Saints or Zees are very powerful and good reports on these. Only 15g heavier than XT, but a worthy tradeoff especially for bears on bikes

Always liked Avids and if they were kept in good nic (ridiculously easy when you know how) they’ve always crapped on shimano for me. Guides are no different – bags more power then any shimano I’ve used (tho never used Saints or Zees).

The plastic master cylinder on the mt5 brakes is very delicate.

It’s the same material that BMW are speccing on their motorbikes, for durability reasons. I’ve had a handle of them and didn’t find them to be delicate.

As for bleeding, in what way were they hard? All the user reports seem to say that the new Next line, as opposed to the old MT line are easy to bleed.

http://www.bike-discount.de/en/buy/shimano-zee-disc-brake-br-m640-b-set-86999?currency=3&delivery_country=190

After two sets of XTs I switched to Zee.

Won’t be going back…

Right these might have to take a back burner for a month or so as I’m buying a dropper post.

Would a pad swap help. What pads are best for the k18

To what extent are your K18s borked? If they are anything like mine (despite lots of love and care), I’d go with some new brakes first.

Brakes stop you from impacting trees at high speed, dropper posts just make life a bit easier.

I don’t think even I’d piss about trying to fix up tired Oros these days. New pads might help but they might not. Giving them a really good clean and a quick rub on some 80 grit wet and dry (to remove any glaze and smooth the surface) is free and might help, maybe a bleed if you have the kit and it’s not been done lately or is questionable, but past that probably not worth it. There’s not many brakes of that age still in use at all tbh!

If I’m honest with myself there isn’t actually anything wrong with them.

They are very clean and don’t leak at all.

However its slightly disconcerting seeing the front caliper flex when you squeeze the lever. I guess that is normal with two piece calipers.

They stop me right enough but it’s always nice to have a bit of extra power for that “oh shot” moment.

Will save for some zee’s I think.

Have a look at my for same thread for them to see the condition.

One thing I forgot about is that I need to disconnect the rear hose to remove it from the single arm. How much of a pain will it be and would they need a bleed afterwards?

No chance that it won’t need bled after imo- you might get away with undoing the lever bolt and reattaching, if you don’t disturb it but removing the hose will cause too much leakage. They’re easy brakes to bleed but you do need the kit (or an avid kit)

What if I remove the lever from the bars and out it lower than the caliper and then undo the hose from the caliper would that work ?

I’d be amazed tbh. It’s not like shortening a hose, with minimal disturbance. Hmmm. Just maybe you could undo it and block off the ends but I’d be surprised if that worked out.

I’ve just got to unthread it from the swing arm.

Definitely do it at the lever end- gravity’ll cause it all to leak out if you do it at the caliper. Or turn it upside down! But I think it’ll leak too much when you remove the banjo regardless.

I have a DH bike arriving in the next day or 2 with Hope brakes on. Was going to swap them for SLX but all this talk of ZEE is making me reconsider!

How well to the SLX cope with long Alpine descents? Never had any issues in the UK with them or my XTs but not tried them out on a big bike on a really long descent!

Currently Rose Are doing SLX for something like £31 and £38 so its very tempting….