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I've used hopes for years .. Original mini-mono mini-mono m4- x2 pro all been very good with light maintenance..
Used avid briefly awful brakes..
Reckon it's mostly user error with over zealous cleaning/lubing contaminating pads etc..
Got some donkeys old Tech levers - only changed the master cylinder piston - 5 min job per side and another 2 to bleed. Not touched the M4 and Mono M4 calipers (2004 I think) for ages. All second hand kit.
Performance is starting to wane a bit, but rotors are really old, too, so will change them next.
No way I'd trust old Shimano brakes to last that long, but then no way I'd buy brand new Hopes unless I had loads of spare cash. Probably get XT next, even if it's just for the the fancy pants finned pads.
Hope are the only people to make the cool as anything vented rotors though. Really want some, even though they are pointless 🙂
My hope ones have leaked and my xtr ones leaked ( piston seal )
The hope ones needed a cheap rubber seal the xtr and whole new caliper
I don't trust any of the brake power tests I've seen - they're all far too incomplete. They need to create graphs of lever pressure vs braking force and braking force vs time (to give fade data). I don't see why a forged and machined caliper is worse than a forged caliper, especially when the machining increases the surface area (better cooling).
Looking at the production volumes which Hope have, and the sale price of their items, and the small profit margin their dealers get, I believe the "Hope making unreliability a benefit" claim is complete rubbish:
1. After-sales care, whether within or outside warranty is expensive. The more stuff you make, the more expensive it is.
2. Hope parts are expensive so it's not like people will bin them - they will usually use Hope's famed support, so that means Hope have to deal with a far greater proportion of problems than other manufacturers.
3. Hope dealers do not make tons of money on the items - so if they were having to spend lots of time dealing with warranty claims or other faults, they wouldn't be so keen to sell them.
I don't think everything Hope makes is great - I was unimpressed with the seat clamp which didn't clamp evenly and caught on my shorts due to the fancy machined knob and the first chain guide they made was completely useless. But I can't fault the headsets, hubs, bottom brackets and brakes of theirs that I have - they got fitted and they've been pretty much ignored since then (items vary between a few months and 5 years old).
That sounds like air in the system - which is user error, not design. The boiling point of Dot is much higher than mineral.
So all three sets of Hopes had 'air' in the system and the old Shimano's didn't. Three out of five sets of brakes failed. All Hopes. And two sets were owned by a bike shop owner and manager, very good bike mechanics at that. The following year they had Shimano's. Make your own mind up.
mcnik - Member2) the parts you are complaining about are not brakes,
I never claimed otherwise 😕 Actually I think the brakes are one of their better products. I don't think they're competitive at the highest level which is where they're pitched, but as I said earlier they're perfectly decent
Re the forging; it looks like I was out of date and they've finally moved to forgings, which is actually great news. Anyone know when that happened, and if it's for all the brakes?
Hope's own marketing says that the Race X2 Evo is machined from billet btw- so I apologise for assuming they were right 😉 Wonder why they do that?
Those power statistics kind of back up my argument. Out of the box the power of Hope is basically the same as every other brake, as you expect because they are all essentially the same. And yet some people complain bitterly about lack of power. Why would this be?I think it's pad contamination.
You are meant to replace seals every few years you know, instead of throwing the brakes away and buying a new pair like Shimano.
Hope should market themselves as being more environmentally friendly.
And to add, my family has used dozens of Hope brakes and they have all worked flawlessly - apart from the stupid C2s.
[quote=coogan]three sets of mates new Hopes I was in the Alps with. Two sets of old Saints got to the bottom of a long rocky decent working fine, the Hopes all had levers against the bars.
That sounds like air in the system - which is user error, not design. The boiling point of Dot is much higher than mineral.
[quote=coogan]So all three sets of Hopes had 'air' in the system and the old Shimano's didn't. Three out of five sets of brakes failed. All Hopes. And two sets were owned by a bike shop owner and manager, very good bike mechanics at that. The following year they had Shimano's. Make your own mind up.
No properly set up brake should be 'to the bars'. If that happened, I think the problem is with the person or people that set up the brakes, especially if it is multiple sets set up by the same person that failed. People are fallible. You are describing a fault condition, not normal service / design condition.
[quote=Northwind]Re the forging; it looks like I was out of date and they've finally moved to forgings, which is actually great news. Anyone know when that happened, and if it's for all the brakes?
Hope's own marketing says that the Race X2 Evo is machined from billet btw- so I apologise for assuming they were right Wonder why they do that?
That is for the leavers I think.
Thing is, does it even matter? Who has broken a caliper or leaver body? I can see the whole forged thing being important for things like cranks and stems.
No properly set up brake should be 'to the bars'. If that happened, I think the problem is with the person or people that set up the brakes, especially if it is multiple sets set up by the same person that failed. People are fallible. You are describing a fault condition, not normal service / design condition.
Valid point... mind you, all the same people moved over and set up Shimano's and none of this happened. At all. Only with Hopes. You can say what you want about it, they do great gear. I use Hope hubs on all my bikes, but I have zero trust in the brakes they make.
Valid point... mind you, all the same people moved over and set up Shimano's and none of this happened. At all. Only with Hopes. You can say what you want about it, they do great gear. I use Hope hubs on all my bikes, but I have zero trust in the brakes they make.
Plenty of Zees have been failing, never once had a Hope fail, only Formulas. I think it's all bullshit unless we see proper data.
Who has broken a caliper or leaver body?
Me!
After 7 years of being presumably overtightened by me whilst adjusting my bike, the top part of the two piece clamp (the one that is part of the lever body) snapped, due to fatigue. A visit to CRC website, £29 and a couple of days later, it was fixed.
Anyway, rode the bike with new seals, but the same old pads and disc. Seemed ok at first, but testing it out on steep fast road the faded when they got hot. No change in lever feel but they lost power. After this, they also started to squeal badly. They never used to do this in all of 7 years, but they started after I cleaned them all up with IPA.
Maybe new pads and de glaze the rotors or something.
I love hope brakes - maybe I'm a fanboi ...
Hayes are truly rubbish
Shimano are great - on my Road Rat ...
As a matter of interest , what exactly are you doing to them?