I’ve got SRAM Rival hydraulic brakes on my Pickenflick. I’m getting pretty poor pad life (from original and now Uberbike sintered pads on original rotors).

I’ve also got an old set of Hope Mono Mini calipers which I’m tempted to try with the SRAM levers. Has anyone tried this already? Thinking I’d get much better pad life if the Hopes give better piston retraction like on my MTBs.

Obviously the brakes will still work. But how well? I stumbled on this which is interesting https://www.bikerumor.com/2016/09/02/eb16-hope-tech-rolls-out-new-road-hubs-4-piston-disc-brake-calipers-for-sram-shimano-levers/

All down to piston sizes in master and slave cylinder.

Given hope make a specific sram road caliper, I’d guess there’s a bit of difference.

You need to look at the cause of poor pad life.
Are you bedding the pads in properly before riding? i.e. repeated heavy braking down a big hill multiple times, getting them smoking hot?
I wouldn’t expect a road brake to be as hard on pads as an MTB one, mostly because of the conditions ridden, or is yours a CX bike?

Yeah bedded in as well as I do with my other bikes… I’m using it as an MTB, Peak District mainly. Yes gritstone is tough on pads but I’m not usually anything like so hard on pads (except years ago when I had some Hayes brakes). It’s a caliper pad retraction issue, I’m sure. Often I can hear them dragging.

I’ll report back if/when I try it. Likely once I’ve used up the current set of pads 😉

Mindful that Hope made the same Mini lever to work with a wide range of calipers 2 to 6 pot, so there’s obviously some flexibility.

Well in case anyone’s interested, and for future reference, I swapped my front caliper from SRAM Rival HRD to Hope Mono Mini and it works like a dream (with the Rival 1 lever). That’s even after the Hope caliper had sat around unused in a drawer for 5 years.

There’s definitely more bite, a lot more power, and really good lever feel. Noisy pads when hot, though, but I’m used to that with all my Hopes because of the cheap pads that I use.

I’ll now replace my piston seals and it’ll be even better. Even with the old seals, pad retraction looks a lot better than with the SRAMs so I anticipate much improved pad life. I’ll do the rear brake, too, once I’ve used up my current pads.

Slight tangent but can you get / use the hope V-twin on its own to work with other people’s calipers?

I’ve not found any hydro levers / hoods that I like the feel of, thinking I could go for cable hoods, V-twin and cheap calipers.

Yeah they’re a gert clumpy lever / hood, but came with the groupset on the bike and work very nicely.

I should imagine that the reverse would work fine – so Hope V-Twin with SRAM HRD Caliper. Or probably the old comparable Avid mountain calipers.

Does the SRAM use brake fluid or mineral oil like Shimano? You can’t use mineral oil with the Hope calipers designed for brake fluid.

I’ve not found any hydro levers / hoods that I like the feel of, thinking I could go for cable hoods, V-twin and cheap calipers.

You could shop around for the less popular TRP parabox which is the same idea as the V-Twin and comes up cheap s/h.

I’ve been umming and ahhing, but I think if I couldn’t get cheap V-twins s/h I’d go with Juintech/acor type brakes and fit middleburn cable oilers. They’re only £100/pair or so, which is probably cheaper than half a V-twin even if you could find one.

Does the SRAM use brake fluid or mineral oil like Shimano? You can’t use mineral oil with the Hope calipers designed for brake fluid.

No, only shimano and magura use mineral oil (of the big brands anyway).

Older Tektro’s run mineral oil too (Shimano copies).

Ah, not as quite straight forward as I thought then.

To be fair I’ve only tried one set of cable discs but they were utter rubbish.

What a good idea. I use the Rivals which are fine but pad choice is currently limited. So in theory I could buy some Hopes, swap calipers and still have two sets of brakes.

Just been looking. Do I need a specific Hope caliper? Some mono minis have a number. Eg 3. What’s needed for 160 mm discs?

SRAM HRD calipers use 18mm or 19mm pistons (smaller on the rear). Mono mini are 20mm, so you will get more power but less pad retraction so they might rub a bit more than normal ones.

Hope are producing a SRAM specific 4 piston caliper, but its still not available yet (due mid Jan apparently, back from December… and November… etc.)

Just been looking. Do I need a specific Hope caliper? Some mono minis have a number. Eg 3. What’s needed for 160 mm discs?

http://www.hopetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/03-Standard-Brake-fittings.pdf

EDIT: That’s mini not mono…

http://www.hopetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/2004-Brake-fitment-chart.pdf

That’s the right chart; 3 is 180 front or 160 rear IS

SRAM HRD calipers use 18mm or 19mm pistons (smaller on the rear). Mono mini are 20mm, so you will get more power but less pad retraction so they might rub a bit more than normal ones

That makes sense. I had to mess about with the amount of fluid in my caliper to get the pad retraction right…

So you used av5 caliper on the front?

No I used post mount caliper direct onto post mount fork 😉
https://goo.gl/photos/uxi1fB99kFEev3Yu9

PS. It was a stunning day for a ride https://goo.gl/photos/3UvsMqqDERMEkNUE6