What’s better than a shiny new set of MTB brakes? A shiny new set of PURPLE brakes, of course. Harkening back to the early days of mountain biking and our never-ending love of colorful anodized aluminum, Hayes is giving their popular modern Dominion A4 dual-piston hydraulic brakes a bit of a retro purple ano makeover. Get it… purple haze?
Already building trusted hydraulic disc brakes with innovative tech and setting disc brake standards since the late 90s, Hayes’s original team edition DH brakes were champagne ano with purple logos. But taking the Purple Haze look to the next level, they already debuted full-on purple anodized brakes back in 2000. Now they are back with a limited Purple Hayes edition of their top-tier four-piston Dominion A4 brakes
Tech details
Technically, the Purple Hayes are exactly the same as standard Dominion A4 brakes that we reviewed a few years back – a brakeset that we said heralded a return for Hayes to the top of trail performance. Zach dubbed them “one of the best trail/enduro brakes on the market – regardless of brand.” So that’s a good thing. What’s new then, are just the shiny purple ano levers and the purple ano brake caliper bodies.
You still get classic flip-flop lever bodies, easily removable 2-piece bar clamp, tool-free reach adjustment, tool-adjustable pad contact, sealed cartridge bearings in the alloy lever pivots, 17mm pistons, easy-to-set-up tiny CrossHair caliper adjusting set screws, bottom-load King Pin brake pads, Kevlar weave hoses, and the simple but slightly different 2-Stroke dual-port bleed system to make sure you are 100% air bubble free. A front brake (cut to 100cm hose length) weighs 310g with hardware (ours were a shade lighter), and runs on DOT 5.1 brake fluid.
Purple Hayes Dominion A4 brakes – Pricing, availability & no options
The Purple Hayes Dominions are available now exclusively as a single limited edition brakeset for $250 per wheel, the same price as the standard grey or bronze ano levers & calipers (and also on twenty bucks more than when they debuted four years ago). No word yet exactly how limited, but Hayes does say they expect them to sell out pretty quickly. They only come with a full-length 180cm hose, so buy two sets and chop one down for your front wheel.
