Review: EEbrakes G4 Replica

I purchased these in June, these were the traditional mount model. I’ll start off with the fact that I have never used the genuine model so I can only compare with other calliper rim brakes. These are my thoughts after using them for about 3-4 months. See this thread for the bike setup https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/384608/

Ordering and packaging
I had done some research on these on various forums such as weightweenies etc and it had some mixed reviews so not sure what to expect. As these were significantly cheaper than the real thing by several times, landed in the UK they were a bit over £100 or so, the real thing is about 5 times the price. They have been around for quite a while and have a reputation for being quite good, whilst very light at a claimed ~180g. The measured real weight 183g so true to claimed weight. After ordering they arrived within about 2 weeks. Packaging was pretty convincing with imitation EE boxes and branded pamphlets etc inside. They EE logos are etched into the bridge piece of the callipers looks quite nice, however on the Aliexpress website these are shown as blank, i’m guessing this is for copyright reasons. The telltale sign however that these are replicas is that the serial etched on each calliper is the same, HO5284. The real versions each have unique serial numbers.

First impressions , fit and finish
I had heard the general fit and finish was very high. This I can attest to, fit and finish is actually very nice, all the pieces are very nicely machined and the anodising is done quite well. There is a little bit of play in the main pivots, not sure how the genuine ones are but I bet they are slightly better. Although when squeezing the brakes and pushing the wheel forward you can see a little bit of play, it’s not enough, to say have the pads rotate forward and rub on the tyre.

However there were some details which were skimped such as the hardware that fixed the pads didn’t fit that well. Generally speaking the hardware that is included with the callipers is a bit poor, for example the brake pad holder bolts don’t have a perfectly flat bottom under the head and the washers inside diameter is too large for the bolt. The slots in the arms for the brake pad holders are quite large, both of these factors combined mean that pressure isn’t distributed evenly on the arms when clamped down and could cause gouging. Secondly the bolt that fixes the cable is a bit rough looking, generally functions well, but the square washer underneath is very thin and flimsy. The cable adjuster is quite unique as it has a curved sliding plastic washer with a barrel adjuster integrated into it, these are special to this design so don’t lose these!

Luckily the hardware is reasonably easy to replace, I ended up ordering black titanium bolts and washers to replace the pad holder bolts. Also I replaced the main fixing nut, the one that comes with it is an aluminium unit. Nothing particularly wrong with this, but as it is a safety critical part I’d prefer a standard steel bolt here, the weight difference is negligible.

Setup and installation
Initially these were setup with old Zipp rims which were quite narrow and did not work as the external width was too narrow (approx 19mm external). The way it works is that you use washers to adjust this so the arms are a the correct angle for the linkage to work. The linkage is quite unique in that it’s particularly linear, with a SRAM force lever it has a similar feel to the servo wave design, in that the initial travel the leverage is low but ramps up as it contacts the rim giving you better clearance when not engaged, but more leverage when it is. Basically in the end the old Zipp rims were much to narrow and I would have to get longer bolts and washers, I was planning on replacing these with much wider modern carbon rims anyway so left them until then.

I built new wheels for my CAAD5 which were 28mm external carbon Light Bicycle rims with the grooved graphene braking track. This time the callipers worked with only a single washer under each brake pad holder. Due to the unique design of the calliper, it relies a lot more on the flex of the cable outer feeding it, a lot more than a normal dual pivot calliper. Because of this it wasn’t straightforward or easy. Initially I tried to use compression less outers, these are a lot stiffer than traditional outers and do not bend easily. Because of their inability to bend, it causes one arm of the pivot to not move correctly so messes up everything.

Luckily the hardware is reasonably easy to replace, I ended up ordering black titanium bolts and washers to replace the pad holder bolts. Also I replaced the main fixing nut, the one that comes with it is an aluminium unit. Nothing particularly wrong with this, but as it is a safety critical part I’d prefer a standard steel bolt here, the weight difference is negligible.

Setup and installation
Initially these were setup with old Zipp rims which were quite narrow and did not work as the external width was too narrow (approx 19mm external). The way it works is that you use washers to adjust this so the arms are a the correct angle for the linkage to work. The linkage is quite unique in that it’s particularly linear, with a SRAM force lever it has a similar feel to the servo wave design, in that the initial travel the leverage is low but ramps up as it contacts the rim giving you better clearance when not engaged, but more leverage when it is. Basically in the end the old Zipp rims were much to narrow and I would have to get longer bolts and washers, I was planning on replacing these with much wider modern carbon rims anyway so left them until then

This shows the initial setup which barely worked, as you had to stick a lot of washers to space out the brake holders. The linkage design means that there is a smallish range of travel for the arms, unlike a conventional design. You have to adjust with washers rather than the cable adjuster alone. Note I had to use longer bolts too for this to work

I built new wheels for my CAAD5 which were 28mm external carbon Light Bicycle rims with the grooved graphene braking track. This time the callipers worked with only a single washer under each brake pad holder. Due to the unique design of the calliper, it relies a lot more on the flex of the cable outer feeding it, a lot more than a normal dual pivot calliper. Because of this it wasn’t straightforward or easy. Initially I tried to use compression less outers, these are a lot stiffer than traditional outers and do not bend easily. Because of their inability to bend, it causes one arm of the pivot to not move correctly so messes up everything.

Because of this the calliper would not work properly, so far as to say I would say they are basically incompatible with compressionless outers, the shorter your run of unsupported compressionless outer the worse as this means it will bend less. Those with longer more flexible runs might have better luck with compressionless outer.

Basically I think the only options I had to get them to work was traditional wound coil outers or go for the solid link style outer. I ended up going with the link style outers, partly for the performance but also due to the ability to lengthen the cable run quite easily. This is advantageous with these callipers as it allows for some error, they are compressionless, they are also very lightweight and add some old-school bling. The downside is they are quite expensive, running at about £60 for a braking set.

They have a quick release which is engaged and disengaged by squeezing the calliper arms and popping out part of the linkage on top, this opens it up slightly more, not massively though. They also have a little tool free knob which you can recenter the arms with which is really convenient, haven’t had to really use this much at all as they tend to stay centred generally speaking. I have heard this comes loose on some forums but have not witnessed this myself. Apart from this there isn’t much else to mention in terms of setup, once the cable outer length is correct and the brake pads are aligned to the rims and centred there isn’t much else to do.

Braking performance
Initially I had these with the included Light Bicycle blue pads, first time riding these around the car park they actually felt quite good. Initial bite wasn’t hard to endo the bike at low speeds, riding them around Regent’s park they felt pretty good, although I could start to tell that at higher speeds they need more hand pressure than standard dual pivots on alloy rims.

Following this I changed the pads out for the red Campagnolo type. What a difference! These pads have a much stronger initial bite and have a much stronger feel. At high speed descents they brake quite firmly and gave a lot more confidence. They are marginally more noisy, but nowhere near as noisy as a squealing disc brake setup with metallic pads in the wet. In any case I quite like the sound of carbon rim brakes, they sound a bit like a jet engine spinning down as they have a high pitched whistling noise. I haven’t yet tried them in a downpour but have heard they are quite good.

Modulation is generally quite good, although slightly on the grabbier side than most conventional callipers. The power ramps up pretty quickly due to the linkage, although this is more apparent at slower speeds. At higher speeds due to the larger hand force needed for braking it’s less of an issue. Whilst nowhere near disc brakes in terms of both modulation and power, they are quite respectable. I can generally say they are more or less on par with a typical dual pivot alloy rim setup.
Due to the symmetrical arm design the pads should wear evenly, on a slight arc upwards. Cable adjustment for this is a doddle.

Conclusion
I’ve run them now for several hundred km in this setup and have no real issues with them. Braking performance with the Campagnolo red pads is terrific, although I haven’t tried them in wet conditions yet. These callipers are super lightweight at ~180g and have few competitors at this weight, namely only some equally exotic callipers from THM, Ciamillo and a few others. Or you could buy the real deal for crazy money

Hits:

• Super lightweight, some of the lightest weight rim brakes available
  
• The finishing on the arms and bridge piece is very good and nicely machined
  
• Non-linear linkage design gives good clearance to the rims due to the non-linear design but also gives strong leverage when compressed
  
• Good braking power with a firm bite, a nice lever feel and confidence inspiring
  
• Overall they seem like a very good copy of the real deal, although I haven’t tried or seen the real ones first hand.
  
  

Misses

• The included hardware is a poor fit and quality. Recommended to change out the brake pad holder hardware as it’s quite cheap and easy to do so.
  
• Setup can be quite difficult, especially if you have a smaller frame with shorter runs of unsupported cable outer. This can prove nearly impossible if combined with compressionless outer or any similar outer that is inflexible
  
• Braking is ever so slightly grabbier than dual pivots, not a big negative but something to keep in mind. This is mainly due to their non-linear nature.
  
  

The travel on these brakes is quite limited and as such, a quick note if you have skinny rims, there are black spacers provided to space the pads inward rather than trying to do it all with extra cable tension and running out of travel

Thanks for such a detailed review!

Seems worth a shot especially when they are on sale atm. I'm mainly looking for extra tyre clearance compared to my Sram Red calipers.

Do you have a link to the pad holder bolts you got? or are they just standard sizing

Heya, they take a standard M6 bolt. Specifically I got these ones
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/114881972331

yes good point. Edited my original post to clarify this a bit further