New brakes required a for general peaks riding and some enduro racing stuff.

Can’t see the point of XT over SLX now, So for those with experience should I get the SLX at £130 or are the guide RS’s an good reliable upgrade at £170
Or is it worth saving up a few more pennies and splashing out on ZEE’s for around £200 or would they be overkill for anything expect DH racing etc.

I suggest you also consider the current Magura line, they seem very good.

Magura, either MT2 or MT5 for uber power.

I’m still impressed with them over the Shimano Deore/SLX all the other oab bikes wear.

The only issue I’ve ever had with Magura is getting spare pads when you’re in a rush (or away)

everyone carries shimano or SRAM pads (and spares)

I’ve had magura, slx, xt, guides, xo. I’ve ridden zee and Saint in the alps on hire bikes (so as much decending as I’d get in months).

They were all fine

They could all be fiddled with to get a feel I liked

None of them killed me.

For the maguras I was a bit paranoid about pads so always had 2 pairs of spares (from super star)

Don’t worry about it, pick the cheapest or the ones you like the look of/ idea of.

If i was buying some it would be zee, because I like the idea of extra power more than light weigh or cheap

I’m swaying to shimano only for the fact that I have experience of bleeding them and have a litre of brake oil in the shed

My previous SLX and current Zees suffer a lot from wandering bite point, I’ve re-bled them countless times now. When they work they are good though. My 10+ year old Hope M4s, having been rebuilt by Hope, are so much more consistent and every bit as strong. That’s where my money would be going.

had avid juicys and elixirs, hated them. got shimano xt’s which I think are ace in ease of setup and use. Had them for about 3 year now.
doubt theres much difference between xt and slx other than a free stroke screw which does nowt.

I’ve XT on my bike, my wife has SLX on hers. There’s sod all difference like you hint. The pads are the most common you can find.

If you are tooled up for the Shimanos then go with the SLX, you know that they’ll fit with with everything else.

I really like my guide RSCs, except for the fact that once bleed, they are seemingly impossible to get the bite point adjustment back to how it used to be. It’s frustrating enough to have me on the verge of just getting some Hopes.
Which is a real shame, as they are great in every other respect.

I’ve been really impressed by my Guide RSC’s – they’re powerful with good modulation and haven’t needed to be touched in a year. I run them on my Stanton and my Demo.

My last few sets of Shimano brakes were a nightmare, the worst being my XTR Trails were horrendous for the moving biting point. When on song they were great but I was having to bleed them every couple of rides. My XT’s were always mushy even after being returned and my Zee’s were temperamental. The best of the bunch were my Deore’s.

I’ve had/got XT, XTR, Zee & Saint brakes on my bikes in the last few years and they’ve needed constant attention, tweaking and bleeding

I’ve now been a year and a half on a set of SRAM Guide R and they haven’t been touched. No bleeding needed and still as powerful as day one.

I would be buying SRAM over Shimano if I was in the market today

My previous SLX and current Zees suffer a lot from wandering bite point, I’ve re-bled them countless times now

This is an issue I have with the XT’s

If it’s function over bling then what about Deore? I’ve run one on the front for about two years and it’s better than my SLX on the rear.

Cheap and just work

Cheap and just work

yeah in a “stick in the spoke” kinda way. don’t get me wrong I think deore are great, just Shimano brakes aren’t known for their delicate modulation, and deore are at the “no…nothing yet…ah I appear to have detached my retinas” end of the scale.

My RSC’s have been spot on too. Always had Deore on the HT but I’ve noticed a drop in reliability over the years and parts are a nightmare – but cheap enough to bin and buy new. When they die I’ll swap to SRAM. Or Magura as I hear good things.

my deores are fine, i dont find them grabby at all. i like my maguras mt2s but i think i`d like em more with a 1 finger lever.

i dont think i’ll use a DOT brake again. when the deores fail i’ll get more magura – maybe MT5`s as they are on the big bike.

Very happy with my SRAM kit having been a past user of Shimano. Offers a much firmer and more controllable feel than the XT or SLX brakes.

In saying that, if I were to be buying a new set, I’d still be considering stumping up for Hopes. Or even Formulas – couple of guys I know swear by theirs.

The current Deores are pretty damn good to be honest. I miss having a bolt on the brake pads – Deores have a split pin instead – but I don’t miss it as much as the price difference is.

Just buy some Hopes and have done with it.

Just buy some Hopes and have done with it

I’ve had hopes before and am done with them

Got Deores: Great
SLX (last 2 generations): Great
SRAM Guide R: Great
SRAM DB5: Great
Had hope X2: Great
Had Exlixirs: Not Great
Mag Julies: Nightmare

So basically they’re all great apart from the really old ones!

The MT5’s are starting to look interesting after reading the enduro mag machine and ride tests
And at £140 here they appear to be worth a go

The new Maguras seem to be getting an awful lot of love and are right up there power wise.

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/magura-mt5mt7

More feedback here…

EDIT

Sometimes NOT having a “P” is quite amusing. Never seen Mantel before, now their ads are following me around!

Thanks for the mt5 link, the lever design does put me off as I use single finger braking and ive got ickle fingers

You’d be[er] in good company if you went for a Magura 😉

Not much to pick between them. Is either particularly cheaper? Are Deore cheaper? They’re great too.

Seems a bit weird buying Sram aftermarket though, with them being so ubiquitous as OE.

Just buy some Hopes and have done with it.

Ha, been there and done that – useless (Tech M4s and original minis). I seem to kill brakes after a year. Shimano are by far the best I’ve used. XT were crap tho. SLX for the win. 110 quid from merlin i think at the moment for a set.

My experiences with multiple sets of Juicys has put me off Avids for life.

And yet my favourite brake before the MT5’s was a lowly Juicy 3*200mm. Very very subtle, yet stonkingly powerful.

Funny eh?

The best I’ve had so far are XTR M9020 with 203mm Ice Tech Rotors, the feel is just brilliant you pull the lever you get a bit of free stroke and then bang your at the bite point and can control it perfectly.

I had a set a 596 deores which were ok for about 3 years and then calipers died. I have SLX they are pretty good but don’t have the feel of the XTRs also have Zee which feel like SLX but with mega power. I have ridden Guide RS but didn’t enjoy the feel that much they didn’t give me that hard feedback that Shimanos give at bite point, also tried Hopes which are nice but felt similar to the Guides in terms of modulation. I think after so many years on Shimano brake that is what I’m used to

Was all hope when I came to Oz but the local support just isn’t there for the brakes and things like Hope’s rebuild programme isn’t economical either so I reluctantly went to XT, all in all they feel like an average brake, nothing special unless you luckily got the unbleedable double pull specials which I did with a set, if you offered me another set I’d probably say no, snapped a hose so currently have a 2011 M4 on the front loads more power and modulation in there, forgot just how good they were.

At the moment I’m hovering over the Guide RS…

I took the chance and have ordered the MT5’s based on the amount of stopping power with modulation for the price (as noted above) they look great.
They also use mineral oil and the bleed is the same simple procedure as shimano.

I’m a bit dubious on the lever but if I get on with them there is always the option to upgrade to the HC type.

Will report back in a couple of weeks

Cheers for all the replies.
Overall it looks like everyone has had both good and bad experiences with most brands and it may just come down to a bit of pot luck with reliability and personnel preference on feel.

Has anyone been using the Magura MT Trail brakeset?

I’ve had problems with Shimano and Formula so thought I’d try something different.

Interested to read comments of moving biting points on SLX brakes I thought it was just my imagination but quite off putting at times.

Has anyone got an suggestions as to what causes it and how to fix it.

The vast majority of cases are simply due to bad bleeds. The early M8000 issues seem to have led folk to think that the symptoms they have are due to product fault, but more often than not it just needs a proper bleed. Emptying the system and starting again from fresh with new fluid is worthwhile on difficult set ups that have been running on Cremola Foam.

Run saints on my suppressor and zee on my Dartmoor hornet with no issues what so ever. Son runs slx on his ripcord and bro in law m8000 on his bird am. Never missed a beat.

Guide RSC on the fatty – great so far 🙂

All this bad bleed talk. You can’t actually badly bleed Hope brakes IMHO.