Hayes has made a tremendous return to the best mountain bike brake market, with its Dominion range.
The American brake specialist has now launched a limited edition version of its Dominion A2, saving the grams without decreasing any of the braking function.
Although the Dominion’s core design remains unchanged, this T2 version is notably lighter. Hayes also promises incredibly sensitive lever actuation, with a glide ring on the master cycling amplifying any effort you apply to the lever.
For those mountain bikers who seek the progressive lever feel of a Hayes Dominion two-pot brake, in an even lighter package, the limited edition T2 will have inarguable appeal.
If you are a committed gram counter, the T2 is 50g lighter per brake, than its Dominion A2 range sibling. To achieve that 254g mass rating, Hayes gave its industrial designers an open budget, to affect the necessary weight saving.
The most noteworthy weight reduction was achieved with a new Reynolds carbon-fiber lever. Although Reynolds is best known for its composite rims, the Hayes sub-brand happily obliged with some trick carbon-fiber lever production, to assist on the T2 project.
Beyond the carbon-fiber levers, the Dominion T2 rakes also feature titanium bolts and composite fluid reservoir covers. Hayes also meticulously reconfigured the machining applied to materials when shaping the Dominion T2’s components, yielding some additional weight savings.
Ergonomically the Dominion T2 should yield an even lighter lever action, due to the reduced lever weight. There is no question of its absolute decelerative power, either, with large 24mm caliper pistons pushing the pads in contact with those rotors.
The Dominion T2 calipers are compatible with most of the best mountain bike disc rotors namely 160-, 180- and 203mm rotors. Hayes will only be producing 500 sets of its lightweight Dominion T2s, priced at $289.99 each.
