How are they holding up for you? Fading and most importantly, bleeding issues?
I temporarily moved to SLX from my crappy XX and the Shimanos are just how I remember them – tons of power, zero modulation – on/off
I really want the Avid/Sram feel, but don’t want to fiddle with them every 2 weeks. I have read a few long term reviews, which seem to agree that there were zero issues with the guides, but I am wondering what is the real world experience.

Guys from BikeRadar even claim to have actually inserted air into the system to see how it would cope and was fine – http://www.bikeradar.com/us/mtb/gear/category/components/disc-brake-systems/product/review-sram-guide-rsc-48242/
Now that sounds like black magic to me.

Mate has them on a new whyte g150 he’s just about to take them off
He’s been using shimano xt for the last year and can’t get on with the guides

Three months isn’t exactly long term, but I like mine (RS).

Good stuff:
Definitely less on-off than my old SLX.
Nice feel.
Consistent lever feel, which was NOT something I got from Shimano.

Bad stuff:
I think got a touch of pump up after dragging the rear down a big descent at the weekend. I botched the bleed after shortening the hose though, and didn’t bother re-doing it. The front was fine.
They squeal like little piggies when they’re hot. Probably just the pads.

I’ve been using a set of RSCs since December 2014. I’ve had zero problems with them.

Mine don’t make a noise when dry and never have. They’re occasionally noisy when wet but that seems to depend on the frequency of use – at trail centres where it’s full speed with ocassional braking they made a noise, when riding more technical stuff where brake use is more frequent/consistent they were less noisy, presumably because the rotors stayed drier.

A friend also has them and he recently changed from Organic to Sintered pads and shortly after back to Organics. He said the Sintered pads reduced his ability to modulate effectively and delivered a much more on/off feel. From personal experience, I think that’s just how sintered pads behave – it was the same on my old Magura Martas.

The only feature I don’t particularly see the use of is the bite adjustment, my brakes arrived with it wound right off (so it bites as soon as possible) and I can’t ever see me winding it in so the bite point is closer to the grips. YMMV.

Haven’t bled/carried out any maintenance other than changing pads. Simple enough job to do the pads…

I’ve never understood the “on/off” thing with Shimano brakes. You squeeze them a little, they slow you a little. Squeeze them a lot, they stop.

Hopes have a longer lever throw and are otherwise as good as SHiano, if that’s what you’re after.

Been running a set for a few weeks on my Whyte T130-Works, I’ve done 173.94 miles of which 67.36 (the joys of having a Garmin and being in a tech job) were on the annual boys weekend away in mid-Wales. Overall they feel great but I’ve had to adjust the bite point/lever reach for the rear twice as it started to get really close to the bar. The rear pads seem to have worn quite a bit although there’s a reasonable amount of material left. The front has been fine and seems much less worn, as I’d expect.

They have plenty of power, good modulation but are really horribly noisy in the wet or when muddy. I’m swapping back to my Hope Tech 3/E4s this weekend as I prefer the feel of the Hopes and I’ve barely worn the pads in ~300 miles of very wet/muddy riding on sintered pads.

I’m not sure if the Guide RS ship with organic or sintered pads? I’m guessing by the wear rate that they must be organic but not sure what the codes for each type are to check?

Endromag were saying they had issues with fade in comparison to the Shimanos and Maguras in their recent grouptest. I’ve seen that others have noted that the pad wear is really high as well.

However, the new ultimate version of the Guide has been quite heavily revised to increase airflow and reduce fade.

I’ve been on RSCs for 10 months and 1600 miles now and they’ve held up great. Hardly bled them (just done them last week) and they have been properly abused, with lots of uplift days, etc. Get good life out of pads, lever feel is always consistent, more than enough power and loads of modulation. The bleed itself is also nice and easy too. Can’t fault them at all.

My Guide RSC have been great. Only had them on new bike so about 4 months. No need to bleed yet. Came with sintered pads and have never made any noise at all in any conditions yet. By a long stretch the quietest brakes I have used, if that is important to anyone. Power better than any previous brakes, modulation excellent, I have never used Shimano brakes though so no comparisons available…

Mine are Guide RSs but I thought that the only differences between them and the Guide RSCs was additional tool free adjustments? i’ll take a look at the pads tonight and see how the front and back wear rates compare.

Only difference between different Guides is tool-free adjustment, however the new Guide Ultimate brakes are redesigned for better performance, there seem to be quite a few improvements to them aimed at better temperature control and general performance, including fancier rotors, and simpler bleeding.

Sweet, looks like I may do the jump back.
From my experience the squealing is because of the Avid rotors usually, not so much because of the pads.

Seems like the guide R has different leverage, compared to the RS and RSC

You got it above, moridinbg ^^^. Then between the RS and RSC, you get the contact adjustment (which actually works, unlike Shimano).

Had them for about 4 months, very consistent feel in all weathers and conditions the bike has been used in. I really like them but I want less lever throw but don’t know how to get that. Guide RS – same as Leftyboy.

Like mine, only had a couple of days on them though. Always rated my avid X0’s over my shimano when they worked which wasn’t that often… 😆 The new ones are a lot better than my XT – but they are 4 pots and I run 200mm discs so I’d expect that.

I’ve trimmed the hoses but yet to bleed them – that will be the prover.

Oh and i’d go for the RSC’s just for the pad contact adjust needs it IMO.

You can adjust contact point on the RS but it requires a tool, not sure why they bother with adjustment as I can’t see anyone wanting anything other than the quickest bite ie smallest lever throw, I suppose others might be different though!

Was an avid Avid hater (see what I did there!) for, well… Since they started making hydraulic discs! Hateful things… Feel ok for a ride or two, then all manner of woes set in.

The rebrand to SRAM at the same time as the complete redesign of the range was a shrewd move. Put simply, their brakes work now.

Had a go on a Whyte G-150 about 8 months ago with Guides on, was very impressed having been used to Shimano SLX/XT’s for years in various guises. So much so I read up on them a bit, saw how they’ve completely changed the design to incorporate a proper fluid reservoir so the system is now much more tolerant of an imperfect bleed and….

Well I’ve been running them (Guide RS) on my own bike for a couple of months now. So far, so good. The only slight negatives are that ultimate power doesn’t feel quite as strong as XT’s, and I’m going to have to put a dab of blue loctite on the lever reach dial as on a couple of bumpier runs at BPW last week, I found the levers biting closer to the bars at the bottom of the hill than the top. Oh and they’re a bit noisy when wet. Will probably up my current 180/160 setup on my full Sus to a 200/180 soon for a bit more power.

Positives are that they have superb modulation, are light for a 4 pot setup, integrate superbly with a Reverb and SRAM shifter (if you’re running them like I am), are a doddle to setup/bleed compared to anything Avid, and they’re pretty reasonably priced IMO.

No long term review yet, but so far, pretty impressed.

How do you adjust the lever throw? I’ve had a look over the lever and can’t find anything…the online instructions also appear to fail to mention it…apart from the yards of lever pull, the brakes are superb, I’m looking to try and reduce the amount of lever pull to around 50% of current throw, but I can’t work out how to – I didn’t think the RS model could be adjusted, thought it was only the RSC model?

The twisty dial thing on the front adjusts reach, I’ve got that dialled…so I’m now needing to play with the lever throw…can someone talk me through it please?

I have a pair of the base model (Guide R) and have done 500kms running them without issues. I am running them with Hope rotors and so far they’ve been very quiet.

Best brakes I’ve ever used. Last bike had the new style xt’s on too.

Nope, had a long hard look at my RS brakes, there is no way to adjust the amount of lever pull. No real issue as the brakes are superb…however, I do prefer less lever movement – might see if I can adjust the pistons out and then bleed and top up the fluid, that should hopefully keep the pistons out further and reduce the lever movement…

I’ve had mine (guide RSC) for 2 months and so far I like them. They’re better than the last set of XTs I had (which had problems) and no issues needing bleeding etc. The feel is a bit different to Shimano, but not worse /better to my unfussy fingers. Power is good, as is modulation.

My main complaint is that the levers feel a bit cheap – the dials don’t feel robust enough and they feel like they might break at any moment. The reach adjuster arrived jammed and needed a significant force to open it up – though it works fine now. Also, there is a big difference in ‘negative’ lever travel between right and left levers. Not a problem at all in use but as far as I can tell there’s no good reason for this other than poor tolerances.

So I’m not championing them yet, although I’m quite happy for now. If they’re still working fine this time next year I’ll have no hesitation in recommending them.

P.S. DickBarton – I don’t think the RS model has any reach adjust – you need the RSC for that. Maybe you can overbleed them as you said.

Suspect that is what will need to be done…and that can introduce it’s own issue…so I’m happy to leave them as they are as they work very well for me. (if I could adjust the lever throw, I would, but as I can’t it isn’t going to stop me using them!)

Just to add…my left lever has developed an issue…takes about 4 seconds to return after being pulled. Shop are sending it back as they have taken it to bits and can’t find the fault but after each reassemble and rebleed it still doesn’t work. So I won’t know for about another 8 days if it has been replaced or repaired.
Front is still excellent.

DickBarton, I now have the same issue…rear brake lever doesn’t fully release therefore pads don’t totally disengage. Had the brake bled, no change.
I’ve always been a Shimano guy and was staunch against SRAM stuff, but for some reason the past couple of years all Shimano brakes(XT/SLX) just feel like mush to me. I’m a larger guy and I like hammer stop brakes and XT/XTR seemed to do it(until recent sets).
The Guide RSC came on my Scout and I reluctantly gave them a shot, and I was very impressed with the power. Now this issue, so I’m hoping it’s easily fixed. Any updates on your brake?

I’d guess sticky piston ^^^

My pistons were indeed sticky so caliper was dismantled and everything played with, then bled again. Brakes then worked well except any adjustments at the lever failed to work so my pads were dragging some.
Rode around for a bit then they seized again.
To my surprise SRAM is sending a warranty set! I like these brakes so hopefully the next set lasts longer

Had RSCs for a year now – used them everywhere from Ashton Court to 1500m descents in Andorra and the Alps. All sorts of weather.

Positives – not needed to bleed at all, but recently did a friends set and the process is the same as Avid as far as I can tell. Lever feels good, I did always like the feel of Juicy’s, and I do get the modulation thing (vs XTs) which I like personally. Pads have been easy to change, compared with every Avid brake ever made, and life has been good. They’ve taken a few knocks, hard enough to gouge the levers, but they still work fine, so appear to be fairly robust. Good choice of cheap pads out there, and easy to get spares in Europe (vs Hope). Pad retention pins not jamming like previous Elixirs did once or twice. And no issues with the pistons, they’re all still moving smoothly and evenly, which shows in pad wear.

But, negatives (and I need to think back to last summer in Europe where this really showed up) – they definitely tended to fade, surprisingly so for a 4 pot brake. Maybe they did need bleeding after all?! As above, the reach adjuster screw is horrendous, in terms of its look and feel (I swear you can hear it rattling!) and because it can get jammed. And if it doesnt jam, they have a tendency to adjust themselves, pulling the levers closer to the bars. Not easy to threadlock them either. Also, I’m not convinced they can self adjust to compensate for wear in the pads beyond a certain point.

I’m not sure whether to stick with them for this season or not, I do like the integration with my Reverb remote and shifter, but am still thinking about going back to M4s or Saints.

But, it’s unlikely that they are bad brakes (….?) so maybe I need to try a bleed and a different pad compound and see how that goes.

My issue was sorted by SRAM sending a replacement brake unit – they confirmed it was a fault with the brake and it was replaced – been superb ever since. Not bothered to adjust the lever throw and to date, since the replacement rear brake, both brakes have been faultless.

i been very impressed with my guide rs brakes they have been faultless in nearly two years and thats with two weeks in whistler last year. shimano brakes for me are way to inconsistent and that opinion is based on owning three or four different sets so it can’t be a one off.

I’ve just done 12 months on my set. Gone through a few brakepads and ridden in all weather. I think they’re great. Plenty of power and modulation. Haven’t required any attention. Very consistent feel. I’ve not experienced any fade. Had a few offs and the brakes are pretty marked now but still work perfectly. I was very skeptical about the Guides but now prefer them to my XTs.

I’ve got an inconsistent brake on one of my two sets. Sometimes pulls to the bars when hasn’t been ridden for a week or after a descent. I’m guessing another attempt at bleeding might be the first step.

I have been using some for a year plus now and not had any issues or need to bleed them. Im quite impressed after the awfulness of avid elixirs. TBH I have more problems with my XT brakes (newish 8000 series ones) on the other bike that seem to have a variable bite point on the rear no matter how carefully I bleed them.

The biggest drawback of the guides to me is that they use that horrible DOT fluid rather than mineral oil.

Simon, after you have bled the caliper, then the lever, plug a syringe of fluid into the caliper, open it up and then push the plunger…the fluid along with any excess air should be forced up the system and into the reservoir at the lever, where you can top it off after you have closed the bleed nipple on the caliper.

My RS are 18 months old had absoloutely no problems, easy enough to bleed but that’s all changed recently as guides are now shipping with S4 calipers which are a doddle.

No reliability issues can’t say I notice the fade, regularly ride steep and fast trails. Pad wear can be high I got fed up with SS Kevlar pads as I was only getting 3-4 rides out of a pair of pads (weeks worth of riding) gone back to SRAM sintered since and they’ve been lasting about 3 months.

Just put a set of Guide R on my Stanton that I picked up off eBay and they seem fine as well, also got avid elixir trail 7s on the DH bike and they’ve been trouble free as well.

Simon, after you have bled the caliper, then the lever, plug a syringe of fluid into the caliper, open it up and then push the plunger…the fluid along with any excess air should be forced up the system and into the reservoir at the lever, where you can top it off after you have closed the bleed nipple on the caliper.

For the guides they all seem to be video instructions but I remember the method being the same as –
http://www.epicbleedsolutions.com/blog/how-to-bleed-avid-brakes-like-a-pro/
I think I may have missed/messed Step 12 (pushing the caliper syringe to extend the brake lever). Hard to feel with the natural spring of the lever and also kind of needs three hands).

Are you suggesting an additional/different process to that ‘how to’?

I’ve got a set of RS brakes on my bike. Picked them up last year as an upgrade for the Avid 1s I had stock fitted, massive improvement over them without a doubt. I was expecting a little more bite though which I never got however I’m thinking about experimenting with brake pads and disc sizes to see how it may alter it. I know what to expect with the 180/160 set up I have now which is a lot of modulation and not a whole lot of immediate stopping power.

As a couple have mentioned as well the reach adjustment is a bit loose which can rattle around and become quite annoying, I’ve had no problems with it rattling itself to changing the lever reach though.

What was someone mentioning about the contact adjustment? Is it true there isn’t any on the RS because I’ve never checked thinking that was the case. That could also be worth a look at playing with.

My replacement rear brake arrived yesterday from SRAM..I was pretty blown away that they warrantied a year old brake, but apparently the problem is common.
Two gripes..A) I’m now waiting on a current bleed kit for the apparently redesigned brake to arrive at the shop….even though they bled my brake a few weeks ago that kit is now obsolete. Good god!
B)…I love my Transition Scout but can we do away with mandatory internal routing?? Installing brakes used to take minutes with almost zero tools, now it’s an F’ing operation! I shouldn’t have to pay for a shop to install my brake since they have to be rebled each time they’re replaced. All these particulars and complexities are ruining mtn biking for me…getting too hard to just go have fun! Sorry, my rant is done!!

Two gripes..A) I’m now waiting on a current bleed kit for the apparently redesigned brake to arrive at the shop….even though they bled my brake a few weeks ago that kit is now obsolete. Good god!

That’s quite something – that will mean you need a different bleed kit for your front and rear brakes…..

I need to purchase a new set of pads for my rear tomorrow.. what pads are people running? Looking for something that may last.. I’m riding dry dusty trails..?