I think I know the answer to this already, but there’s no harm asking just in case.

I’ve got Shimano LX M585 disc brakes fitted, but the seals play up in the cold so I’m planning to change the calipers for the new M595s. On the CRC site the M595s are described as front/rear post mount, if I remember rightly the M585s were bought as IS, but came with front and rear IS adapters (the calipers themselves look similar to the M595s and I assume that they’re post mount too).

I assume that I can simply leave the M585’s adapters in place (Front 180mm, rear 160mm) and bolt the M595s straight on to these, is this right? I won’t be changing the rotors or levers, at least initially.

Yep, thats all you need to do.

I thought so, but it’s good to be sure. Many thanks.

Do the new ones have better/different seals?

I contacted the UK Shimano Service Centre about my M585 issues, they suggested the M595s and an equivalent. I couldn’t draw an absolute guarantee out of them that the M595s would work in the cold, but they did say that they’d had no reported issues. I also asked on here a while ago and there were a number of people who’d been using them over this winter (where my M585s were dreadful) without problems, so things certainly sound hopeful. I did think that the seal hardening issue was meant to have been resolved quite a long time ago, but there did seem to be people experiencing just those issues this winter using newer XT and SLX models, so I guess that there are no guarantees.

Interestingly the M595s won a big disc brake grouptest in this month’s WMB (odd when you consider that they don’t even qualify as MTB brakes, Shimano designate them ‘treking’) and when the calipers are in stock at CRC they’re just £30 each, so they’ve got to be worth a shot.

Should have added, the Service Centre said the the M585s had a 2 year warranty and that they could be returned due to the seal issue (mine are just outside of warranty), I assume that the same would apply with the M595s.

I ran m595s through the winter with no problems but sold my bike and really should have swapped them over, shame but nay mind!

I’m underwhelmed by my M595’s, certainly compared to the SLX and XT i have on my other bikes.

Just can’t get them to bite like the others despite being properly bled and new pads fitted and bedded in. Can’t understand why they keep doing so well in the tests unless i have a duff set (although the back one seems fine). Only difference is i run a 180mm rotor on the 595’s and 203’s on the other which will make some difference but shouldn’t stop the brake biting. I’d go SLX given the choice again.