I hate the search function!

I will be buying without rotors. If SLX weigh the same as XT, is the bite point adjustment worth sacrificing just to save £20 (for a F&R set on Merlin). Anyone retro fitted it to SLX?

I’ve been using the XT’s for nearly a year now and they have mostly been spot on. I had to shorten the hose on the rear one and obviously didn’t do a perfect job as the rear one has never felt as good as the front.

Also I recently had a problem with my lever seizing and the brake has gone back to CRC for warranty.

Meanwhile I have bought a Deore rear brake to use while thats off for repair. I used it yesterday properly on Whites Level at Afan and it was spot on. Good feel and power in the less than perfect conditions…
Good brake and just 50 quid.

I have never really used the bite point adjuster on the XT brakes, only the reach adjuster. I think you could live without it..

My slx are brilliant, although one of the mags recently gave deores the best brake award so u cud save yourself some money…

I don’t think the bite adjuster’s worth the extra, but I reckon the build quality is better on the XTs. Also the XTs have an allen bolt fitment for brake pads whereas the SLXs have a stupid split pin (that requires you to carry pliers if you want to change pads on the trail). I think that last point is fairly shameless by Shimano – this is clearly intentionally done to make an distinction between the SLX/XT and allow them to charge more for XT since it can’t cost significantly more to manufacture a screw fixture rather than a pin.

XT/SLX/Deore all feel really nice and have the same sort of power. On a bike I ride and maintain regularly, I reckon there are enough extra features to make it worthwhile to go for the XTs and I reckon they may last longer. But you can’t really go wrong with any of them.

Anyway, for my money – XT.

For the added price of the XT’s you could have an ice-tech rotor.

Bite point is useless.

But they do have more bling factor and split pins are officially dumb.

Also the XTs have an allen bolt fitment for brake pads whereas the SLXs have a stupid split pin (that requires you to carry pliers if you want to change pads on the trail)

Ummm… Do you not have fingers?

Bite point might be useful for you, it’s personal preference.. I tried a set of SLX brakes and I found that the bite point was quite far into the levers travel.. this combined with me running my levers really close to the bars means that it wasn’t ideal at all.

I read on Pinkbike that the SLX caliper is threaded where the cotter pin goes through – so you can retro-fit the threaded pin from XT/XTR for only £1.66 from Wiggle.

is there no allen key bit adjustment on the SLX and Deore?

For the money Deore are amazing value.

Nope. You won’t miss it though – I’m pretty unconvinced that the bite point adjust is even noticeable on my XT brakes.

P.S. I’m aware of what bite point adjust does, and I’ve used it on other brakes. But it seems to make virtually no difference at all to the way the XTs feel/bite.

Ummm… Do you not have fingers?

Indeed I do. I could never grip the pin well enough on my old-style SLX brakes though. Perhaps the new ones are different.

Get the one you like the look of….I had SLX and changed to XT, I got the XTs £115 from rose writhing ££10 Facebook discount paid ££110 for SLX and sold to a mate for the same price (he knew how much I paid and is only ridden them about 5 times).

Feel is the same…I don’t use reach bite tbh, yeah pin looks better in XT’s (haven’t had to change pads yet) they are ment to be lighter and apparently stronger….I just preferred the look!

P.S I’ve ridden on lots of mates bikes with hopes, saints, old shimano, ect, etc and they are ace (if you like the power).

I’ll be taking some SLX off a new bike to sell in a couple of weeks, if you’re not in a hurry and want to save a few quid.

Email in profile if interested, sorry for the spam if not!