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Mark’s End of Summer TRP Spyke Report

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Ogden, Utah fat-bike ambassador and fat-bike.com contributor, Mark Peterson, has been using TRP Brakes Spyke mechanical all summer and has this report on how they have been performing. Thanks, Mark!

I have ridden the TRP Spyke all summer and they just keep getting better and better. After a short break in period to deposit pad material into the disks, the breaking power increased dramatically. I really love the feel of these brakes on the trail, They are very predictable and supple especially when you are diving into a corner. It is a great feeling to have confidence in your brake setup when you are screaming down the trail ready for almost any situation. I have pushed these brakes in dry and wet conditions and they have always surprised me with their superb performance. I have not experienced any fade in the power of the brakes on long descents or in wet conditions, and they have never made any obnoxious sounds.

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In our local area there has been an increase of people over cooking corners and locking up their brakes, skidding and causing lots of damage to the trail. The TRP Spyke has helped me to avoid this situation with the quality of the feedback from the set up. I can sense the amount of “squeeze” that I need to keep the tire from locking up and contributing to the erosion of the trail. I, in part, attribute this to the modulation in the levers, unmatched in my opinion by any other mechanically actuated Disk brake.

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The only “problem” I encountered is that the TRP Spyke’s are so powerful they twisted my rear wheel in the dropouts causing the tire to rub on the rear triangle resulting in a chainsaw like sound! It freaked me out the first time it happened because I thought I had damaged my bike. Every thing was fine, I just had to get off and realign the tire. My solution was to tighten up the Q/R skewers to the maximum.

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I am super stoked to see how the Spykes will perform this winter in all the crazy conditions that are coming. I feel confident that they will yet again exceed my expectations. Let the snow fly and the winter Fat-biking fun begin. Winter is almost here and the TPR Spyke brakes are ready to help me push my limits on all kinds of different trails and conditions.

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5 Responses to Mark’s End of Summer TRP Spyke Report

  1. Daniel Burton October 9, 2014 at 10:48 pm #

    I also have had that problem with the rear wheel getting pulled out of the frame on the bike that I rode to the South Pole. My next fat bike will have a thru axel on the rear so I don’t have that problem anymore.

  2. Katie October 10, 2014 at 11:55 am #

    Sounds like you both need to tighten your QRs… 😀

    • Daniel Burton October 11, 2014 at 8:43 pm #

      No, my qr was over tightened. It is just that the sleds full of gear, over soft snow, into a 20mph headwind, going uphill, put a lot of force on the rear axle.

  3. knobbies April 4, 2015 at 7:52 pm #

    Steve,

    Do you single finger pull these Spyke brakes or do they need two fingers?

  4. s nevlida June 5, 2016 at 11:23 am #

    i put monkey nuts BEHIND my axle on my pugs and it helped alot to stop the axle movement. just dont over tighten them or they will bend.

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