I’m pretty much the hydraulic disc brake novice having only owned 1 set after upgrading from mechanicals but I think I get the jist of it. You pull the lever, the volume in the resevoir reduces pushing the fluid out, fluid doesn’t compress so it forces the pistons out – voila. It’s relatively straitforward so I’m suprised at the supposed differences between different systems and the fact that there’s usually a new pad compound, braided hose, fluid additive etc. etc. that’s meant to make things even better.

Anyway, my situation is that I have a set of LX M585 brakes and levers which are fine for the sort of riding I do. The problem is however that they’ve got dodgy seals that harden up in cold weather preventing the pistons from retracting and they’re going to have to go before next Winter. Shimano say the the new M595s are a comparible system and that they’ve had no reported cold weather issues with them, so that’s probably the route I’ll go.

Money’s tight and I can get a M595 caliper for under £30. They’re compatible with my current levers, so £60 and I’m sorted. However, the levers are the old, pre-2007 design with the resevoir parallel to the bars and £60 and end will get me the new levers too (with the resevoir at 90 degrees to the bars). They look a lot nicer but do they add to the performance equation? With my simplistic view of things they all do the same thing, you pull the lever and push out the fluid.

Would I be shortchanging myself saving £60 by just using my old LX levers? I don’t think that the M595 levers have the servowave technology of SLX and higher groupsets, so it looks like it’s just the position of the resevoir.

I don’t know anything about Shimano, but my Hope Mono minis work loads better with the original black levers than with the newer silver 2007 ones, despite same piston sizes etc.

Pretty much all shimano levers will work with most calipers. Original XT, new XTR and possibly Saint are the exceptions.
I recently swapped out an old lever like yours for an M595 one and cant say I notice much difference in terms of feel or power.
TBH I’d put up with the calipers unless you really need to, besides weathers warmed up a bit and you’ve got plenty of time before the next cold snap (I hope!). Perhaps look for some on the classifieds.

PJay,

Go to CRC and buy a pair of the LX Dual Control Levers for £18 a set. All Shimano brake callipers are compatible with all their hydraulic levers; you just have to get the correct hoses and connectors.

PaulD

I have used these three and there is barely any difference. I can just about feel a bit of flex in the deore lever blade as against the other 2, but this is when sat in the garage not on the trail.

The XT has some extra adjustability. the rest is just looks.

HTH

Thomthumb, you’ve just posted every type of disc lever i’ve ever owned!

The XTs I like the most personally.

The XT has some extra adjustability. the rest is just looks.

…which most people, myself included, never touch.

Like most things with brakes, once you’ve set them, they are left alone.

…which most people, myself included, never touch.

does it actually work though? I always liked that my Juicy 7 adjusters worked really well, but i seem to remember some slight grumblings that XTs weren’t as effective

I seem to remember that the xt disk levers do the same nice thing that the V brake levers used to, ie. that you can set them to pull in quickly but then once they have pulled in you get more ‘leverage’ from the lever so you need less power to brake.

However, how you adjust them doesn’t seem to be well documented anywhere which may be why no-one seems to do it. I spent a while fiddling with them to set them up and am really happy with the result but I could also just be guilty of kidding myself. They do work nicely though.

On XTs, theres only 2 adjustments:-
1) Reach adjustment, know on front of lever
2) Bite point adjustment. Doesn’t have a massive range, so doesn’t make a lot of difference.
compared to other brakes, my XTs have really minimal lever travel, which i like.