For strange reasons not worth discussing, I am considering mixing these levers (XT M775)

with the latest callpiers, (XT M780)

I’m fairly sure it’ll be okay but any possibe snags you know about? the hoses look the same diameter…

The only person I know who’s done it, sold them as faulty (Shimano, but not the same combo as you’re considering)

Saw XT levers on Saint calipers at weekend. It’s possible, but not sure on your specific combo.

I have Magura LouiseFR levers with Magura Marta calipers, works fine.

The obvious reason being that M775 calipers last about a week. It will be fine.

They use different hoses, narrow bore BH90 for the new ones and wider bore BH59 for the old ones, I think you’ll need the BH59 to do what you want to do as the narrow bore hose is for the new servo wave levers,

thanks

I don’t mind playing around with the hoses.

Older levers and new callipers need the new narrow bore SM-BH90 hoses to give best performance.

I put an old XTR caliper on an M775 lever, all that generation were totally interchangable, as are the current generation… But mixing and matching, i’m not sure of.

I’ve got a latest xtr caliper with the 1st gen SLX lever works amazing.

i have first generation XTR calipers and 2010 SLX levers, works fine.

I put an old XTR caliper on an M775 lever, all that generation were totally interchangable, as are the current generation… But mixing and matching, i’m not sure of.

As I previously said, yes it is fine as long as you use the narrow bore hoses. I know before the new Saint M820 levers came out people were mixing new XTR with old Saint callipers and they work great.

Something great:

Something working well:

The bore of the hose really shouldn’t make any difference in caliper/lever compatability as long as they physically fit- could make a little difference in feel.

Running current XTR levers on older saint calipers without issue, feel great to me.

Those older levers lack Servowave (I think) so they might not work as well as the newer ones.

I’ve got an old gen XT lever for the rear, but an SLX for the front.

I find the slightly more responsive XT lever helps me control the rear wheel better whist in the air and on Himalayan Freeride Yeticore descents.

Well, that and the fact that I broke the old one.
LBS gave me the beat up old XT one for nowt.

I love my lbs, I really do.

Running the new slx levers on old mk1 saint calipers with goodridge hoses. Great power and modulation.
On the other bike i’m running the older servo wave levers again on mk1 saint calipers with goodridge hoses. Again zero problems.

Tried this with current XT levers and last generation Saint calliper. You can get it to work, but the levers don’t move enough oil (prob down to hose bore) that you have to run the pads very close to the rotors. The feeling was not as nice either – not solid.

I went back to the old saint levers which are fault proof.

Because of this I have a pair of current generation levers for sale if anybody is interested.

I have some really old Lx callipers matched with even older deore levers.
they’ll be right.

Reggie,
if you decide it’s all too much hassle, I have just bought a brand new pair of XT levers to go with my old calipers (the opposite of what you are doing). We could swap parts to make proper sets. My levers are unused, but I was going to have a go this weekend.

Email me (in profile) if you are interested in swapping parts to make proper sets.