jethro10
Über Member
- Location
- Lake District, UK
So, my wife's bike's brakes were tired, a few problem, and the cost of spares to fix them meant it was probably worth looking for new ones, no rush, just when something came along.
Please forgive the colour casts on some of the pictures and all the dust speckles on them - I never noticed till it was too late!
Hover over the picture, to get the picture number, eg 3.jpg
1.jpg, the overview picture is from the Clarks website, the rest are mine from the wifes brakes.
Well her bike is white with green detailing, and she saw the new Clarks Skeletal special edition in white with green detailing at £90, ChainReactionCycles (CRC) and that was it - she HAD to have them.
I admit to being skeptical, but it's not really my choice, so I read up about them, generally ok, but mixed reviews.
Bothered about spares, seems a lack of suppliers, but I found a supplier on the net doing service parts and also spare handles and master cylinder metal covers, pins bearings etc. so was happier.
I also contacted Clarks direct re lack of spares suppliers and after 3 emails (a mix up) they said they dont do direct, but because I was messed about they would send me my parts FOC as a favour. Well they missed the point of the pre-sales enquiry, but it bodes well that they seem to care.
Onto the brakes, I'm going to be critical here so anyone knows what they are buying into.
So Chainreaction has them at £90 with 2 spare set of sintered pads and matching handlebar grips. The pads are useful and would be £10 minimum even at cheap suppliers like Disco Brakes, so were really at £80 max for the brakes real world.
All I can really compare to is Avid Elixir on my bike - £150ish, and my friends just bought a Cube Reaction something £1400, with Formula RX brakes - £270 at CRC in white with blue detailing, the skeletal are white with green detailing.
I'll do most comparisons to the RX as they are the same physical design - uncanilly so.
Engineering.
From a structural point of view, the desing is great, as good as anything else, solid, easy to get at, no problems. The design style is close to the RX's, same style lever unit and same style caliper unit, infacts its uncanny.
I like the shape of the caliper, the cylinder looks purposeful. Everything fits and seems solid Throughout the product, I see well designed solidity, with not as much attention of the finish.
Also they have a two year warranty which is nice.
Aesthetic.
To me, the use of colour is way better than the RX's, the lever, back casting of the lever part, caliper cover and disk are all green and make great use of colour. On the RX's it's just the caliper cover. See picture 1 for an overview.
The disk is a green metalic paint, machined off the bearing surface. I was expecting a nicer anodised finish, of course it's not aluminium and you can't anodise steel! Pic 2.
On the lever clamp, pic 6 and the cap on pic 3, the clarks logo is raised, and machined off after painting to give the metal to paint contrast. It looks quite nice.
Pic 3 and 4 show the similarities to the RX brakes, ok the coloured RX plug, looks nicer close up than the clarks - all about money I guess.
To me, pic 5 shows the worst bit, you can see the casting marks where the moulds join, on any other I have seen, they have been removed, probably by hand? and that costs. Is it that bad though? and once fitted you don't notice unless you look close. There is also roughness on the edge of the machined surface where the bleed nipple fits.
Pic 6 shows the removable end cap on the lever, making it easy to remove without stripping the bars, and the logo makes it look great.
Adjustments.
Reach and bite point at this price is what, probably unique? enough said - possibly enough reason to buy them.
Weights.
The units are a little lighter than the RX's by just a few grams, quite ok really. The disks however, are 40g each heavier than the Formula ones.
Cables.
My wife is so chuffed with white ones! They are very unusual in how soft they are to bending - never seen anything like them, they are very soft and flexible and easy to fit, but structurally hard to crush - I couldn't with a lot of force - perhaps I shouldn't have tried! A downer here though, is the nice curve at the handlbar end you get on cables is difficult to achieve as they are so flexible, I had to use a white cable tie and join them together in the middle to try and help this out a bit.
Lever.
This is the biggest issue to me. A lever is your point of contact, this is where extra effort would be worth it on a budget item, sacrificing cost elsewhere to make if "feel" good it just feels a bit loose on close inspection. It's also thin metal - strong enough so perhaps that's the point to save weight? The good news is, in use, I forgot to check them out - I didn't notice and had to admit all was fine. But it feels the cheapest bit of the product - it's brushed finish is also poorish quality BUT you only notice close up.
In use.
Well the sintered pads take a bit of bedding in, but after a few minutes even, the brakes felt strong enough. I've read odd folk saying they are not progressive enough - an all or nothing thing. Well to me, I didn't see that. In all honesty, they just felt like good brakes - they melted into the background and became unnoticable in use.
Conclusion.
It's easy on close inspection to dismiss these because of the finish, especially the slight up/down wobble on the lever - it make it feel cheap if your inspecting closely. And also the casting marks. However, these are £80 brakes, with a well thought out colour scheme and some useful extras supplied.
If your parked up and a bunch of folk just look at them while standing - they look superb, nice shapes, nice mix of colours - impossible to tell the price bracket if you didn't know.
Taking the free pads off the price, these are £190 less than the formula RX they look like, and that £190 would save a lot of weight in a set of better wheels - and that would make more difference to any bike.
I'm glad the wife took a punt on these, overall, close inspection aside, they look great, work great and are unbeatable value.
What I would do, if I was Clarks if these take off, is rename these Skeletal Classic and find a way to do a Skeletal Plus model for £30 more with these problems ironed out - it would be a killer that would.
I'll report back if I remember, or someone reminds me ;-) after summer to see how they went, but after a week, they are still going great.
Please forgive the colour casts on some of the pictures and all the dust speckles on them - I never noticed till it was too late!
Hover over the picture, to get the picture number, eg 3.jpg
1.jpg, the overview picture is from the Clarks website, the rest are mine from the wifes brakes.
Well her bike is white with green detailing, and she saw the new Clarks Skeletal special edition in white with green detailing at £90, ChainReactionCycles (CRC) and that was it - she HAD to have them.
I admit to being skeptical, but it's not really my choice, so I read up about them, generally ok, but mixed reviews.
Bothered about spares, seems a lack of suppliers, but I found a supplier on the net doing service parts and also spare handles and master cylinder metal covers, pins bearings etc. so was happier.
I also contacted Clarks direct re lack of spares suppliers and after 3 emails (a mix up) they said they dont do direct, but because I was messed about they would send me my parts FOC as a favour. Well they missed the point of the pre-sales enquiry, but it bodes well that they seem to care.
Onto the brakes, I'm going to be critical here so anyone knows what they are buying into.
So Chainreaction has them at £90 with 2 spare set of sintered pads and matching handlebar grips. The pads are useful and would be £10 minimum even at cheap suppliers like Disco Brakes, so were really at £80 max for the brakes real world.
All I can really compare to is Avid Elixir on my bike - £150ish, and my friends just bought a Cube Reaction something £1400, with Formula RX brakes - £270 at CRC in white with blue detailing, the skeletal are white with green detailing.
I'll do most comparisons to the RX as they are the same physical design - uncanilly so.
Engineering.
From a structural point of view, the desing is great, as good as anything else, solid, easy to get at, no problems. The design style is close to the RX's, same style lever unit and same style caliper unit, infacts its uncanny.
I like the shape of the caliper, the cylinder looks purposeful. Everything fits and seems solid Throughout the product, I see well designed solidity, with not as much attention of the finish.
Also they have a two year warranty which is nice.
Aesthetic.
To me, the use of colour is way better than the RX's, the lever, back casting of the lever part, caliper cover and disk are all green and make great use of colour. On the RX's it's just the caliper cover. See picture 1 for an overview.
The disk is a green metalic paint, machined off the bearing surface. I was expecting a nicer anodised finish, of course it's not aluminium and you can't anodise steel! Pic 2.
On the lever clamp, pic 6 and the cap on pic 3, the clarks logo is raised, and machined off after painting to give the metal to paint contrast. It looks quite nice.
Pic 3 and 4 show the similarities to the RX brakes, ok the coloured RX plug, looks nicer close up than the clarks - all about money I guess.
To me, pic 5 shows the worst bit, you can see the casting marks where the moulds join, on any other I have seen, they have been removed, probably by hand? and that costs. Is it that bad though? and once fitted you don't notice unless you look close. There is also roughness on the edge of the machined surface where the bleed nipple fits.
Pic 6 shows the removable end cap on the lever, making it easy to remove without stripping the bars, and the logo makes it look great.
Adjustments.
Reach and bite point at this price is what, probably unique? enough said - possibly enough reason to buy them.
Weights.
The units are a little lighter than the RX's by just a few grams, quite ok really. The disks however, are 40g each heavier than the Formula ones.
Cables.
My wife is so chuffed with white ones! They are very unusual in how soft they are to bending - never seen anything like them, they are very soft and flexible and easy to fit, but structurally hard to crush - I couldn't with a lot of force - perhaps I shouldn't have tried! A downer here though, is the nice curve at the handlbar end you get on cables is difficult to achieve as they are so flexible, I had to use a white cable tie and join them together in the middle to try and help this out a bit.
Lever.
This is the biggest issue to me. A lever is your point of contact, this is where extra effort would be worth it on a budget item, sacrificing cost elsewhere to make if "feel" good it just feels a bit loose on close inspection. It's also thin metal - strong enough so perhaps that's the point to save weight? The good news is, in use, I forgot to check them out - I didn't notice and had to admit all was fine. But it feels the cheapest bit of the product - it's brushed finish is also poorish quality BUT you only notice close up.
In use.
Well the sintered pads take a bit of bedding in, but after a few minutes even, the brakes felt strong enough. I've read odd folk saying they are not progressive enough - an all or nothing thing. Well to me, I didn't see that. In all honesty, they just felt like good brakes - they melted into the background and became unnoticable in use.
Conclusion.
It's easy on close inspection to dismiss these because of the finish, especially the slight up/down wobble on the lever - it make it feel cheap if your inspecting closely. And also the casting marks. However, these are £80 brakes, with a well thought out colour scheme and some useful extras supplied.
If your parked up and a bunch of folk just look at them while standing - they look superb, nice shapes, nice mix of colours - impossible to tell the price bracket if you didn't know.
Taking the free pads off the price, these are £190 less than the formula RX they look like, and that £190 would save a lot of weight in a set of better wheels - and that would make more difference to any bike.
I'm glad the wife took a punt on these, overall, close inspection aside, they look great, work great and are unbeatable value.
What I would do, if I was Clarks if these take off, is rename these Skeletal Classic and find a way to do a Skeletal Plus model for £30 more with these problems ironed out - it would be a killer that would.
I'll report back if I remember, or someone reminds me ;-) after summer to see how they went, but after a week, they are still going great.
