HEL Advocate Brakes
Intended Use: Enduro / DH
Fluid: DOT 5.1
Pistons: 2 x 17 mm + 2 x 15 mm
MSRP: £700 (per pair, including VAT); ~$804 USD at time of publication (w/o VAT)
Stated Weight:
- Lever: 155 g
- Caliper: 105 g
Intro
HEL Performance isn’t a new company by any stretch — they’ve been making hydraulic lines, brakes, and other related parts for motorsports for over 25 years now — but they’re a newcomer to the mountain bike scene. They’ve started with the Advocate brake, a four-piston design meant for Enduro and DH use; a two-piston XC/Trail brake is in the works, but we’re going to focus on the Advocate here.
Like their other products, the Advocate is made by HEL (yep, it’s pronounced “hell”) in their own facility in Devon, UK. And, as you might expect from an experienced company dipping its toe into a new market, the Advocate features a mix of relatively conventional design details and a few bits of outside-the-box thinking. Let’s see what they’ve come up with.
Design & Features
The design of the Advocate is straightforward and no-nonsense. The lever assembly is machined from aluminum and uses an asymmetric design with dedicated right- and left-hand levers. The bar clamp uses a rather chunky two-bolt layout, and the overall industrial design uses a lot of relatively simple, blocky shapes over more complex organic ones.
At least that’s true for the master cylinder assembly. The lever blade, on the other hand, gets some very interesting shaping, most notably a groove down the middle of the front face that gives it something of a two-lobed shape. It’s tricky to explain verbally; this is a definite “a picture is worth a thousand words” scenario:
The lever gets a tool-free reach adjuster but no contact point one (fine in my book, for reasons I’ve laid out a few times). HEL doesn’t currently have options for integrated clamp mounts either (also fine by me), but those are in the works.
The lever blade is tied directly to the master cylinder pushrod, without any sort of cam to vary the leverage. HEL says that consistency and lever feel were top priorities for the Advocate — and they talk about feel and control more than they bring up outright power — so it’ll be interesting to see how that all comes together on the trail. The Advocate’s hydraulic leverage ratio isn’t particularly high, which would typically indicate a shorter free stroke and firmer bite point over maximum power, though the mechanical leverage in the lever assembly plays an equally important role there (and isn’t a spec that most brands publish) so we’ll just have to get the Advocate on the trail to find out.
The Advocate brake kit includes a pair of levers, two calipers, a braided stainless steel hose kit (which comes as a single 2700 mm piece to cover both the front and rear lines), all the required hose fittings, a machined aluminum bleed block, four titanium caliper mountinmg bolts, and two pairs of brake pads. HEL currently offers a substantial array of standard color combinations for the Advocate, and will soon launch a custom brake builder tool that lets you mix and match colors for the various parts of the brake, including the caliper, lever assembly, reservoir cap, lever blade, and bar clamp, with seven different color options for each.
The brakes come dry and without the lines assembled; doing so is straightforward, and the hose fittings are fully reusable, so you don’t need to track down single-use fittings or cut the hoses each time you take the rear brake on and off a bike with internal routing. The hose has a standard 5 mm outer diameter as well, in contrast to a lot of other braided hose options, which are often larger and therefore harder to fit on internally routed frames.
HEL is very clear that the Advocate should be used with DOT 5.1 only; DOT 3, 4, and 5.1 are interchangeable in many systems, but HEL specifically and clearly warns against it. The Advocate uses M5 bleed fittings at both the lever and caliper (the same as non-Bleeding Edge SRAM fittings, Hayes Dominion ones, and others), so common bleed kits can be used.
HEL does a commendable job of offering spare parts for the Advocate, including all the internal seals, replacement caliper pistons, and other small bits. The Advocate is also covered by a one-year warranty, and HEL offers a three-year crash replacement policy for damage that the warranty doesn’t cover. Check out their website for all the details.
Some Questions / Things We’re Curious About
(1) HEL talks a lot about the Advocate offering a very direct lever feel with a firm bite point — so have they pulled it off, and how does it feel on the trail?
(2) What about power? Maximizing power generally brings a longer free stroke and softer bite point — physics demands tradeoffs — so how does the Advocate fare there?
(3) And what is the Advocate like to live with, including reliability, consistency, ease of bleeding, and so on?
Bottom Line (For Now)
There are way more good options for gravity-oriented mountain bike brakes than there were just a few years ago, and we’re now seeing some brands from the motorsports world throw their hat into the ring, too. The new HEL Advocate is an interesting-looking option, and we’ve started spending time on a pair to find out how they stack up. Check out our Flash Review for our early impressions, and stay tuned for a Full Review to follow once we’ve logged a lot more time on them.
Flash Review: Our Initial On-Trail Impressions
BLISTER+ members and those who purchase our Digital Access Pass can check out the Flash Review below to read our initial on-trail impressions. Get our Digital Access Pass to view all our Flash Reviews and Deep Dives, or become a BLISTER+ member today to get access to that and a LOT more, including the best worldwide Outdoor Injury Insurance, exclusive deals and discounts on skis, personalized gear recommendations from us, and much more.
Flash Review: HEL Advocate Brakes
HEL is a new brand to the bike world, so how do their Advocate brakes stack up? Here’s our preliminary take.
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