin or out of pure curiosity. How much different could these “knock-offs” really be in the end? Well, it turns out there is no telling. It all depends on the manufacturer and what product they are copying, and I have unboxed some items that I could barely tell apart from the original and some that were obviously clones that I would never trust on my bike. These Lewis brakes cannot be clumped in with the aforementioned clones. They are their very own, albeit familiar, design.  

While most reviews and media have covered Lewis's LH brakes, I see little information on the LV4 or LV2 brake systems and wanted to get a closer look at what might be the lightest and most powerful XC/trail brakes on the market, so I reached out to see about getting a set to review.

Initial Impressions

Shipping was quick, and after a week, the brakes arrived neatly packaged, bled, sealed, and ready to install on my Transition Spur, which will be the test bed for several products over the next few months. The installation was straightforward and didn’t require any hose cutting or bleeding, thanks to the external routing on the Spur. The interface on the bars is interesting and pretty sleek, but I overlooked the need for Matchmaker with the SRAM GX mechanical drivetrain and OneUp dropper lever. Luckily, my parts drawer and Georges Cycles had what I needed to finish the installation.

The finish and quality of these petite brakes took me by surprise. Since few documents with a size comparison are available, I had no idea they would be such small levers. As a Shimano XT enjoyer, I appreciate a smaller form factor on the bars. As I torqued things down and spun the block to ensure everything was copacetic with the new brakes, I began to appreciate them more and more after spending so much time on the SRAM G2 RS brakes that these LV4s are replacing. 

The reach adjusts, and bite point settings offer a ton of fine-tuning, and the actual lever feel is somewhere between Magura and well-bled Shimano 4-piston brakes, depending on how you adjust things.

Lever Setup

I like an abrupt on-off feeling to my brakes and prefer to feather rather than modulate. I run my levers in a mid-position from the bar, and they are pretty flat. As I grew up riding steeper trails in the PNW, these LV4 levers were set up accordingly at first, but I’ll likely be adjusting a fair bit on the first ride. The ergonomics of the levers feel interesting, and I did have a lot of back and forth setting up the shifter and lever position to feel right, but after repeatedly removing all the controls and grips a dozen times, I found the Goldilocks position that keeps the levers where I want and the shifter out of the way of my thumb.

The lever uses a dual pivot design and four bearings to actuate the radial master cylinder. Most brakes on the market use an axial design, with Trickstuff, Magura, and Lewis being the exceptions that offer a radial option. The significant benefit of a radial design is primarily the weight, as this design can utilize a much smaller reservoir and requires less bolstering since the user force is being applied directly toward the bar. Radial lever designs are stiffer and make for a more sensitive braking system overall, which makes these LV4 brakes suitable for XC, trail, enduro, and downhill use, as stated on the Lewis website. Pairing this unique radial design with an asymmetric 4-piston caliper is what really drew me to these brakes.

Calipers

The calipers were effortless to install and didn’t require a bleed or piston pressing. I used the same adaptors that were already on the bike and torqued the caliper bolts down while holding the levers, and that was that. No pings, no rubbing, good to go. The calipers themselves are beautiful examples of CNC and house 4-piston (14mm+17mm) Stainless steel pistons with Metallic Pads. Connected to the levers with a braided kevlar hose and filled with mineral oil means that the LV4 brakes will maintain consistent brake force and be pretty easy to bleed when the time comes.

First impressions matter

The easy process of installing these brakes and their impressive finish and out-of-the-box feel have left me very impressed and excited to put some miles on them. Stay tuned for a long-term test and complete breakdown and bleed experience. I will be curious to see how the pads, hoses, and rotor options align with these unique little brakes.