Don't try to deny it. The frontal brake profile was the first thing that drew you to the Speed Concept.
Ah, that front brake. If there was one feature above all others that could draw me to the Speed Concept, this would be it. Why? Aren't brakes usually boring pieces of hardware you slap on out of necessity? Well, yeah. Usually. But this thing just makes the bike HOT. There is no other bike out there with a brake as seamlessly mated to the bike as this one, with the possible exception of the Specialized Shiv. But that bike has a blunt, bulbous nose that looks something like the front of a freight train. The Speed Concept looks like a knife slicing through the air. Check out the video below for our review of the brakes.
Simple Beauty
If you can't view the video, here's the gist of it. The integrated brakes are very well-thought-out pieces of gear. They are fairly easy to adjust, although not quite as easy as traditional brakes. If you need to accommodate different wheel widths, you'll have a bit of work to do either setting the centering screws every time you change wheels, or as Trek has recommended, have a separate set of brake shoes for each set of wheels, each one with a brake pad thick enough or thin enough to match up with the wheel. We feel like this is a very small price to pay for the level of integration and sophistication provided by this piece of equipment.
Oh, and the brakes are fantastic. Both front and rear work VERY well, even with the very minimal 3T brake levers we are using here. There's plenty of stopping power, both front and rear, when set up correctly. Honestly, there's nothing bad to write about here. Other than the level of care you must take when installing and adjusting the brake, everything is hunky dory. And beautiful. We might complain that the bolts used to secure the rear brake and its cover are kinda cheap. Trek stocks a very weak button-head cap screw that is prone to stripping and rust. We replaced ours with some deeper socket-head stainless screws. A highly-recommended, 30-cent upgrade that could save you a huge headache later on. Check out the photo in the gallery for a detail shot of that.
125,911 
