Looking for brakes for a dh bike. I have short fingers so need good lever adjustment. The Hope have bite point adjust as well as lever adjust. So I’m thinking it might be worth paying the extra, as effortless braking makes a big difference on long descents.
However, I’m not at all bothered about bling factor for this bike and I don’t want to waste money unneccesarily.

Any opinions?

Save your money.

Sold my m4s for slx never looked back 🙂

I love my Hope brakes. Always have done. In fact, I’m selling my V2 brakes to replace the with V4.

The V2 is a great brake set. Are you interested in preloved brakes?

Onza, Why are you changing the V2’s?

Peasant, what is the lever adjustment like? and are the finned pads necessary? Expensive buggers.

I’ve got another thread going about that. I don’t think I’m getting the rear brake up to operating temperature. The V4 is newer so I fancy that. It will also allow me to run a smaller rotor on the rear which I think will generate more heat.

Are you anywhere near Nottingham if you fancy a closer look at them.

I used a combination of M4’s on front and X2’s on rear, excellent performance and adjustability. The combination costs £218 from Merlin. Oh and I didn’t look back either.

Onza, Why are you changing the V2’s?

because he’s a brake whore, V2 evo’s are great brakes. I run them, you’re never going to get brake fade or boiling fluid with those little beasties.

If you’re riding downhill and you break a lever, prepare to have to buy a whole new master cylinder and lever if you go with Shimano. I prefer Hopes because of the ease of bleeding, parts availability and support from Hope.

Unless you’re running the Icetech rotors and the expensive finned pads you are possibly going to getter better heat resistance with the M4’s. Hope’s also modulate better.

Try to have a go with both brake sets, you may prefer the feel of the shimano’s, who knows.

bwaarp hits the nail on the head. 😳

I’m in the hope camp. For many of the reasons above.
Shimano have made a throw away product that CAN NOT be repaired they do not sell seals or spares. It’s a new caliper/lever and they change every year.
Along with that the feel of my hopes is what I like. They brake fine and have enough power for me. The better thing is the power comes with more control. I have very little desire to lock the wheel on my bike under braking, I want to be able to take it to that point 0.1% before that.

My hopes will be running long into the future.

If it is for a DH bike why not go for those very cheap Zee callipers that were talked about on here recently then buy whatever levers are currently best price?

If and it’s a big if by deore m596 need fixing, £25 for a new calliper is pretty reasonable, particularly when you compare the performance available to the initial high cost of a hope set up. Having said that, trying hope v2 this weekend for the first time and I’m expecting to be amazed.

I run Evo Race M4’s with Icetech rotors. No bother with fade with them.

Deore 596’s, although good brakes and highly recommended at their price point, don’t come anywhere near the performance and adjustability of the Hope M4/X2 setup. I use both on different bikes.

I went from Tech M4s on one bike and Tech X2s on another and was blown away by the improved performance. All were very powerful, but the XTs needed much less effort to get big power from giving me much less arm pump in the alps.

Actually ignore my comment about the Zee callipers, they aren’t so cheap anymore.