SRAM Brakes? Heads Up!

Posted Nov 1, 2017

Thanks for buying your mountain bike from Pine Mountain Sports! If you’re riding on a newer Trek, Santa Cruz, or Juliana mountain bike then we know that many of your bikes are equipped with the latest SRAM Guide or SRAM Level hydraulic disc brakes. You can look on the master cycling and see if they are labeled as such (see pic).

These are excellent brakes, and (like us) our customers have been very happy with the braking power and feel of these latest offerings from SRAM. That said, the Pine Mountain Sports service department has been in contact with SRAM regarding some issues that a few of our bikes with these Guide and Level brakes have been having this summer…

These handful of problematic brakes only had issues when the bike is ridden while it’s very, very hot outside. This summer, when the temperature was in the triple digits, a few of you who were still out on the trails brought your bikes in to see us because your brake levers started having issues with sticking or gradually locking up in the heat. We started asking questions of our friends at SRAM and were able to work with them so that we could repair or replace any of our customers Guide or Level brakes that were problematic.

The brakes that had issues had a common scenario, 100 degree temps outside, mountain bike left outside and baking in the sun (like parked on an exposed rooftop rack), and then immediately taken on a trail ride in said 100 degree temps. The extreme heat would cause a very slow lever return due to the piston swelling internally. Not a common scenario, but a scenario that shouldn’t regularly cause problems with a quality hydraulic brake like these.

Please be aware that there is not an actual recall on these brakes from SRAM. That said, we want to give you a heads up that we are already working with SRAM to make sure our service department will be among the first to get the information we need to determine if any our customers brakes are possibly affected. If needed, this can be determined in the future with a potential list of serial numbers of affected brakes.

If you’ve experienced issues, we can easily identify any brake that might be problematic by running the serial number on the underside of the brake caliper. This will require removing the brake caliper, which we’re happy to do the next time your bike is in for routine service.

Again, unless you are riding in triple digit heat, your Guide and Level brakes should still be working awesome! And most of us were floating the river when the heat wave came to see us, which means that most of us in Bend have not experienced any issues at all. And, since it’s November now, we’re not going to see any issues (while riding in Oregon) any time in the near future. So keep calm, and carry on. And definitely keep riding your bike!

In the meantime, if you have any concerns, or have had any hot-weather braking issues, please call our service department and we’ll be happy to assist in making sure that your SRAM hydraulic disc brakes are working as awesome as the Pine Mountain Sports service department and our good friends at SRAM always intended them to. As always, we’re looking out for you and your investment, and we’ll be here to take care of you and any related brake issues now, next season, or for as long as you own your bike that we built for you!

Thanks! We’re always here when you need us.

The Pine Mountain Sports Service Department