As above.

Seen a few pairs of Avids about in a variety of styles – are they all still a PITA to keep in service?

SLX seem reasonably priced in some shops as to Deore.

Anyone had any great deals recently?

Bird have SLX for £75 linky

So do ribble. And they occasionally do 10% extra off shimano

I recently bought a set of SLX brakes from Merlin for £74.95 (just £5 more than Deore) and they’ve been great.

You can get a full set of Clarks for less than £50 with discs and adaptors, wouldn’t put them on an all mountain bike but would happily work on a light trail bike all day long.

SLX is the sweet spot in shimano’s brake world IMO. Doesn’t have the complicated free stroke adjust of XT, but does have the same caliper as XT, so you get the nice banjo hose fitting, nicer casting and the option to use a threaded pin to hold the pads (SLX comes with a split pin, but the threads are there for the threaded pin should you wish).

SLX for the win!

insanely good value, so simple to setup and just keep working extremely well

£125 for Zee from Bike Discount.

Seemed an absolute bargain.

Have been impressed with my 396s which can be had for £40/pair or even less

Actual braking performance is excellent they have a more tactile feel than the touch-screen sensation of my Deores/XTs/Zees maybe the complete absence of adjusters helps.

Drawbacks include the non-hinged bar clamp which is secured with a rather obtrusive 5mm hex bolt and the bottom-loading pads but otherwise they’ve been great

A quick search reveals XT M8000 for £120 quid a pair. I’ve got a couple of bikes with these and for the money you can’t go wrong. (Hope fanboi opinion)

8)

For balance my SLX, albeit just the rear, has been shocking. Inconsistent lever feel after multiple bleeds. I’ve just replaced the caliper at £20, it’s a little better but still not great though I think it’s going to need another bleed. I have a set of Hopes on another bike and they are a lot better for me. But as expected for the price difference.

That said, for the price and judging the front brake only, it’s great. Bit like a on/off switch but really powerful with 180mm rotors.

I think the deores are rated just as good, but I like the reach adjust on the SLX.

Thanks all.

jonnym92 – Member
For balance my SLX, albeit just the rear, has been shocking. Inconsistent lever feel after multiple bleeds.

I have a pair of SLX already and experience exactly the same. If I wanted to bleed my brakes all the time I would have gone with AVID 😯

We had a couple of threads about Shimano bleed problems and brakes “pumping up” recently.

Very interesting as it definitely seems a common problem, but considering the sheer number of brakes out there it seems many must be unaffected.

FWIW the Zees that I started one of the threads about have been warrantied by BikeDiscount at 18 months and I think a new set are on their way to me now.

If I wanted to bleed my brakes all the time I would have gone with AVID

.

For balance,I have 3 sets and have hardly ever needed to bleed them.
One set (juicy7s)is 5 years old.

SRAM DB5 @ £28 an end on CRC

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/sram-db5-disc-brake/rp-prod120146

Magura MT2s on offer at Bike Discount
http://www.bike-discount.de/en/buy/magura-mt2-disc-brake-without-adapter-and-rotoe-454370?currency=3&delivery_country=190&gclid=CLjT2uWogcsCFWkTwwodJ2INPA

Used them for 3 years now and very impressed.

I think the deores are rated just as good, but I like the reach adjust on the SLX.

I’m pretty sure that the Deores have adjustable reach, too – a little allen screw on the inside of the lever. (OK, so you need an allen key to adjust it, but for me it is a ‘set and forget’ adjustment.)

I found very little difference in braking force between the Deore and SLX, but the Deore have (or had) a wider pad that meant they overhang SLX discs. (The Shimano Deore discs are ‘resin pad only’ if one is bothered about these things…)

monkeysfeet – Member
Magura MT2s on offer at Bike Discount
http://www.bike-discount.de/en/buy/magura-mt2-disc-brake-without-adapter-and-rotoe-454370?currency=3&delivery_country=190&gclid=CLjT2uWogcsCFWkTwwodJ2INPA

Used them for 3 years now and very impressed.

I must say I am a bit of fan of Magura stuff.

Silly q though …. would I just buy two of the linked brakes and tim the hoses accordingly or can you not flip the levers?

I have a set of SLX you can have for £40 posted.

Came fitted to a bike I bought, used for 3 months then swapped to some XTs that I had spare.

Very kind offer.

I think I will need to buy new however as the routing and length of the frame I want them for will require a hefty length of hose (fnar) for the rear.

No problem. Will put them on the classifieds when I get round to it.

For Shimano brakes in general – how difficult is it to swap them to left-front/right-rear continental style? Is it a simple matter of moving hoses and rebleeding, or any other equipment required and/or don’t bother?

If you’re careful you don’t need to bother re-bleeding.

Likewise, you can shorten the hoses and if you’re careful you don’t need to bleed.

If you search on Google for stw xt 785 house shortening it will take you to a huge thread on the technique. It backlit involves being careful and not throwing the hose around when disconnected.

you don’t need to bleed, if there is any air in you can ‘burp’ them; pushing the pistons right back into the caliper pushes fluid back up the line (taking the bubbles/air at the top with it) into the reservoir.

Shortened or removed shimano hoses several times and never needed a bleed, often didn’t even need a burp if I was careful (as cp says).

I got a set of XT’s for £88 from CRC, they are on clearance so you can use a code to get £10 off. I think they have increased in price a little.