Tested

SRAM G2 ULTIMATE BRAKE

£265

SPECIFICATION Weight: 272g front, 294g rear, 121g rotor (180mm, not included) • Rotor size: 140/160/180/200/220mm • Contact: Sram.com

SRAM’s Guide has topped our trail brake charts for a few years in succession. Now there’s a new Guide in town, called the G2, and while it strongly resembles its predecessor, SRAM assures us that it is has been reworked from top to tail.

Let’s run down those changes starting at the caliper end. While it looks pretty similar to the old Guide, and shares the same pad shape and hose connections, the G2 unit is actually completely new. According to SRAM, the biggest advance is in terms of stiffness. The caliper is still a two-piece design that’s bolted together, but changes to the forging means it should resist flexing under extreme pressure better than the old caliper, with the aim of creating a firmer lever feel.

The pad gap has also increased thanks to some changes to the machining around the pistons, which helps achieve a drag-free setup, and the G2 is said to retain that gap as the pad wears, keeping lever feel more consistent. In this regard, credit must also go to the new phenolic pistons (a type of resin material) that glide in and out and resist heat so well that SRAM says it was able to ditch the previous steel heat sink.

Connecting the caliper to the lever is a new hose material with a smooth, matt finish that SRAM claims should resist kinking better than the old one. It’s also a bit easier to route through frames during installation.

And at the touchy, feely end is the familiar lever that’s largely unchanged from its predecessor. Having said that, there’s some additional machining around the master cylinder, while you still get the fancy carbon lever blade, sealed bearing pivot, reach and bite point adjustment. All up, with the included titanium hardware, the new front brake weighs 272g. That’s actually 25g heavier than the old