Check out our first look and initial review video here for all the details!

The focus of this article is all the tech SRAM has packed into the Mavens with their completely fresh design, from the levers to the calipers! The whole package comes together in a highly industrial looking finished product with all the features you would expect from a top of the line performance oriented brake system, and leaves the Codes behind in every way. Not only do the brakes look impeccable, their function is fantastic, with all of the adjustments I look for in a high end brake system as well as some added creature comforts. Let’s check them out!

We’ll start at the lever, and on our Maven Ultimate, there’s tons of tech packed into this fairly large brake lever. The Maven Ultimate brake lever is a polished beauty, with even more polished aluminum than the Code Ultimate. Just like those Codes, you’ll find a toolless contact adjust dial on the lever body with a very usable adjustment range, and a toolless reach adjust dial on the lever itself that makes it incredibly easy to dial in the Mavens exactly how you want them. Inside the lever body is the classic SRAM swinglink to deliver maximum power, which you’ll find in every level of Maven, just like the reach adjust dial, but the contact adjust dial is only found on the Ultimate and Silver models. On the Maven Ultimate and Maven Silver, the lever pivots on a bearing, while the Maven Bronze pivots on a bushing. The bearing pivot will undoubtly give less friction than the bushing, and you can upgrade from the Bronze lever to the Ultimate or Silver lever down the line without any compatibility issues.

A small change, but something that has me very excited for the overall asthetic of my bike’s cockpit, is the refined angle of the brake hose coming out of the lever body. On the Stealth generation of SRAM’s Codes and Levels, the brake hose is turned slightly in toward the handlebars with the intention of sliding into thru-headset cable routing, which has unfortunately become quite popular on newer bikes, but after hearing rider feedback, SRAM has made the Maven’s brake hose parallel to the handlebar, making for a much cleaner overall cockpit. Combined with SRAM’s matchmaker clamp system, the Mavens have given me an undeniably slick cockpit, which every rider is sure to love.

Perhaps the biggest surprise of the Mavens is what you’ll find inside the system, and it’s not the DOT fluid SRAM has been known for. Just like their budget friendly DB8 brakes that SRAM quietly released a couple years ago, Mineral Oil is the blood of the Mavens, and SRAM has developed their own formula in conjunction with Maxima. With this proprietary formula, there’s hardly a sacrifice in boiling point, going from 250 C for DOT 5.1 to 230 C for SRAM’s mineral oil, and the bleed interval increases from one year on their DOT fluid brakes up to two years on the mineral oil Mavens! Without getting too nerdy, this is because DOT fluid will slowly absorb water from the atmosphere and the boiling point will drop considerably, but that’s not the case with mineral oil, as it’s a hydrophobic fluid, and won’t take on any water during its life in your brakes! That’s the case with all mineral oils, but you’ll need to use SRAM’s Maxima mineral oil in the Mavens, just like their more affordable DB8 brakes. Unlike DOT fluid, mineral oil is not regulated, and comes in all kinds of different flavors, so you’ll want to use the exact mineral oil the manufacturer recommends, whether it’s Shimano, Magura, TRP, or any other mineral oil brake.

A common misconception about brakes is that their failure comes from the fluid reaching its boiling point, but after lots of in house testing, SRAM concluded that the seals and brake pads were most often the weak links after taking a brake to failure, so they took theirs back to the drawing board and came up with new designs for both!

Because the Mavens use mineral oil instead of DOT Fluid, you’ll need to get a new SRAM bleed kit for the Mavens instead of reusing the DOT bleed kit. Inside of the mineral oil bleed kit, you’ll find SRAM’s bleeding edge tools, a bit of mineral oil, bleed blocks, and everything else you’ll need to get a perfect bleed on your new Mavens. We found that getting the hoses attached to the syringes took a little more muscle than the DOT fluid kit, so don’t be afraid to really jam them on there!

Sporting a rather industrial and almost steampunk look, the Maven caliper is held together with four bolts. The Maven Ultimate uses titanium hardware to save weight, while the Silver and Bronze both use steel hardware. I can't say that caliper flex is something I'm concerned about while riding my bike, but SRAM says by doubling the number of screws holding each halves of the Maven caliper together compared the Codes, there's reduced power loss and a more solid feeling at the lever. Magura is the only other company I've seen try to fight caliper flex with their one piece MT7 and MT5 calipers, and anything done in the name of a more solid feeling brake is welcomed in my book.

We talked about it earlier, but the most notable new part of the Maven caliper is the new piston seal. I know I know, it’s not the most exciting thing in the world, but these are a big deal and are arguably the biggest break through SRAM has made with the Mavens. Seals play a couple of roles in the caliper; of course they seal the fluid in and the dirt out, but they also act as a spring. Everytime your pistons get pushed out, your seals flex out just a bit, and then come back to their neutral resting position when you let the lever go, bringing the pads with them. Without the right elasticity in your seals, your brakes will feel terrible at the lever, and SRAM has put 4 years into designing these Maven seals to get them just right. Seals used in a mineral oil brake are very different from those used in a DOT fluid brake, and are made of different rubber compounds to survive life submerged in a different fluid. Typically, mineral oil seals aren’t as high performing as DOT seals, especially in super high or super low temperatures, but SRAM has developed these new seals from the ground up to perform in a wider range of temperatures than other mineral oil seals.

Speaking of temperatures, heat is impossible to avoid in brake systems, and companies go to extreme lengths to dissipate it. Whether that’s with finned pads or vented rotors, most companies have some form of heat dissipation strategy, but SRAM is embracing the heat with their Mavens, and there aren’t any heat dissipation gimmicks to be found here. Without enough heat, the Mavens won’t work as intended, and the same goes for if they get too hot! SRAM recommends “tuning” your brake with rotor diameter so that your brake is most often at an optimal temperature. A smaller rotor will get hotter than a larger rotor, so if you’re riding steeper tracks that require hard and sustained braking, then a 200 or 220mm rotor is what you’re looking for! But if you’re riding in Florida or somewhere else that looks like you could feed it through a photocopy machine, you probably don’t need Mavens, but you’ll also get more power out of a 160 or 180mm rotor no matter what brakes you choose. A brake needs heat to get a quality bite, and by using too big of a rotor, your brake won’t get to the temperature it works best at, so you’ll actually be saving weight and improving braking power with the smaller rotor.

From head to toe, the Mavens are an engineering marvel, and have so many new features that have really impressed us so far. With all of the tech packed in these new brakes, they’ve quickly become a shop favorite, and make sure to check out our blog on the riding experience of these brakes if you’re thinking about making a purchase. The Mavens are going to be a great option for any rider looking for maximum braking performance, especially on long travel enduro bikes, downhill bikes, and of course, eMTBs! Mavens are going to be one of our top recommendations for anyone looking to increase their braking power on their heavy eMTB, especially for anyone riding steep and loose trails.

We are incredibly excited to get more time on the Mavens here at The Lost Co. We imagine that this will be one of the most popular brakes for enduro, downhill, and some trail bikes, and are incredibly excited to get more time in on this brake for a full review down the line!

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