Vesrah XC SL Pad Review

In early September DIY MTB handed me a set of brake pads and said check these out. I was a bit dubious at first having never heard of Vesrah pads, the claimed 50% reduction in weight seemed excessive and more stopping power from my Elixir’s, I already stop on a dime. Usually you have a choice of two out of the three possibilities, durability, weight and cost, where were the Vesrah XC SL’s going to sit?
Weight was easy to test, a set of standard pads went onto the scales, then the XC SL’s. Yes they were half the weight of the standard pads and I think this is mostly due to the Alloy backing.
In the price range stakes, the Vesrah pads right across the range sit below the RRP of the OEM products and neatly with the other non OEM pads.
On the actual testing. Usually with products I do a bit of research or field-testing, to find out what I’m getting into before I set out on my own road to discovery. But not this time, out went the OEM pads, straight in went the XC SL’s and out onto the trails I headed. First impressions were mixed, the pads were noisy but the stopping power felt more direct. It took a few rides, some fine tuning and I finally had the pads running noise free. The packet the pads had arrived in claimed “motorcycle technology” and during the rides and races following it felt like I was packing more than 160mm discs as the pads gripped solidly and had me braking later before corners. All-round these pads are not excessively wearing and seem to be highly effective.

Vesrah is a division of Takara Corp which was founded in 1950, originally manufacturing brakes for Japanese bicycles. Due to market change and the popularity of motorcycles Takara moved into brakes for motorized transport and shortly after stopped their bicycle brake line all together. With the market once again changing Takara is back in the bicycle business bringing with them all they have learnt from the motorcycle industry. Vesrah are producing four different lines of pads, standard, XC, DH and XC SL, to cover all styles and rider preference. My bit of research has found the US hasn’t had much experience with them but the Kiwi’s have been riding successfully on them since ’07.
Check out the DIY MTB website and you should find a set of pads for most model brakes, find out for yourself how good these pads are.