I purchased a Trek Rail 7 at the beginning of the season. I absolutely adore the bike. It being a mid range model there is room for improving and trying different components which I feel is a fun experience. It is equipped with the SRAM DB8 and I have mixed feelings about them and It seems as the internet is also indifferent.
I had an incident at a bike park that really fucked me up, I was carrying too much speed and went over a berm. Had to take a whole week off from work. It was a whole thing. Still not at a hundy. I feel as the brake fluid got too hot or something because the brakes were not there when I needed them Any ways. I'll add a snippet of the video for shits and giggles.
Some of my local bike shops don't really have an opinion about them either.
So I guess I'm seeking some wisdom as to weather I should junk the DB8's or keep them and do a pad slap?
by irishfellow94
14 Comments
The db8s are great, the brake lever doesn’t give much modulation tho which gives you an “on or off” feel. So this requires a bit of a change in your riding but you will adjust in a lap or two. I just swapped them for code RSCs on my YT Capra and honestly it probably wasn’t worth the trouble.
What size are your rotors and how heavy are you?
I usually hate SRAM brakes but I do have a set and they work fine for trail/ xc bikes. They stop fine, use mineral oil, predictable, cheap, not much to complain about. Definitely not the strongest brakes I’ve felt. I would not expect brakes like that to be great on a 55lb+ ebike at a bike park. That’s what Enduro and DH brakes with 220mm rotors are made for. You’re asking a lot from those brakes.
You having a full season of experience probably makes you more qualified than most people here to judge them. You could look up mineral oil issues, but they won’t be on sram; you can look up sram issues, but they won’t be using mineral oil. They’re just too new to be confidently pinpointing any flaws imo
I’ve used them for about 500 miles without issue. Mostly XC but I’ve done a few downhill runs and they were alright, maybe a bit weaker but no complaints. I could always grip a bit harder to get more out of them
Junk them. If your riding park on an e-bike than you need beefier breaks. Bonus points if you ditch SRAM breaks completely
I like mine a lot on my yt decoy. Plenty of power (I’m 200 lbs). I feel sram has poor quality control though so maybe you got a lemon.
Swapped my e-bike brakes from db8 to xt, no regrets way better stopping power on the same rotors which is what I was after for the heavy e-bike.
General consensus is, like a lot of SRAM products, they are fine but they end up on bikes that basically require better braking. Unless it’s a beginner rider. They would be more suitable for probably trail bike usage and maybe not e-bikes specifically if you want more consistent power to anchor that rig.
The bigger question I suppose is then what do you replace them with. But ya maybe sell the calipers/levers to someone with a cheapo bike and tell them to swap the pads cuz they will be great for their trail bike.
But ya if you’re riding ‘at speed’ at bike parks on an e-bike (extra weight)… DB8s aint gonna cut it even with some decent sintered pads. Also depends on the brake feel you want. Most people say Shimano power with wandering bite point or SRAM weaker braking with superior modulation.
Ultimately, kinda sounds like you want to be able to drop anchors with your e-bike. So Shimano or similar feeling brakes may be optimal.
I have them on an XC bike 180 rotor front 160 rotor rear. I weigh 160lbs with gear. On typically trails with intermittent climbing descent they worked great. I took the bike to a flow DH park that has approximately 550ft drop over 3 miles. The 180 rotor got a little hot and got discolored on repeated runs on a 90° day. Despite that, it still braked great the whole time.
Upgraded the front rotor to a 200 front and have had zero issues even cosmetic. Had a sram brake critic try them on a local trail and he thought they did fine and he’s 210+lbs.
I have the db8 oversize caliper. I could not find details if they are really different. Is more powerfull than i expected… i see they use the same sram code r pads.
The internet has mixed feelings about them, but i would expect, once they get hot, they will be junk as code R. For downhill i use shigura, for easy enduro/xc, they should be fine.
They def lack in “feel” when compared to the Maguras on my analog Enduro but that bike’s over 20lbs lighter. The DB8’s have always worked when I needed them to. From what I understand, these are intended for medium duty trail riding. There’s a possibility you just rode past their capabilities and cooked them which made them fail when you needed them most. If you’re doing DH runs where you’re dropping in elevation fast for an extended period of time which most bike parks consist of, you might need to upgrade to a proper DH setup. I still feel comfortable with them but I’m only 1 season in so we’ll see how they fare after another season.
I rode them for 2 seasons on my Delano Peak all over the front range of CO. I do a lot of tech climbs and black diamond downhills with some fast flow thrown in.
Pros:
– They are reliable, easy to bleed, and offer great value for an entry level 4 piston.
– Using mineral oil is nice.
Cons:
– I found they lack power. They just require more force at the lever to scrub speed.
– Fade. They don’t hold up as well on long descents. Even after upgrading to 200mm rotors they seemed to hold heat and performance dropped. I could have tried the HS2 rotors, but those wouldn’t have helped with the lack of power.
I ended up upgrading to Magura MT7 and love them. Tons of power with much less effort, plus easy to modulate.
Didn’t SRAM discontinue them after like 1 year? My optic was spec’d with them but I actually got shimano 4 pot from
Factory because DB8 were not available. Huge win