SWISSSTOP CATALYST ROTORS
Brake rotors can be an easy piece of kit to not pay much attention to. Until they’re warped, you ride in big hills, bad conditions, or you have an Avid rotor from the “turkey gobble” era. And then you realise that your brake rotors and pads have EVERYTHING to do with your ride.
Some say you can only go as fast as you can stop, and while the internet is full of videos of riders trying to prove the opposite is true, in the real world most of us enjoy a certain sense of reliability when it comes to our braking.
ENTER THE SWISS
SwissStop have developed a name for themselves with their high-performance brake pads. Their assortment of pads adorn the walls of just about any Swiss bike store, but also those of discerning bike shops around Australia too. Their brake pads have always offered excellent modulation and power, and their recent ExoTherm models (which we tested last year) have also increased their capability to deal with heat. Anyone who has had the clenching moment when your brakes have heated up and are fading, and coming to a stop now seems uncertain, will understand the appeal of brake pads that can deal with some extra heat. Be it from heavier loads or longer descents, disc brakes can run pretty hot, and if they get too hot they don’t work as well. To add to their range of brake pads, SwissStop got to work on a brake rotor too – another part of the friction game when slowing down.
WELCOME TO THE CATALYST
SwissStop being Swiss, they didn’t just take a rotor design and look at a slightly different shape for the cut outs. The aim was to have the optimum heat dissipation, durability in a range of conditions, and reliable performance across all cycling disciplines.
A lot of their testing was done in the lab, first using current designs and then looking at ways to optimise them to reduce the build up of heat in the rotors, and also reducing the weight as much as possible. With simulations, SwissStop could test designs to see how they would react for different braking forces, and for different rotor sizes. They needed to consider where the rotor needed to be strong, and where they could reduce weight.
Airflow over the rotor was also considered, to get the size and locations of the holes right. The final design ended up as a two-piece rotor with an alloy carrier and a stainless brake track.
TO THE LAB!
Testing of the finished product showed shorter stopping distances, low wear rates, and better structural integrity after heavy use. A few tweaks to the design were made to improve braking power and performance, and they also made sure there were no 90 degree edges, so they were safer.
ON THE TRAIL
But in the terrain lab, how does all that play out? There are three things to consider here. Firstly, the brake feel, or modulation. With the ExoTherm pads, SwissStop have this dialled. There is no super noisy braking of harsh metallic pads, and no grabbing. Just smooth engagement. And with greater lever force, plenty of stopping power. It is very hard to judge required force from one set of pads and rotors to another, but there was never a sense of needing to pull so hard I thought the levers would snap.
Secondly, with 160mm rotors fitted (bear in mind 140mm, 180mm and 203mm rotors are available) the chances of heating them up didn’t seem that high in the trails around Brisbane. Or so I thought. Riding at pace and pushing on the longer descents and steeper trails, it became less about having less brake fade, as opposed to noticing how consistent the brake force remained. The harder you pushed the brakes, the more apparent their benefits were.
Lastly, wear rates. I tend to bend rotors before wearing them out, but SwissStop have a neat wear indicator built in so you can keep an eye on the wear on the brake track – this would be really useful if you’re doing a lot of hard work on your bike. Be it shuttling runs, riding in crappy conditions with lots of mud, or e-MTB use with a heavy bike to pull up. SwissStop claim their wear rates are up to 10 times better than their competition!
Overall, I was really impressed with the rotors, and their pads - as I was last year. They aren’t a weight-weenie product from Europe, but instead a well-researched and developed product that lets you stay safe and in control. The Catalyst rotors should let you get close to the edge – but stop before you go over it.