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Battle of the Brakes!

Yes, you're gonna get what you came for. The good old battle of the good old brakes. The Diatech 996's (Hombres) and the Diacompe 990's. They way that I dd this review was as follows: I got the exact same pads, threaded and non threaded. I used them on the same bike, with the same rims, in the same position. I used the same cables, levers, and brake setup. I rated the performance on how easy it was to install, how much flex there was, and the grabbiness.I was using a hardcore oryg upper cable, two teflon coated cables and a brake bastard on the bottom. I used the same setup and had the pads hitting squarely on the rim with both sets of brakes. The pads were really easy to install on the Hombres because all you do is loosen up the bolts, pull the lever hard, and tighten the bolts. Done. With the 990's, you have to tighten up the barrel adjusters on the brake lever and upper oryg cable and place the pad, then tighten the bolt, loosen up the barrel adjusters and do some more adjusting. So far, the Hombres have a point up on the 990's. As for the grabbiness, I was using the same pads, so tie there. The flex was minimalistic with the 990's whereas the 996's were lighter and had weaker arms. They were a little more bendy than the others. Even game at 2. The last point is personal opinion. I prefer the Hombres. They are lighter, lower profile, easier to dial, and just felt a little better than the 990's. However, there are people that swear by their 990's, so the choice is yours. The brakes are equal performance wise, but the layout and feel is what can modify your opinion. Both brakes have outlasted many knockoffs and that proves that they must be well engineered. Take off those crap stock brakes with the mushiest arms and soggiest springs and pick up pair of 996's or 990's.