I am considering the purchase of the above and was wondering what you good folks thought of them.
Any experiences would be gratefully welcomed. I am fed up with my brakes dragging and no matter how much I fettle with them i can't get them right. Look out for a set of XTR 07 brakes on ebay soon.
I am particularly interested in the SLX as they have all the features of the XT but are a fair bit cheaper at the moment.
Im running a set of these fitted about a month ago and i couldn't be happier, had Hope mini's on before and i think these the slx are better.
Tried XT's before and these are as good if not better in my opinion.
Excellent stopping power and the colour is sort of a charcoal grey/black.
Go for it you wont be dissapointed.
very powerfull when needed.
very ugy too.
got a front one last week, seems like a standard shimano type caliper with servowave lever. lever is not the nicest looking, but it fits with shifter pods MUCH better than the old shape lever as the bolt head is at the top, rather than under the lever (previously I had the saint m800 and the levers were terrible for sitting close to shifter pods.)
The lever feels very spongy compared to the old saints, but i think that is the servowave system, the tool free reach adjust works very nicely.
regarding the extra clearance, it is better but is not massive. with 1/3 worn shimano pads and a very slightly warped rotor i got the brake set up with only a tny bit of rub. but it was definately quicker to get right than m800 saints.
The setup i have is a hayes 203mm rotor that i power sanded before fitting the slx brake (it got mildly scored before so sanded it smooth again) and a set of sintered pads that i rescued after getting covered in oil. So a far from perfectset up. However, even with slightly dodgy pads and a rough rotor it bedded in fast and after 2 rides is powerful and the spongy feeling is lessening as the pads bed to the rotor.
with new pads and a proper rotor i think they will be very good brakes.
I have a set and older xt on another bike. They work pretty well but do feel slightly spongy (prob need bleeding). Power is really good, especially when using 203mm discs, also run the SS sintered pads which I can also say work well.
Thanks for your input guys. It confirms to me what i was thinking, that they're as good as XT and stop you well enough. I've been a bit of a bike snob all things considered and wasn't going to buy SLX as the groupset replaced LX, but with shimano prices rocketing at the moment and my redundancy money running short I think SLX are going to be the best option.
went for my first ride on mine over the weekend. i tie wrapped the lever to the bars over night before the ride - and that just about got rid of all the spongy feeling. the rest of the spongyness had gone within 25mins!
great breaks and the stock pads were good too. i actually like the look of them whcih is a bonus!
think they're fantastic, rolling stoppies no probs
but yesterday had a lot of brakerub in the wet shitty conditions on local trails and the standard pads seem shot in one wet muddy day
maybe not sintered pads tho will have a look later this week to see what
there like
Gotta love that comment "with my redundancy money running short!!"
Guess I best ditch some brakes that annot me a bit and buy some new ones 
"n the wet shitty conditions on local trails and the standard pads seem shot in one wet muddy day
maybe not sintered pads tho will have a look later this week to see what
there like "
the front brake I got from Wiggle was advertised as supplied with sintered pads, however they turned up with resin pads labelled "RESIN A01 S" which I think are the super soft resin pads (denoted by the 'S' after the model number).
They will virtually dissolve in wet riding but are superb for downhill in dry conditions. I've used supersoft pads in the Alps before and got 4 days from front pads with superb power and no heating/glazing. Stick em in the tool box and save em for summer.
They're great brakes when working. I found them an absolute pig to setup though. They were nigh on impossible to bleed using either a syringe from the calliper upwards, or the top down Shimano method.
What I eventually found was the problem was the lever when fully extended (ie. not pulled) was not exposing the little hole in the reservoir and opening the system, hence it was nearly impossible to get fluid into the system. A couple of laccy bands pulling the lever in very slightly fixed this and now they are working very nicely.
As some have said they are more spongey feeling that non-SW brakes, but this isn't really noticeable except in a car-park test. On the trail they are brill.
Gotta love that comment "with my redundancy money running short!!"Guess I best ditch some brakes that annot me a bit and buy some new ones
It's true though... I have a new job lined up and am spending what I have left.... nowt wrong with that is there ?
one thing I noticed is that the MC reservoir is very wide and shallow, so bleeding may be tricky using the fill and pump method. What do you need to bleed them with a syringe? is it a special kit?
Personally I think LX and SLX are the same brake but different colour-they have almost identical part numbers bar the colour code.
They do have better levers of the servo kind which is pretty good.
Yeah my XTR did that too. Check your wheel and rebleed your brake with the spacer and you'll find it's great.
How much are you after?
What do you need to bleed them with a syringe? is it a special kit?
A syringe and a length of windscreen wiper tubing from halfords.
Sadly the mineral oil seems to ruin the plunger on the syringe so it gets a bit difficult to move, but hey, it's cheap!
Err fill reservoir, pump lever etc how hard can it be?
zaskar - Member
Err fill reservoir, pump lever etc how hard can it be?
Quite hard apparently
Ok it took f ing ages for the bubbles to disappear-but you have to be patient.
Think I went round some of the singletrackers' homes as I got fed of reading these posts and they were nearby and bled 3 different bikes properly.
Ironic my front brake needs attention!!? WTF? 
"#
zaskar - Member
Err fill reservoir, pump lever etc how hard can it be?
Posted 2 hours ago # Report-Post
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steve_b77 - Member
zaskar - Member
Err fill reservoir, pump lever etc how hard can it be?
Quite hard apparently [:lol:] "
I've done it countless times that way and never had a problem. but looking at the SLX master cylinder it is very shallow (but wide and long) so may increase the chance of getting ait in. So was thinking about the reverse bleeding method as an alternative
went for my first ride on mine over the weekend. i tie wrapped the lever to the bars over night before the ride - and that just about got rid of all the spongy feeling. the rest of the spongyness had gone within 25mins!
Just looking back over an old thread - how does this help with spongyness?
the theory is on some brakes any air bubbles can rise into the the top of the reservoir.
impressive thread resurecction!!
It helps with sponginess if they haven't been bled properly.
The air in the hose collects at the top by the master cylinder seal over night and then when you release it it gets sucked into the reservoir (where it doesn't cause a problem any more until it gets back into the master cylinder after a while, normally when you turn your bike upside down).
Like somebody else said, hugely powerful with 203mm rotors.
Not got anything bad to say about them.
Think I read in MBUK or WMB that they tested a load of brakes on a dyno machine and SLX were more powerful than XT.
they are a bitch to bleed. I sent my XT brakes to the LBS when I couldn't bleed them, my SLX had the same problem. They can be bled but speak to people who know for the top tips. Both my SLX and XT brakes went spongy then to nothing before the first set of pads wore out!
top brakes.
they knock the socks off my mates K24s.
they're easy to bleed (despite what those above have said). no fancy blled kits needed; just a piar of syringes and some 5mm fish tank tubing.
the modulation is brilliant with lots of lever throw and then coming on full-full in the last mm of movement.
the servo-wave/cam thingy helps pull the pds back further away from the discs preventing rubbing and squeaking.
i've been happy with sintered pads in mine since i bought them. they've been fine. rode many many miles including one transalp and not had any rael problems.
i did find the front went spongy after a 1200m descent due to the heat, buthow often do you descent that far? once it had cooled down it was fine, but i re-bled the system upon my return just to give myself something to do.....
top brakes.
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