Is there much difference between the 2 power and modulation wise? £75 for SLX or £85 for XT.

None whatsoever. They are basically the same caliper and lever in both cases.
The XT lever has some extra adjustment and the XT caliper uses a fancier bolt to retain the pads, where the SLX uses a split-pin. Otherwise they’re identical.

Got some Deore 615s last week from Merlin

Lovely brakes plenty of power and modulation. £90 pair highly recommended

Got some Deore 615s last week from Merlin

Lovely brakes plenty of power and modulation. £90 pair highly recommended

I never thought I’d say this but having bought a set of the Deore’s for my Fatty last week, I reckon they’re actually better than the Hope’s on my other bikes which cost about 3x as much 😯
And this is coming from someone who’s a bit of a Hope fanboy!

I never thought I’d say this but having bought a set of the Deore’s for my Fatty last week, I reckon they’re actually better than the Hope’s on my other bikes which cost about 3x as much
And this is coming from someone who’s a bit of a Hope fanboy!

+1 just the hope’s are nicer too look at

a couple of pics:

And you get the fancy bite-point adjust on SLX anyway if you get the correct security bit for your screwdriver. 🙂

Those Deore look exactly like my M665 slx’s (which are leaking)

hmmm

I have the Deore brakes and they perform easily as good as my mates SLX, he even says the same.

Handle long descents with ease.

Shimano brakes are fine until the seals go (2 to 3 years), then they spray a fine mist of mineral oil over your discs and pads, which causes horrible screeching noises and writes off both the calipers (can’t replace the seals) and pads (mineral oil terminally contaminates pads, believe me).

Also seals break in sub-zero temperatures. Had BOTH my brakes go on one ride a few years ago.

Some shimano stuff is good, but I am never ever going to use their brakes again.

Thats whats happened to mine nikk, are they not servicable at all?

I would be ok with a set of 90 quid brakes lasting three years. I don’t think I’d resist the temptation of new brakes once I’d run a set for three years, I’d be wanting to upgrade anyways.

(Having said that, I’ve managed 5 years out of a set up Formula K18’s which aside from new pads and a seasonly re-bleed are still stopping me and I love how comfy the levers are!)… but seriously considering a set of Deores.

Caliper is different on the Deore to the SLX and XT.

The XT get the servowave adjustment over the SLX which just have a blanking plug (with security screw plug). You can easily replace that with another m4 x 12 screw to enable the feature I believe. There is some kind of washer under the screw on the XT which I would like to get a look at to see if it’s needed. Probably going to replace all my brakes with SLX ones as I fancy upgrading and it’s nice to have the same brakes on all bikes so they feel the same and if anything fails you can swap them over.

Deore are about £80 a set, SLX £110 a set.

I used to be all Hope. Now all Shimano braking on all bikes and its in a different league.

Soz to hijack slightly, but anyone bothered trying Ice Tech rotors, and are they wroth the upgrade?

Just out of interest, has the SLX got bite point adjust?

I have Deore and XT, the XTs are marginally lighter and feel a bit more powerful, but it’s pretty close to be honest. Though @ 75 v 85 I’d probably buy XT as I’m a tart.

Deores may not have the adjustments of XT or the servo wave feature, but I can tell you they work every bit as well. Bargain brake of the moment for those not worried about bling.

I run the SLX, no bite point adjust, just lever reach, Must say out of the rest of the brakes ive owned these are the best….
(previous brakes: Hope tech x2, M4,Tech M4’s,Hayes Strokers, and Formula Mega’s)
Small lever, plenty of power! no squeel. can be a little fiddly to bleed.

I’ve got Ice tech rotors bcos they are 20 quid and are pretty robust, very well made it seems and they look mint!

For a tenner difference I’d buy the XT. I prefer the threaded pin to hold the pad in (to the split pin), and I did use bite point adjust once when I had a very firm bleed and wanted to back it off a little.

Also I suspect for anyone frequently riding in wet or muddy conditions (that’s us!), Servowave is worth the money, so I wouldn’t buy Deore if it’s lacking there.

The Deores have servo wave tech too, just no tool free adjustment.

The calipers are different as stated above and that’s about it

What’s the deal with ispec compatibility with shifters; is it just XT or do SLX/Deore have it?

Another vote for the Deores. I’ve got got XT’s in my posh bike and Deores on the other and I don’t notice the lack of tool free adjustment. Since getting my XT’s I’ve not changed the lever position the tool free adjuster is basically something else to break and I’ve not touched the free stroke adjuster either because the brakes felt good as they were.

I think the new Deore stuff looks ace and is really good. Good price too.

I’ve got the xts which have been very good. My wife’s slx’s though are are both leaking after 14 months light use. Not sure what to replace them with now as there’s been a lot of reports of xt and slx leaking. Seems a bit hit and miss.