Four-piston brake calipers are an expectation on most modern mountain bikes with only the lightest of cross-country machines equipped with the two-piston counterpart. With gravel bikes going the way of mountain bikes, running larger rotors and now suspension forks, there has been a call for more braking power from a flat-mount caliper and SRAM looks set to answer that with a patent published just a few days ago.
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As four-piston brakes are, flat mounts are the go-to mounting system for gravel and road bikes almost everywhere. However, four-piston flat-mount calipers are few and far between with Hope being the only brand offering such a brake, the RX4.

That looks set to change as in a patent published on 12 March, SRAM looks poised to bring more readily accessible four-piston braking to the world of gravel and road cycling. The patent suggests that these four-piston flat-mount calipers are shaped to offer twice the number of pistons but without intersecting, or getting in the way of the mounting bolts or any other axis.

The benefit of adding more pistons to a brake caliper is increased braking power while utilizing larger brake pads that then create more friction. Whether gravel and road cycling need more power than what a two-piston caliper can muster is another subject. Compared to mountain biking, it’s less start-stop but more power can always be helpful at greater speeds, and fast-thinking moments.
