My rear Hope tech lever went all the way to the grip on the final decent.
No rear brake. OMFG!
It’s was ok after it had cooled down.
Topped up the fluid today but is there any other thing that would cause this?

Perhaps changing your riding style so your not continually dragging your back brake?

Its not a case of mtfu, just learning and getting use to descending quicker and braking more efficiently.

Air/water in system?

I had piece of carp hayes sole front brake piss its fluid out at dh at the start of the descent. I assure you that you miss a front brake more than a rear when you haven’t got one!

You should flush and replace the fluid, not just top it up.

My riding style is fine thank you.
Just recently spent an hour per end textbook blending and centralising so am a bit miffed as to why this happened.
I can feel a Shimano XT moment coming on

All due, but if you’re cooking brakes that suggests your riding style could be tweaked, or you need bigger rotors.

My front brake is my main brake so doubt the rear was cooked.
There was no brake pump available.
Never had this in 4 years of having hope tech’s so its a little strange.

You really shouldn’t have cooked a rear brake on that descent. Me on xt’s, friend on hope had no issues. What pads? When was the last fluid change and are you sure you’re not fragging the rear safety brake style?

My front brake is my main brake so doubt the rear was cooked.

It’s was ok after it had cooled down.

sounds cooked

It’s not really a long decent and it had gone by the time I got to the road crossing.
Probably rode that decent 20 times and never had that happen.

To be fair, the symptoms are exactly that of overheating but it doesn’t really fit… Think you’re going to have to wait til it recurs tbh, more info needed.

True NW,Afan tomorrow so will see what happens on the last 3 sections of The Wal.

Don’t be sure XT will cure it, mine’s about 3mths old, and will be on it’s way back to Madison on Monday because the lever keeps working it’s way back to the bars(manages a ride before needing to bleed more air out), will be putting my old Hope back on, then deciding what i’m going to do.

Could be the pistons are sticking a bit, keeping the pads in contact with the rotor and causing it to overheat.

Buying Shimano brakes should stop this from happening again.

Synthetic fluid… floating rotors should help.

Are they newer Hope calipers with the phenolic pistons as opposed to the metal ones

Sintered brake pads also create a lot of heat too…

Although your riding style may be fine it does sound like a draggy brake problem…

Re bleed and give it another shot rather than just top up.

Its an old debate about Hopes that has been done to death but at 100kg, they have been fine for me on alpine descents.

HTH

Just wound the reach out to max so I have more bite.

How old are the brakes? It could be time for new caliper seals.

cwmcarns a pretty short descent. even if you had been dragging the brakes you shouldnt have had total fade. I’d fully bleed the brakes with new fluid

incidently greg minaar said in an interview because christmas that hes exceptionally hard on brakes are he constantly drags them. maybe the new saint brakes would be a good upgrade as they certainly seem to stop greg 🙂

True NW,Afan tomorrow so will see what happens on the last 3 sections of The Wal

There you go SOAP.

Rode the wall the other day and you only need to dab the brakes half a dozen times on the last section. Pretty sure the preceding descents were done without touching the brakes more than once or twice.

The only time I’ve had brake fade on my Hope M4s was towards the bottom of an epic downhill in the Alps – 15-20 minutes of constant rapid downhill with loads of braking for corners.
I haven’t been to cwmcarn, but I doubt if it’s on that sort of scale, so the problem is maintenance/setup related.
Put in some decent quality pads, and rebleed with fluid from a fresh, unopened bottle. DOT 5 fluid is compatible with normal 4.1 and has a slightly higher boiling point, so it may be worth a try.
Brake fluid absorbs moisture over time, which reduces the boiling point, which can cause the problems you’re having.

Once a brake has cooked, the brake fluid will have a lower boiling point than before.
So the problem will only get worse and worse..
You say you have had them 4 years, so the brake fluid will require changing.
Buy some new Dot 4 and re-bleed the brakes.

Worked fine today with a little more reach added.
Might see if I can get hope to service them.

my cranks seized once when going down the Cwmcarn DH – that was bloody awful, especially the tables at the bottom. Never realised quite how much you use your cranks appart from pedalling.