I was just having a browse, looking for options for a cheap rear brake to go on my Winter MTB and happened upon some ridiculously cheap ‘Altus’ brakes going on CRC, initially I thought it would only be parts but the description says its a fully bled calliper/line/lever assembly (no rotors obviously)…
The images don’t look a million miles away from older model Deores…

I’m sorely tempted to take a flier on one, the next alternative is buying a a BB5 caliper (for a fiver more) to go with the an old Avid lever from the spares bin.

My winter bike won’t see much in the way of challenging use/heavy braking and the front is a pretty solid old Deore, mismatched levers have never really worried me… can’t see a compelling reason not to yet…

Anyone used/worked on the newer bottom end shimano disc brakes have any useful input? Will it kill me to death?

I had some of the cheap £30 Deores from Merlin. They were crap… they kept me alive… but they were in all honesty, crap. I wasn’t impressed.

I had some of the Alivio grade ones on my old Core 20 – were pants. Front leaked fluid and was useless, not very serviceable.

Would prefer even used BB7s tbh

Just got a pair of these at £30 an end for a mate who was still on (quite ill) mechanicals.

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/shimano-deore-m506-disc-brake/rp-prod119951

M615 lever with what looks like last years caliper.
They work really well. Surprisingly well, in fact.

I was thinking about those m506’s too, look pretty good to me. Then again, not much more money gets the M615s I suppose…

Issue 92 seemed to rate the brakes on one of the £850 test bikes, can’t remember which one off hand but they where low level 2/3 finger jobs…

Deore M615 set for £61 at Ribble, that is where I got mine.

Deores on three bike here. All good.

Merlin do the Deore 615s for £70 (minus rotors). I’m 6’4″, 16 stone+ and ride quite a lot of steep, rubbly stuff in the Peaks, Lakes and North Wales. They’re all the braking I’ve ever needed. Won a brakes test in MBUK as well. Doesn’t exactly answer your question, but at that price I’d suggest that it’s worth just kitting yourself out with some properly good stoppers..

I’ve got the M442s (or something like that) that came OEM on a Felt hardtail. I was planning on changing them on the assumption they’d be bobbins but they’ve actually been fine, had them on for over a year with no issues. I think I saw them for about £45 for the pair at one point on Merlin but they don’t seem to have them any more. If you want really really cheap brakes I wouldn’t hesitate.

Really just after the very cheapest single rear brake for a winter beater TBH, a set of 615’s might find their way on to my other bikes by next summer but for the winter Nag it’s Cheap, Cheap, Cheap all the way

@ cdoc I noticed those ‘Deore M506’ too, but looking at the sheer dirt cheapness of this or this, coupled with the fact that I’m not after a performance brake, more a basic functional one for a rigid SS, I’m not sure it’s even worth spending the extra tenner…

Might plump for the ‘Acera’ over the ‘Altus’ looks like same lever on both, but the ‘Acera’ seems to have the old shape Deore calliper, the 615 type lever might be nice, but even some the ancient shimano levers I have on other bikes still seem to function fine, don’t think the lever will be an issue, not sure I’m that bothered for another tenner…

I just bought some SLX from CRC.
total for both brakes came to £92 – I added a bottle of mineral oil to take it over £100 then accessed the £15 off November deal.

Total for both brakes and the oil was about £86

That’s significantly less than I payed for 1 crappy formula RX brake which they will now replace.

Unbelievable price for superb brakes.

Hmm, that m395 looks like a good option. I went with the Deore simply for the new lever, as that is where most of the tech changes occur, as well as the slightly shorter lever. I am sure that the 395 will be just as functional, though.

Avid Elixir 1s.
Had some and they were great. Bought something more expensive (new Deores) that weren’t any better

I had some M395 brakes on my rigid 29er for a bit.

They would be fine for a commute bike but they are under powered for anything more taxing.

The levers are bloody horrid too.

just bought the Acera ones but I bought them for my kids
Reviews [ a few online] seem ok but not spectacular and my view is they will stop 6 stone of child and i was worried “proper” brakes would be too much of a step up and result in over the bars/ constant skidding/danger of death.

Not used in anger so of no use to you whatsoever re performance

i think for the limited difference I would just plump for a Deore as £10 is not that much difference

The levers are bloody horrid too.

What’s wrong with them?

They got Alivio fronts for even less money. Seems like a pretty bang-on-bargain to me. If you die while using them, be sure to post on here about it

I have 395s and 355s. Both are brilliant imo ONCE you have bedded them in properly down a long steep descent. 355 has a trecking style lever (slightly longer) otherwise they are the same.

Shortened a treat, no bleed necessary, OE bubblewrapping but they did come with olives, barbs and the yellow block.

I got them for £35 from CRC

Nearly forgot, easy reach adjust too!

They look like they aren’t designed for single finger braking. Would be ok for touring, but not for mtb…

It amazes me how cheap decent brakes are these days. SLX for £45 is just mad

They’re a bit long then?

A long lever’s not really going to be a a problem on my singlespeed, 710mm bars, no gear/dropper/poploc or any other gizmos, light is mounted right up against the the stem, it’s not going to clash with anything else on the bar so I can mount them as far inboard as needs be…

Ordered…

I had the Altus disc brakes on my pinnacle Ramin. Bit agricultural, but amazing stoppers for the price.

*chuckles about longer levers only be suitable for touring*

this is funny, why? i imagine they are designed more with that in mind than mtb…

how can a lever not be suitable for single finger braking?

They are fine for single fingering on the ss. Inboard, wind em out, lovely, for £17.50 an end.

They are fine for single fingering, for £17.50 an end.

😆

Look at the length on the blade. Compare it to the Deore upwards Shimano mtb brakes. Obviously you’ll be able to brake with a single digit, but you’ll:

1. run into issues with the lever hitting the rest of your knuckles, or
2. have to play around with the position of the main body on the bar

I never said they aren’t suitable, I said they weren’t designed for it…

Now go off to CRC and notice that Shimano make the Deore M615 in standard and trekking varieties and ask yourself why.

I used old, bottom of the range, oem Shimano brakes off-road for steep techy stuff without a fault for years. The only issue I had was when one got damaged in a crash and started leaking from the somewhere round the lever. I still use the other one on my commuter. They’re a doddle to maintain and bleed.

ask yourself why

At £17.50 why can f*** off. ordered one for the SS. Nice.

(if you were racing N-doooro or summet then it might be an issue but for bimbling about in the mud on the knacker they’re plenty god enough)

We’ve probably got used to shimano one-finger levers, but the longer ones are fine for one finger mtb braking. I still have the original old XT lever on the front of my main bike, and i’ve only ever used it 1 finger.

feel like i’ve used the word finger too much…:-S

Shirley a Long lever blade is a good thing for single finger use innit?
More, umm… leverage? Sorry mechanical advantage…

Interestingly they also have an SLX/LX “Treking” brake which looks a lot like the SLX m675 lever/Calliper but with a longer lever blade and the reach adjuster mounted inboard…

M675

T675

Fundamentally the same brake but with a longer lever blade, minus the finned pads. They’ve done the same with Deore and XT brakes too…

Dunno why that would actually be un-usable on most MTBs, other than those with really overcrowded bars…

The thinking seems to be, take ‘M’ variant lever from MTB group, bung on an even longer lever blade (to reach past gripshifters or suit 3 finger operation?) prefix model number with a ‘T’ flog to “Tourists” there ain’t a whole lot of difference though really, I’d have no issue using one if it fitted…

I’ve got a whole load of other bikes still with really old shimano brakes – pre-servowave probably dating ~ 2003-2007ish? when there wasn’t much actually variation in the lever designs TBH, you’d struggle to differentiate an XT from a Deore at the time other than the text on the reservoir covers, the callipers were the main difference back then, and it’s still pretty much the case that any shimano lever will talk to any calliper so just pick a price point and assemble the bits to suit…

£30.50 for an excellent long-lasting M615 from ribble is surely worth the extra £13 over those dubious acera things?

Dubious? we’ll see, they haven’t got ‘Avid’ written on them so that’s got to be a positive…

For ~£21 I’ll take the risk and we’ll see how badly killed to death…

This is my simple guide to buying disc brakes for a mountain bike.

Budget option M615 £60

Decent option SLX £90

Expensive DH or AM Bike Zee £140

Pimp DH or AM Bike Saint £225

Pimp XC Bike XTR £250

I can understand why they want to re-brand to sell to tourers, but to turn the argument round, what’s wrong with using an mtb lever for touring? Do you need a longer lever for touring?

what’s wrong with using an mtb lever for touring?

Very little I expect.

Do you need a longer lever for touring?

Probably not.

TBH I thought “tourists” favoured drop bars and weirdy beardy old school, bar-end/downtube/stem mounted shifters what do I know?

It’s all just bikes, so long as the bars are 7/8″ diameter you’ll get any of the levers mentioned to fit and so long as you have at least one finger you should be able to operate the bloody thing…

Shoved mine on today. Not bad. Levers a bit long…..

^^^^ YGM re these brakes