Something I’ve not had before: My XT brakes squeal like mad for the first few miles of a ride. Loudly & embarrassingly so. Then after a few bits of down hill, the squealing/juddering goes away. Even if I don’t touch the bike at all after the ride, the next time I go out the same thing happens. Anyone any ideas. Normally If I get a contamination it won’t go away quite so easily..

My older model XTs are prone to squealing when they are cold. Get a bit of heat into them and they stop complaining. Are they still stopping? If the pads are contaminated you’ll be braking like 1992.

Well they aren’t perfect when they squeal but they are ok. They only get up to XT stopping standard once the noise stops. It does seem to me like they need warming up, but why that should be on a 2013 model is beyond me.

Change pads.