[Closed] Hope X2s, no bite whatsoever

complete opposite for me.

2/10. - just in case.

mine were exactly the same, no power, was so disappointed by them! got rid! now on formulas and they have lots more power

Complete opposite here. Mine stop and function as sold.

Perhaps changing pads would help? Or drop them in at a shop if you don't manage to get the best from them?

I'm not impressed with Hope adn don't 'get' all the hype about them. I'm running some Formula Oro K18s with 180/160mm rotors. I tried out some Hope M4s with 203mm rotors at each end and my Formulas stopped me far quicker and in a more controlled manner. I won't pay for Hope brakes, some of their stuff is good but definitely not all of it. Bad: brakes, qr skewers, qr seatclamps. Good: Hubs, headsets, BBs. That's not a definitive list, obviously.

Its clearly you and not the design

Not really, don't buy Hope

Not enough fluid in the lever reservoir?

Had something similar with a magura brake. No air in the system and minimal bite.

I kept bleeding but no air was present. Finally checked the reservoir and it was a little low - bleeding seemed to bypass the reservoir altogether 😕

Topped up and bite is back.

Just a thought.

Opposite with me, Hope X2 look sweet as well. My friend had a similar problem, I fixed it by bleeding them with the pads out and the pistons nearly touching using anything fairly slim which you can then lever them apart again with out damaging once finished the bleeding process, he then had all the bite and power he wished for.

I tried out some Hope M4s with 203mm rotors at each end and my Formulas stopped me far quicker and in a more controlled manner.

Nice sample size of 1 there! I have tried K24's on a friends bike, they were terrifyingly poor, yet I have hopes on 3 bikes that all work perfectly well...

Sounds like a mix of both to me. Assuming it's a Tech X2 and not a Race there should be reasonable power and bite if they're working right, but they're still underpowered compared to much of the competition. Not a bad brake at all though, just a bit uncompetitive. So I reckon yours aren't working at their best, they're more than adequate when they are.

Course, a brake as expensive and heavy as that should be better still, but that's a different conversation 😉 I'd never buy them but I wouldn't be in a hurry to replace them if I already had them.

WHy do you think they're called 'Hope'?

You pull your levers and 'hope' that your brakes work.

Not enough fluid in the lever reservoir?

Had something similar with a magura brake. No air in the system and minimal bite.

I kept bleeding but no air was present. Finally checked the reservoir and it was a little low - bleeding seemed to bypass the reservoir altogether

Topped up and bite is back.

Just a thought.

I had M4s which were rubbish from brand new, no matter how much fannying I did with them. Sold them and got some R1s so I can actually stop now.

However I ride with someone who has X2s and he thinks they're great. He's probably never bled them or maintained them in any way and probably doesn't know how to either.

I tried out some Hope M4s with 203mm rotors at each end and my Formulas stopped me far quicker and in a more controlled manner.
pypdjl - Member

Nice sample size of 1 there! I have tried K24's on a friends bike, they were terrifyingly poor, yet I have hopes on 3 bikes that all work perfectly well...

I could say exactly the same about your example so you haven't got an argument. Hypocritical?...

 

Tried some about 6 months ago on a demo Five, thought they were under powered. Just hired another Five whilst in Scotland, they were definitely powerful enough and felt very nice. Probably something to do with the pads etc.

There's defo no shortage of fluid in the system as I pretty much went through half a small bottle doing various refills.

They're Tech X2s and I spent ages fettling with permutations of syringes, hose tapping, top ups etc. I'll readily admit to having little knowledge on the subject but having done hose swaps etc with the 785s, I thought I'd get a noticeable result. I might try ruscle's option and possibly some other pads.

I keep going back to the lure of shiny new Shim stuff though........

getonyourbike - Member

I could say exactly the same about your example so you haven't got an argument.

His argument was that if you only try one brake, your results are unreliable, surely? I don't see him saying that all Oros are terrifyingly poor, doubt anyone'd be so daft, he's just giving you a counterexample.

Not x2's, but i have the a set of hope mini mono, never felt that they were quite as good as they should be, swapped to nukeproof enduro pads 4/5 months ago, the difference is pretty amazing, so much better.
No idea if this will help you but worth a try possibly if your sure the they are properly bled

Disc brakes are fundamentally really simple. If they don't work well, it's one of:

- a flexy design
- leaks or air in the system.
- something sticking
- pads/disc contaminated/etc

Other people have X2s that work well so it's not the first, which leaves the other three. Based on you having done lots of bleeding, the most likely is that you've still got air in it which can be tricky to get out on some brakes (haven't used X2s myself).

Northwind - Member

getonyourbike - Member

I could say exactly the same about your example so you haven't got an argument.

His argument was that if you only try one brake, your results are unreliable, surely? I don't see him saying that all Oros are terrifyingly poor, doubt anyone'd be so daft.

ahhh... Making sense now.
pypdjl-sorry about that last comment.

You can only speak from personal experience, though.

Currently running Tech X2s on one bike, and Tech M4s on another bike. Both sets of brakes have plenty of bite although when new, the rotors & sintered pads did take some bedding in.

I have the same set up as Boxfish on my bikes and both are excellent. So there.

Ive had 3 sets of hope brakes and whilst i do think they modulate very well this is due to them being gutless and underpowered... overrated cr@p

I tried some at GT on a five, I thought they were really under powered compared to my Elixir R. I'm pretty gutted really as I love everything else about them and wanted to get some 🙁 got new XT bargaintastics instead!

If your hope brakes ain't powerful there is something wrong.

Are you confusing the lack of initial bite for a lack of outright power?

Several sets of hope brakes here all provide plenty of power

I've got Tech X2's on my Blur LT2 with 203/183 rotors. While I would like a bit more power so I don't have to squeeze the lever quite so hard, they get me down the longest, steepest, rockiest natural descents in the UK, one finger braking the whole way.

Couple of things to be aware of to get decent performance out of them:

1) You have to do the extra fill, top on, point levers downwards, tap repeatedly, straighten, refill and roll the diaphram thing as per the Hope videos. If you don't do this bit you will have air in the system and they will be crap. It's not difficult and takes 1 minute, but you have to do it
2) They are sensitive to lever position - if you have them to close to the bars they just don't seem to work that well
3) Only go 3-4 clicks out with the bite point adjust

I bought some tech x2's 2nd hand had same trouble as you , multiple bleeds with no luck , turned out to be a hairline crack near the bleed nipple on the caliper , contacted hope expecting a bill for a new caliper but they replaced it foc, wouldn't get that service with any other manufacturer , that's why I buy hope products .

TJ

I may be mixing up phrases but I [i]can[/i] tell you doing a back to back test of the HT with Hopes and the FS with XT's, the HT basically doesn't stop.

A quick spin along a flat road has the XT's pretty much locking the wheels whereas the Hopes just gradually slow you down, and that's with the lever pulled back under my armpit!

Cap'n M

I didn't do the point lever down and repeat process so will give that a go. 🙂

I'd eliminate the obvious first - contaminated pads and rotors. Sometimes just handling the pads or rotors without gloves on, or a slight miss-spray of Gt85 in the general direction, is enough to contaminate things.

m1kea

In that case something is wrong with the hope brakes. Try a careful rebleed, lightly sand pads and disks and bed in again.