My elixir 5’s have finally piss me off to the point of chucking them after 2 years of f#8king about with them 👿

What do you recommend to replace them – Hope Tech X2’s or Shimano M785 XT’s?

Hope V2’s

New Shimano XT’s seem to be getting a lot of great feedback. I’d definitely have them over Hope Tech X2’s

magura louise fr

Formula K24s

XTs over X2s any day. Dead cheap on Rose too, if they have any in stock.

Hope Tech X2’s for anything up to “aggressive XC”. If you are of “larger” build and/or do big Scottish descents then Tech M4’s. Just upgraded to M4’s and I can’t believe how much power and modulation they have.

Great thing about Hope is that they need zero maintenance and dead easy to do yourself when they do. Oh and you can get some low cost bling factor with coloured levers, reservoir caps and piston caps

I had a very similar experience with Elixir CR’s. Been using Hope Tech M4 front and Hope TechX2 rear for the last month or so. Easy to shorten braided hoses and bleed without faffing about with bleed kits ect. In use, excellent. And replacement parts are a lot cheaper and easy to source.

I have X2 and want M4 as i need more power on the front after an innerleithen uplift day yesterday.

Anyone have an M4 caliper – dont need the levers etc so i cant see point in buying a whole new setup.

SLX here. Very impressive.

I was tempted by the Hopes as I love the levers but you can’t go wrong with Shimano.

Thanks everyone for the feedback 🙂

I’ll probably go for the XT’s as they are a bit cheaper

Formula R1.

The best brakes I’ve ever used by miles – sort of feel similar in power and control to twin discs on a motorbike, but with about one millionth the weight. Lightyears beyond the somewhat ‘intriguing’ and charismatic performance of Tech X2s.

If you want hopes, Merlin have an extra 10% off on top of the VIP discount for the next day or tw.

Just ordered Front and rear M4’s for £200. Going to use old adaptors and discs

i owuld have shimano every time.

XT +1 – I’ve not used them *that* much but completely fit and forget so far with no maint for almost 2 years.

also used clarks pads with them on a 4 day trip round torridon ( that place eats pads for breakfast) and didn’t even use a full set where others wore out 2+ sets.

I’d love to attribute that to my lack of need for brakes or setup, but i fundamentally believe the pads retract further or have more clearance because i just didn’t use anywhere near the pad material that everyone else riding the same trail did.

they are reliable and powerful. doub’t i’d go back to Avids having had these

Apparently we’ve got some old Hope brakes that we can let you have cheap… 😉

I have a set of hope V2 for sale, excellent nick only 6 onths old if yer interested, price negotiable. 😉

before I opened this thread I was going to reccommend elixir 5’s I have 2 sets and they have been faultless. I also have saints, they are awesome..

@ splashback

Go for the X2’s then you can get the pretty pink ones, dahling! 😛

@ fluffykittens

Andy, you only want me to get the pink X2 so they don’t clash with your lippy 😉 😆

XTR 985, £ 270 all in from Merlin if your quick. Faff proof.

Shameless plug but I am selling some effectively brand new Tech X2’s with braided hoses and red piston caps, 183 and 160 adaptors and a 160 floating rotor for £180. Not had a chance to photograph yet hence not up in the FS section

And if you want to sell the Elixirs for a good price, i may be able to find them a home 😉

Hope brakes are quite good, but the shimano brakes are superb.

I have just taken my mono mini’s from 2007 off and my moto’s as well, swapped them for some XT’s and Saint brakes.

Hope for me until Shimano do spares. Having to throw away a brake because a 15p seal fails is wrong in so many ways.

@ splashback

Oi, I’m not Andy – he’s Mr Fluffykittens! Thankyouverymuch 🙂

Nothing against shimano but love Hope brakes, because you can buy every spare possible off the shelf and there made down the road.

Hope!

had my Mini’s for 5 years, i’m 16 stone and never had a problem with stopping, even on the mojo @ Cwm Carn.

had a big crash and 44p late had replaced a rubber seal- brakes are as good as new again

obviously i’m biased and my only comparison is Hayes So1e which were worse than dragging your feet to stop

785 XTs are a good choice, getting on very well with mine.

Brake-neck can you send me pics of the brakes please

mtbmad09@hotmail.com

Cheers

Hope as they are made in the UK,very good quality and easy to get spares etc!!

Shimano if you like stopping and Hope if you like supporting British industry!

HOPE TECH X2s are the best brakes ive ever owned and ive pretty much owned them all…

Never bled in two years of hard riding and have taken a few knocks

Work well in the wet. a friend of mine has the pros if your looking for lightweight however no on the fly adjustability!

Hope is such an impressive UK company as well as having grat tech support

Hope this helps
ps. Sorry for the lack of grammar

Formula K24- better than Tech X2s for about half the price. Can’t compare with the new XTs though, haven’t tried them but I ended up buying a second set of Oros to replace my M775 XTs.

Just as easy to get spares as Hope now too, with the bonus that you’re far less likely to ever need them.

XTs! The work brilliantly, are endlessly reliable and bleed themselves!

Very surprised to hear that someone rates Formula over the Hope. The build quality of the K24s is really poor, never seen one working properly. Seen so many faulty Formula brakes i wouldn’t go near them.

Hope may have gained a reputation for their older sport models but now the build quality is second to none!

by the way read this article before making your mind up…:

http://www.bikeradar.com/road/gear/article/hope-technology-behind-the-scenes-30437

Very surprised to hear that someone rates Formula over the Hope. The build quality of the K24s is really poor, never seen one working properly. Seen so many faulty Formula brakes i wouldn’t go near them.

Formula The One 🙂

I used to have Hopes which were ok but these are in a different league. Superlight and stupidly powerful – anyone who has a go on my bike nearly goes over the bars and decides their brakes are rubbish in comparison.

They were embarrassingly spendy though 😳

I’ve got 4 sets of Oros, never had the slightest bit of bother from any of them… They’re very well made, or at least the newer ones are, the old ones had a stupid point-of-failure in the lever span adjuster which is now replaced. (don’t mistake machining for good build quality btw- proof of the pudding is in living with them). Ended up lending a set to someone at the hope endurance downhill who’d ironically had his V2s fail 😉

Though, some people do have trouble following the bleed instructions which leads to lots of problems.

I believe the SLXs are almost the same as the XTs, just missing one adjuster?

I just picked up a set off Rose with 180 rotors from Planet X (Rose were out of stock) for about £180. Initial impressions are very impressive but will see how they stand up to a muddy Relentless 24….