Went out for the first ride with XT brakes fitted yesterday. They are way more powerful than the BB7’s, BUT they lack any real feel. They have been bleed correctly.

The front isn’t so bad, plenty of stopping power and a bit of modulation. The rear, however, is either on or off. Brake hard on tarmac and there’s judder through the frame (on tarmac). Off road it just locks up.

Any set-up tips I may have missed? Any reason for the judder under hard braking (rear only). Anyway I can improve the feel?

I expected them to feel different and be more powerful, I just didn’t expect the lack of feeling or modulation.

Maybe your fingers need recalibrating 🙂

How big are your rotors?

as above, you need to re-calibrate 🙂

I find the use of a 160 rotor on the rear gives loads of power still and improves ‘feel’.

When I first switched from the old XT brakes to the current Shimano XT brakes the new ones felt a little lacking in feel. I found the initial bite was much more powerful than the old one and was hard for me to modulate the brake.

I soon recalibrated and now have plently of feel from the brakes. I can easily modulate them from a fine feathering to a full hard stop no problem. Give it a few weeks and you’ll get used to them.

You can play around with the free stroke adjuster but I find this mostly does nothing so make some large adjustments to the screw and even then it’ll probably feel the same.

Regarding the juddering, make sure everything on the back end is tight, including rear axle, any cup and cone bearings are done up tight etc. Also could be the rotor, some rotor shapes can cause juddering.

I agree with all above posts. Yes OP, they are lacking a little feel compared to HOPE (for example), but after a couple of good rides, you’ll forget any differences. 160mm is plenty at the back. I have 203mm at the front but can still modulate properly.

The rear, however, is either on or off. Brake hard on tarmac and there’s judder through the frame (on tarmac). Off road it just locks up.

I had similar with some new XT’s. Swapped the pads and they were fine.

Thanks all, seems it might be me that needs to adjust then 😀 I did adjust the free stroke screw but found that made little difference.

I’m running 160mm rear and 180mm front. Both rotors and pads are the same F&R.

I’ll double check everything is tight as well. It should be, unless something has worked loose.

Thanks all, will just ride it more 😈

If you are getting judder you might have contamination on pad or rotor. If you find a big hill and brake hard until you put some heat into the system it might go away. Failing that try a new set of cheap pads and clean the disc with some disc cleaner.

Or it might just need the pads bedding in. Either way worth riding it for a bit

Thanks, will try putting some het into them and check for contamination.