We say The best brakes on the market, as powerful as hydro but ten times more reliable.They don't rip through pads like hydro, need very little adjustment and bite like nothing else! They say It took 3 years of in-house development before the Klamper met all of our extremely high goals. We wanted absolute reliability, easy adjustability, and field serviceability. We wanted super strong stopping power but without hydraulic fluid and fussy bleed kits. After countless drawing revisions, fine tuning of piston design and bearing ramp profiles, and probably 20 prototypes, we nailed it, and the Klamper has quickly become a cult classic. What’s the secret sauce? We don’t want to give away all our engineering secrets, but the bulk of our power comes from using oversized ball bearings, and machining our pistons from 12L14 steel. Using this steel alloy allows us to heat treat the pistons which also hardens the bearing ramp races to resist pitting for a lifetime of silky smooth lever pull. Using flat needle roller thrust bearings instead of a plastic thrust washers doesn’t hurt either. These brakes are perfect for long mileage deep wilderness bike touring where field serviceability with nothing but a good multitool is crucial to getting back to civilization alive. They’re also great on cyclocross race bikes where tool free independent pad adjustment and a simple cable barrel adjuster means you can fine-tune brake feel specific to course and conditions. We constantly see them on custom built steel hardtails and gravel grinder shred sleds where a rider wants the proven quality of as many American made components as possible. As with our I.S. Mount Klamper, the new Flat-Mount version featuresinterchangeable actuator arms. Since most flat-mount bikes utilize drop bars, these are currently only available in Short-Pull and Campagnolo Pull. If you are using a flat or riser bar on your flat-mount bike, we do make some very nice short-pull brake levers. Please note that the Flat-Mount and I.S. Actuator arms are not interchangeable, the arms are specific to the bodies. We decided not to make rotors. That’s a manufacturing process we do not do, and they are readily available. Floating rotors with large buttons (like Hope) might rub against the caliper, but we’ve had great results with Shimano Ice-Tech, Sram, Avid, and most other rotor brands. The pads we supply are Kool Stop sintered metallic. As always, allow a couple short rides to bed in the pads. Around the 3rd ride, these brakes really start to BITE!
