I’ve got an odd mix of Shimano disc brake kit on my bike; all of it is old and some is on its 3rd bike; it probably needs replacing.

I’m struggling to spot the difference between the various groupset levels. Okay the Deore set don’t have an external reach adjust and have a direct home mount to the caliper (rather than the banjo) but that said they don’t look too different to the SLX set; there’s even less of a difference between the SLX and XT versions (M785 or M8000) and there’s even a LX trekking brake!

Brakes are important and I don’t mind spending a bit extra but is there much between them in terms of performance and/or reliability?

Merlin are selling front and rear kits – Deore £69.95, SLX £89.95 and XT (M8000) £129.

I’ve got Deore and SLX on two of my bikes. Not a huge amount of difference beyond (as you say) the banjo and reach adjust (which I do like). I “think” the SLX also have ceramic pistons (or so they appear). The SLX come with finned metallic pads; the Deore with standard resin pads.

Both good brakes, and I bought the SLX for around £83 from Wiggle recently. Same bleed kit for both, which is nice. For the tenner or so extra, I’d go SLX.

Buy the Deore. They are just as powerful IME.

They are just as powerful IME.

For any of the MTB models* with the same/equal pads there’s basically no difference in power between any of the 2 piston models as (AFAIK) they all use the same size master/slave so from a power POV there’s no difference, but from an adjustment and heat POV there are differences.

The external reach adjustment is only worth it if you’re a fiddler, otherwise set it correctly once and you’re done, the bite point adjust of the posher models (XT>) is borderline, for some people it’s important for others not so much, and it doesn’t make a huge amount of difference anyway.

The differences in the pistons and their ability to cope with heat again may or may not be an issue for you depending on your brake use.

Reliability should be on a par across all models, if you get a dodgy it’s bad luck at any price point.

Deore are hard to beat at the price.

*trekking use a different lever blade profile and possibly differences in master piston too as well as pads?

Just putting my tuppence worth in….

Ive had SLX, XT and both recent versions of XTR.

Heat build up over longer descents is noticeably different at the higher ends. However, the main difference for me is in modulation. This is where there is quite a big difference between SLX and XT/XTR. if you ride mostly trail centre you may not notice it. Get out on some long steep natural descents and you probably will notice the difference when you want to feather the brake to keep a handle on the speed.

No doubt someone will come along and say that SLX or Deore are just as good….that’s not my experience at all. Good brakes are worth paying more for, if your riding justifies it.

Good brakes are worth paying more for, if your riding justifies it.

So essentially, if you can’t tell the difference you aren’t awesome enough?

Someone should make that into a fairytale or something…

As expected …. 😯
“if your riding justifies it” means if you ride your bike often enough and you’re riding the type of stuff where modulation and lack of fade would actually be noticeable….either of which MIGHT justify paying out extra depending on the buyers value point…….

Believe me, anyone who knows me would say I’m definitely no riding goddess!

I’ve had Deore and now have XT. XT’s probably feel a bit better in use but not really any more powerful. I prefer the XT’s though as they look better made and the price difference isn’t worth worrying about.

I’d have Hope if the Shimano’s weren’t such ridiculous value.

Just to add yet another viewpoint- I’ve had deore, slx and xt and find the slx have been the best overall. Xt are maybe better when working but seem finicky, deore are perhaps a little less modulated. It’s pretty marginal though- I’d probably buy the slx over the deore simply for the banjo (one of my bikes really needs that) and the ability to use a bolt instead of a split pin to hold the pads in