I’ve bought a new bike and wasn’t overly excited by it having Guide R brakes, but seeing that pretty well every mid range bike seems to have them I thought I’d give them a go….. They are OK until that point where you really need them, and then they don’t have that final bite. I’m pretty sure that the OEM pads are organic so I can swap those out.
But has anyone had much time with both the R and RS model? The RS has the ‘swinglink’ which is meant to make the brake more powerful, and as I can get stuff at dealer cost it makes sense to just buy a front RS lever (if it will make a significant difference). I could sell the brakes and buy a different set, but everyone around here seems to be doing the same thing, so maybe just swapping out the front lever is the easiest thing to do. I think all the Guide calipers are the same?

The ‘swinglink’ is essentially a servo.

The R is a direct action piston, the RS is a servo linkage so can be expected to have more grunt.

I’ve not ridden the R.

Major disclaimer: it depends on your lever preferences I think. If you want a solid lever and instant big bite like people seem to be intent on overfilling Shimano for, Guides probably aren’t for you. The Guide signature is a long modulation period before the thump. They’re very good brakes but don’t suit everyone.

Thanks. Yep, I know the differences and I like the feel of the Guide but was wondering if the RS’ mechanical advantage actually gave it the ‘thump’. I was riding some steep rock slabs in Squamish yesterday and just when I really needed the R to bite when squeezing the lever really hard it gave me nothing extra. My BB7 / XTR lever combo had way more power!

Your bb7’s have more power than a Guide R? Are you running the new Guides with the bleeding edge port?

I can’t give you a direct comparison but I had the old guide rs which had 160mm discs front and rear (ran with both organic and sintered pads) and I now have the new guide r with 200/180mm discs and the standard organic pads.

I’d say the RS had a nicer lever feel for me and always had enough power, but the new guide r are silly powerful. I guess the bigger discs help and the newer caliper s are meant to be better – but I’d have really liked the rs in an ideal world. Bird were out of stock at the time and I was too impatient to wait.

Not sure if the rs will have much more power or not – but if you can get parts cheaply how does the price of the rs lever compare to the cost of a guide re brake? Whilst it wouldn’t give you the swinglink it would keep both your levers feeling similar but you’d have a code DH caliper instead of the guide one.

Presumably you already have 200mm discs?

Tags thread as my new rsc set on 180mm rotors feel utter shite compared to my old first gen rsc set on 160mm rotors.

Sticky lever/master which is dead feeling and doesn’t cut the mustard, I’m hacked off as I upgraded on new bike to these over xts cause I was so impressed by the modulation and power on my 160mm rotors set.

Shoulda gone Hope probably but hindsight is a errrrmmm wonderful thing or not…

P.s. I believe my older set have metallic compound pads and the newer set feels organic I reckon.

Both the older and newer Guides that I’ve had came with organic pads. I went through the organic pads on the origainal rs pretty quickly and just ran sintered uberbike pads after that. They just did the job.

I’m still on the organic pads on the new guide r – not worn through them yet but only had 3 mucky rides on them so far – it was dry on all the rest of the rides since May.

Guide r has no swinglink cam it’s very basic get the rs and there’s lots more power

Have had both. Guide R’s feel woefully underpowered to tell the truth! Some of this is the sub standard pads they seem to come with, some of it the lack of swing link in the lever. Shop floor lever pulls reveal a firmer lever feel on the R’s than RS’s, which your average Shimano brake lover will appreciate.

But… In use, the R’s don’t perform as you’d wish. The RS’s have WAY more modulation and feel at the lever, which puts off your average Shimano brake lover. In use this equates to a huge amount more “feel” and control before locking up. The stock sintered pads give way more bite than the crappy organics that come with R’s.

In short, the RS is a very worthwhile upgrade over the R.

Your bb7’s have more power than a Guide R?

Yep, and it’s down to the old XTR levers with the Servowave thingy in the lever which is pretty well what Sram copy with the Swinglink in terms of functionality (different design though). Loads of modulation but when it comes to the crunch the brakes feel like they could stop a truck. If the levers didn’t look so battered I’d just put these brake on my new bike. But it’s the functionality of the XTR lever (Vs Sram Speed dial, Pauls etc that I’ve also used) that made me wonder just how useless the Guide R lever is.

Thanks peeps. I think I’ll throw on a Guide RS front lever and some sintered pads.

Given the guide r is the most powerful feeling brake I’ve had and even the least powerful hydraulic brake I’ve had feels stronger than any mechanical disc I’ve used in struggling with that.

Are you sure there isn’t something wrong with your guides?

I’ve abused mine on full day uplifting at BPW both in the wet and dry and with the old rs / new r and never had a problem. No fade or reduction in power, nice modulation and way more power than I’ve ever needed.

* it might be that I’m just not epic enough though

On a side note, can you buy a guide rsc lever separately? I’ve never got on with guide r’s that I’ve demoed as I’m very specific with my lever location/bite due to a dodgy tendon, but the bike I’ve ordered has got them on.

Google seems to bring up service kits for the levers but not an entire lever?

Are you sure there isn’t something wrong with your guides?

They work the same as the ones on a demo bike that I borrowed a few weeks ago. I’m sure they are OK for ‘normal’ use, but the riding around here isn’t very normal 😀 I need something that will allow me to ride down a steep rock slab (that’s really hard to walk up) for several seconds at a snails pace because there’s no run-out at the bottom for example.

As for the BB7 / XTR combo, I’ve ridden countless brakes over the years and they are up there with most. Just not quite with the likes of Saint obviously. But with regards the rock slabs above, on my old hardtail with these brakes, I’ve been the one rolling down completely in control, yet buddies (generally with Guide brakes….) have struggled and ended up speeding up somewhat out of control by the time they get to the bottom! You can’t just compare mechanical Vs hydro. For example, the exact set of BB7s that I had totally sucked when mated to Paul levers. Which sucked even more as I paid a small fortune for them….

Enigmas, we can get levers (RS at least) in Canada. We have one in the shop. Not sure about the UK though.

Quick question: can you do stoppies with Guide RS? If so, I’d imagine they have enough grunt.