Dear Odyssey, Please Stop the Lies
Dear Odyssey,
We’ve had a long relationship. Way back when you sold gear that was cheaper than the OEMs but better than Pyramid Accessories I was a fan. These words I say, I say out of love.
Please stop lying.
My story begins a couple of years ago when, fed up with the lack of braking power (or lack there of) of the K2 I decided to replace the painted Sun rims with some Duralectra Hazard Lites that you had on closeout. While I was doing that I was also going to replace my rear hub and sprocket with the then new standard 25/9. I think everyone knows the end of that story, I ended up getting a new bike, which also had painted rims, so I put the Hazards on it.
Now, the word on the Duralectra rims and the Hard Anodized rims that replaced them was that they “brake as well as chrome.” This is a lie. I mean, they brake much, MUCH better than painter rims, but saying they brake as well as chrome is like saying I’m as fit as Usain Bolt because I’m in better shape than this guy. But, I’d talked myself into thinking that the braking performance I had was as good as it got, primarily since I’m about twice the size of the average BMXer and I haven’t ridden a bike with chrome wheels in like 12 years (it was a Huffy Half-Ton if you’re wondering, I could lock up the rear brakes at will on that thing). Even after swapping out the stock Tektros for a full on Odyssey setup, my brakes were mostly “alright.” That was as good as it could get thanks to physics I thought.
Then I rode a bike with pretty much the exact same brake setup as mine (Evo2s front and rear, gyro, the biggest difference is he has Colony levers instead of my Monolever/M2 setup) but with chrome rims and, by jove, I could lock up the rears, the hell? The problem, I figured, was the rims, “brakes as well as chrome,” was just not true, and it was time for me to just give up on the black wheels and admit defeat.
Then I spoke to Devon on a completely unrelated note. He wanted to sell his red, HA wheels. I’m kinda over the black/white thing and am thinking about adding some color to my bike but I’d resigned myself to chrome wheels. Devon said, “dude, try the clear pads, their made for painted wheels!” I said, “why should I trust you, you ride brakeless!” and he said “I rode brakes a couple of weeks ago!” And there was much exclaiming.
Still, I decided to drop the twenty bucks on a couple of pair of them last week and last night I put them on my bike (as an aside, Dear Brian Scura – I know that you’ve probably made all of the money you need by licensing the original gyro design, then providing Orygs to every bike manufacturer ever, but can you please turn your mad genius to making a quick release lever for U-Brakes so that changing my pads didn’t need to be a PROCESS. Kthxbai). In between buying them I noticed something on the Odyssey website, “clear pads are best for painted rims, hard anodized rims work best with black or red pads.”
LIES!
I used black pads with HA rims and they were a joke!
But
I’m hear to tell you that the clear pads with my rims is a revelation. This morning I went to Bay Creek and I was able to lock up my brakes at will. Maybe now I’ll learn fufanus and abubacas! Probably not, but I was able to pull off an endo without my front wheel washing out from under me. I now have very, very good brakes and its all because I’m doing something that the manufacturer said is not recommended. I’m here to tell you, if you’re a little big around the middle, but still like having all the fancy colors on your bike, clear + HA rims is super awesome, regardless of what Odyssey says.
Odyssey, stop denying it, clear pads are the way of the future.
