There were some major changes over at Magura this year, some visible, some more hidden but no less significant for it.
The biggest news from them this year is that their high-end brakes have a completely new lever shape. You may remember the HC lever was released as an after market upgrade, but for 2018 the MT6 and MT7 brakes will ship with the 1-finger HC lever as standard. Previously, riders with big enough hands have been able to run the old-style 2-finger levers set up for single finger braking, but now it’s within reach of everyone, so to speak.
The MT6 HC weighs 225g, has a two piston caliper, and will cost €179.90Here’s the new HC lever shape.The MT7 HC is a step up, with four piston calipers and again, the one finger HC lever.The MT7 HC is 255g and €211.90 per end.The MT8 Carbon is absurdly light at 200g per brake, with a carbon fibre lever blade, and Magura’s Carbotecture calipers.The lever blade is still the older two finger shape, compared to the 1-finger HC lever.This is the HC3 lever, which doesn’t come as standard on any brake and is their new after market upgrade. As well as the bite and reach adjuster, it has another adjuster in the centre of the lever, meaning you can tweak the actual lever shape and get it set up exactly how you want (apologies for poor image quality). We’ll add the UK RRP as soon as we have it.They’ve completely updated the Vyron seatpost, with much quicker electronics and a new, faster motor.
One of the criticisms levelled against the first version of the Vyron was the delay of about 0.5 seconds, which most riders got used to but was nonetheless noticeable. A demo station on the Magura stand had a newer version of the Vyron with sped up electronics. There’s still a slight delay, but it is a great deal closer to the timing you’d expect from a regular cabled or oil-remote dropper post.
There are also going to be more travel options for the 2018 seatpost. Previously it was 150mm travel only, but they’ll now be offering 100mm and 125mm options too.
The remote also comes with the single button cover as standard now, making it much easier to find the button without having to look at your bars.The Boltron ebike upside down fork was only available OEM, but will soon be available to everyone through Magura dealers. Travel is 120mm or 150mm; availability is mid-October and the price will be £999.The Storm SL.2 is Magura’s lighter range of rotors. That weight is saved by means of bigger cutouts, rather than thinning it.
Magura’s rotors have been tweaked a little and harmonised so all of them can be run with all of their brakes. All are 2mm thick, but the Storm HC rotors are more heavyweight and the Storm SL.2 designed for people who want to save a bit of weight. All can be used with 2- or 4-pot calipers, and while the HC comes in 160mm, 180mm, and 203mm, the SL.2 is only 160 or 180mm – apparently the large cutouts meant they couldn’t get a 203mm version stiff enough, so they decided not to send the prototype into production.
One last tidbit is Magura’s ABS system for ebikes. At the moment, it’s not for mountain bikes and they didn’t comment on whether or not that would be happening any time soon…… an interesting bit of information we picked up though was someone from Magura saying it was impossible to lose front wheel traction with it. Eliminating front wheel washouts? Now that would be smart.Here are some of the lever shapes Magura offer, from one finger to three.
David started mountain biking in the 90’s, by which he means “Ineptly jumping a Saracen Kili Racer off anything available in a nearby industrial estate”. After growing up and living in some extremely flat places, David moved to Yorkshire specifically for the mountain biking. This felt like a horrible mistake at first, because the hills are so steep, but you get used to them pretty quickly.
Previously, David trifled with road and BMX, but mountain bikes always won. He’s most at peace battering down a rough trail, quietly fixing everything that does to a bike, or trying to figure out if that one click of compression damping has made things marginally better or worse. The inept jumping continues to this day.
Given the motor/control unit is replaceable on the current vyron post can the updated electronics be fitted to the original version?