My XTs have just been accepted for warranty refund and after trying out my mates saint brakes I fancy some Shimano 4 pots.

I know the brakes are supposedly the same except tool free reach adjustment which I don’t need. However the lever reservoir on the Zees seems to be plastic like XTs while the Saints appear to be metal. Is this the case? If so that’d justify the extra 50 quid for the set for me.

Yeah the actual calipers are the same apart from the finish on some very small parts but the levers are different. IIRC Saint levers have more in common with XTR M988s whereas Zees are the same as SLX M675.

They are what they are but I’d go for Saint rather than be reminded of the £50 I saved every time I braked

Zees use a split pin for holding the pads. Never had an issue but I’ve thought about tapping some threads in.

I’d bet 50 quid that if you bought Zee they’d work better than my Saints.

I’ve gone into before on here but they’ve never worked properly and I’m replacing them before next summers Alps trip.

Zees use a split pin for holding the pads. Never had an issue but I’ve thought about tapping some threads in.

No need Scruff – the caliper is ready tapped. Just replace the split pin with a bolt and you’re sorted. Same goes for SLX…

calipers are the same iirc, levers are different.

i replaced my zee levers with saints following ripping the lever out of the housing in a crash that wasn’t particularly high speed. don’t know if i was just unlucky but i was surprised how easy it was to ruin the zee levers.

the saints feel a bit sturdier and the tool free adjustment is nice to have. the bite point adjuster on the other hand does very little (apart from make it slightly easier to over fill the reservoir and improve contact point that way)

Almost hit the button on Zees there but I think it’ll be Saints, I crash too much for plastic levers as my XTs found out!
I do remember someone saying about Saint levers heating up and jamming on, not read about it anywhere though

Cheers all

Aren’t the Zee lever blades exactly the same as the Saint ones?

Yes, the blades are the same, the reservoir and housing is different

Ok. I wonder how? I’ve just snapped a Zee lever – perhaps proving your point 🙂 – but it still looks like metal to me.

Blades are metal for both I think, just on Zee they’re bolted onto a plastic housing.

Did you snap the actual blade in half?

No, the clamp. Think the shifter must have hit first, because the I-spec bolt ripped out, shattering the clamp as it went.

The levers are the same, my lever didn’t snap, it ripped out of the main body of the brake assembly destroying the housing and spitting various bits of gu bins on the way and deforming the metal to a completely un-rescuable point. As mentioned, wasn’t a heavy crash. Could of just been unlucky or the lever assembly could just be made of cheese

Just bought a set of Saints, I crash too much for fragile levers!

CRC warrantied my XTs and I just joined British cycling so I got the set for less than 80 quid, happy days!