Is there any difference? apart from the free stroke adjust. Don’t care about bling or extra features, but need stopping power with modulation. Heard somewhere that Deore, slx and xt are exactly the same just branded differently

Over and above deore, xt has a knob for the lever reach adjust, free stroke and the pistons are phenolic for better heat resistance. Reservoir top cap is shinier and the pad retention thing is a bolt not split pin.

They feel about the same in use.

Get SLX.

Main difference is £25 with slx spitting the difference.

as qwerty said.

I’ve got both. You can get a pair of XT for £99 atm so that’s what I did but in reality they’re very similar. The XT’s have a few more features, are a bit better built with a few nicer touches and are generally a better product. They’re worth the extra cost in my opinion but it’s a close run thing and it all depends on what you what/expect.

I considered SLX but XT are so close in price atm that you may as well go XT.

Deore are nearly half the price of XT even if you can get XT for £100, and bloody good brakes.

The XT and Deore share nothing in terms of major components – not even the hoses… so its not true that they are the same. BUT, that said, they use almost all the same technologies so they work about the same so its really only the label and the weight which count for anything in reality. The freestroke adjustment is useless and so not worth buying for. Deore, SLX and XT offer such similar performance its almost not worth bothering considering the differences, only what your budget is, and whether saving £X means you could buy something else more useful.

The Deore brakes I put on my rigid bike feel much better than both sets of SLX I have had. Don’t know why. I’d go Deore every time now. Or Zee!

^ +1
I prefer the feel of my Deores over my XT’s also had problems with fluid leaking from the XT’s on to the discs when they where stored for a year (seperate thread about it in my history) and the XT’s despite being fully cleaned up and sorted again still squeal more than my Deores ever have