SRAM Maven Brakes
Stated Weights:
(Includes 1800 mm hose and pads; does not include rotor, hardware, pad spacer, or bar clamps)
- Maven Bronze: 369 g
- Maven Silver: 371 g
- Maven Ultimate: 362 g
MSRP:
- Maven Bronze: $185
- Maven Silver: $265
- Maven Ultimate: $300
- Maven Ultimate Expert Kit: $599
Blister’s Measured Weight per Brake:
(Maven Ultimate; includes uncut hoses & bar clamps)
365 and 387 g
Intro
SRAM’s longstanding Code brakes are some of the most popular options out there. While they work well, a lot of more powerful alternatives have emerged in recent years, and the Codes are now well short of the most aggressive gravity-oriented brakes out there in terms of stopping power.
At the same time, the demands being placed on mountain bike brakes have only grown. Big 29’’ wheels are now commonplace on Enduro and DH bikes, hefty eMTBs are everywhere, and folks are riding faster and harder than ever.
SRAM recognized the need for a bigger, more powerful option at the top of their brake lineup, and the new Maven is the result. The most eye-catching stat with the Maven is that SRAM says it offers 50% (!!!) more power than the Code — while retaining the latter’s lever feel — but that’s just the start.
Design
The lever assembly on the new Maven brakes looks a whole lot like a scaled-up version of the new Stealth version of SRAM’s Code brakes, but there are a lot of more subtle differences when you look closer.
Let’s start with the similarities: the Maven lever is a flip-flop design and can be run on either side of the bar by reversing the Matchmaker X clamp that it bolts to. Those clamps carry over unchanged from the Code to the Maven, and the reach adjuster and contact point adjuster (on models that come with one; see below) look and feel pretty much the same, too.
Like the Code Stealth brakes, the Maven levers also tuck the reservoir in close to the bar, but the Maven’s hose exits parallel to the bar (rather than angled in toward it, as with the Codes). As a result, the routing looks cleaner and there should hopefully be less rattling of the brake hoses against the handlebar there.
The Maven lever blade has a nearly identical shape to that of the Code lever, too. The Swinglink cam that couples the Maven’s lever blade to its master cylinder piston looks about the same as the Code version, but the Maven version is sized and shaped quite a bit differently to handle the differences in hydraulic leverage between the two brakes, and SRAM says the two versions aren’t cross-compatible.
Mineral Oil Fluid
Internally, we find some more differences. The Maven uses mineral oil instead of DOT fluid, and its lever assembly gets different-looking bleed port fittings to help keep the two straight. SRAM makes it very clear that you shouldn’t use the same bleed kit for both types of brakes to avoid introducing the wrong fluid type and damaging the internal seals, and they insist on using their own oil, sourced from Maxima. Unlike DOT fluid, which has a defined chemical composition, stuff branded as “mineral oil” can vary quite a bit and feature a range of different additives that may be detrimental to a given seal material, so SRAM says to play it safe on that front.
The Maven’s switch to mineral oil does mean that SRAM has extended the recommended service interval for flushing the system with new fluid. Since mineral oil doesn’t absorb moisture from the atmosphere the way that DOT fluid does, SRAM says you can go two years on the Maven’s mineral oil (instead of one year on their DOT brakes, including Codes) before giving them a refresh.
Maven Calipers
Things get a lot more obviously different at the caliper end of these brakes. The Maven uses a four-piston caliper with two 18 mm pistons and two 19.5 mm ones — a massive increase in size compared to the Codes, which use two 15 mm pistons and two 16 mm ones. (~3 mm of diameter might not sound like a huge difference, but it adds up to ~46% more total area) As per usual for SRAM, the Maven uses a two-piece caliper but now with four bolts to hold the halves together instead of the usual two, which SRAM says helps stiffen up the caliper for better lever feel.
The Maven caliper body is much, much bigger than the Code one, and SRAM has deliberately bulked it up to help with heat management, in addition to simply making room for the big pistons. They argue that, by adding a bunch of mass to the caliper, it’ll both be harder to wildly overheat, and also retain some heat once it gets up to temperature, and help keep the brake within its ideal operating temperature range. Overheating a brake is, of course, detrimental to its performance, but super cold brakes don’t work optimally, either, and SRAM says that the bulky Maven caliper helps mitigate those temperature swings in both directions and makes for more consistent performance.
Maven Pads
SRAM has introduced a new pad shape for the Maven calipers which, unsurprisingly, is also a lot bigger than the longstanding Code ones. The new and creatively named “XL” pads are offered in the same organic and sintered metallic material options as the Code ones, but are much larger both in terms of the pad material itself and the backing plate. The four-bolt caliper design also means that the pads have room to load from the bottom only, in contrast to the top-loading Code design.
The Maven brakes come stock with organic pads installed, and SRAM says that part of why they gave the Mavens such a big increase in power over Codes was to open up more headroom for folks to tune the brakes’ performance via pad compounds and rotor sizes. There may not be that many people who need 50% more power than Codes when paired with 220 mm rotors and metal pads, but the idea is that some folks who were setting up their Codes to eke maximum power out of them will be able to dial things back a bit with Mavens and end up with a brake that feels better, works more consistently (e.g., it takes some doing to get 220 mm rotors & metal pads up to temp), and is potentially easier to control.
Bleed Process, Adapters, Etc.
The Maven calipers use a version of SRAM’s excellent Bleeding Edge bleed fittings, but they’ve increased the size of the hex broach in the fittings to 5 mm (from 4 mm on Codes) to keep folks from accidentally mixing DOT and mineral-oil fittings and then contaminating the brakes.
The Maven’s bleed process is by and large the same as the Code’s, apart from the change in fluid type. The biggest change is that SRAM has added a final “piston massage” step at the end of the procedure to make sure they’re moving evenly. Essentially, this consists of extending the pistons with the pad spacer installed, then using it to push them back in slightly and repeating; full instructions are on their website.
SRAM has also introduced two new brake adapters for the Maven, with the 20P-1 going from a 160 mm post mount to a 180 mm rotor, and the 20P-2 being designed for a 180 mm mount to a 200 mm rotor, or a 200 mm mount to a 220 mm one. Both use four mounting bolts, with separate ones for mounting the caliper to the frame or fork and for mounting the caliper to the adapter. This is in contrast to SRAM’s older two-bolt mounts with spherical washers under the bolt heads, which aren’t compatible with Mavens, due to clearance issues. I’ve long preferred the four-bolt-style adapters since they’re often easier to align and work on, so this change is a welcome one in my book. SRAM’s existing +40 mm post-mount adapter and their various IS-to-post-mount offerings still work on the Mavens.
Despite the fluid change from DOT to mineral oil, the Maven brakes use standard SRAM hoses and brake fittings, though you shouldn’t use a hose that has previously been used with DOT fluid on the Mavens, or vice versa.
Maven Versions / Models
As with the recently updated Code Stealth brakes, SRAM offers the Mavens in three tiers, each with slightly different features. All use the same basic architecture, pads, etc., but the exact details vary a bit.
The top-tier Maven Ultimate brake’s feature set mostly mirrors that of the Code Ultimate, apart from the Maven Ultimate using a forged aluminum lever blade instead of a carbon fiber one. The Maven Ultimate has tool-free reach and pad-contact adjusters and titanium hardware throughout. Its levers get a clear anodized finish and the calipers have machined aluminum accents to match.
The Maven Silver uses stainless steel hardware in place of the titanium bits on the Ultimate, and the Maven Silver (ironically) gets a black anodized finish instead of the clear one, but keeps the rest of its features. The Silver’s hardware change adds a claimed 9 grams per brake as compared to the Ultimate version.
Some Questions / Things We’re Curious About
(1) SRAM Codes are admittedly not the most powerful brakes out there these days, but they’re still viable DH brakes; given that, the Maven’s claimed 50% increase in power seems enormous. Do the Mavens really feel that dramatically more powerful than Codes? And where does that put them relative to the other contenders for the most powerful brakes on the market?
(2) What about lever feel and modulation? SRAM claims the Mavens feel very similar to Codes ergonomically, but how close have they really gotten in that respect?
(3) And how are the Mavens to live with from the standpoint of ease of maintenance, reliability, and so on? SRAM isn’t new to making mineral-oil brakes, having dipped their toe in with the DB8s, but are their claims of extended service intervals borne out? And how hard is it to complete a good bleed on the Mavens?
Bottom Line (For Now)
It hasn’t been a secret that SRAM has been working on a new gravity-oriented brake, but a lot of the details of the Maven are arguably pretty surprising, including the change to mineral oil and just how big SRAM’s claims of increased power are. We’ve got a set of Maven Ultimates in for review and have started spending time on them. In our upcoming Full Review, we’ll report back on how they perform and how they compare to a number of the other most powerful brakes on the market.
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