I have had enough of shimano brakes. The m8000 pair I had started leaking at the calliper and now the replacement saint rear is leaking. No power and squealing like a pig. Front is fine and I know its not an external contam thats causes it.
What the brake of choice thats not shimano. I don’t need the absolute power of the saints and would prefer something not so on off. I run my levers close to the bars and like a firm feeling lever. Looking for any recommendations.
My choice would be one of the following 3 brakes:
Sram Guide RSC / Code RSC
Magura MT5 with the one finger lever
Sram Guide Re would be cheaper and still powerful but I’m not sure without the bite point adjustment that you could get them feeling how you like.
Hope E4/X2 combo or maguras for me.
I ditched shimano after numerous issues like this across multiple bikes and different versions of brakes, now have sram on all my bikes and they have been faultless for years.
I have given up on Shimano brakes after going through 3 rears last year.I was tempted by Maguras but got an awesome deal on some Hopes instead.At least if the Hopes start to play up all the parts are available!
My son's MT5's are incredible power and feel.
Is it just new ones?
I have some lx callipers on deore levers that are from 2004. Still perfect.
I've used MT5's on my last two bikes (swapping out XT and Guides) and really rate them. As above the single finger HC lever is a must though.
Hmm interesting. I have a pair of 2016 XT's which have been faultless. The MT5's look nice. Wonder how easy they are to bleed?
Whatever you do do not go the Sramity calamity route
TRP would be my go to brake sets from having run them & their rotors for a while now.
Send them to me, I'll pay postage, it will save you staring at the bane of your mtb life
My Deore 4 pots have been flawless, as have those of many other people I've met online and in the real world. All my mates who have Guides/Codes, on the contrary have had problems with them.
JP
The deore 4 pots I had on a hire bike were nice, but I'm about 7 calipers down across loads of different Shimano models. I'm now planning to sell mine off while they work (when I see a good deal in a replacement).
I tried selling mine before they broke - they leaked for the new owner as he set them up. They were only a month old! They were refunded and promptly binned.
No Shimano again for me, mtb or road (until something drastic changes). I’ve got 2 sets of sram and 2 sets of hope in the shed, both have been excellent.
I've also vowed to never buy any more Shimano brakes. I binned a Deore calliper yesterday, which I think is my 7th leak in 10 years of using Shimano (both front and rear on 3 pairs, one of which was replaced when it started to leak within the warranty period).
I think lack of use doesn't help. Most of these issues have been when on a bike that I leave at my parents house, which often goes 6 months between uses. Older brakes have lasted longer when on my main bike.
It's unfortunate, as I really like the lever shape, the short lever throw, and I find I get less disc rub than others I've used. But my M8000s have never felt quite as good as my old M785s, even after a warranty swap for the wandering bit point.
Had the same problem, also on bikes that weren’t used frequently. Replaced the XTRs with Hope E4/X2 combos and haven’t had a jot of bother in 4 years.
If anyone has some levers to sell then let me know. I guess a PM would be easiest :0)
Cheers
Tim
Well I've had less problems with Shimano than magura and sram brakes I've had over the years (admittedly a high number of years) but the Hopes I had many many years ago were faultless.
I'd buy Hope if you want proper reliability. Mine only went as the bike got stolen!
Sadly, this isn't the first thread that I've read about M8000 brakes being a PITA. Shimano must've dropped the ball quite spectacularly, I am still using a pair of M785 brakes from 2012 (IIRC) and they've been excellent, stopping power is very consistent and bleeding is a doddle with the right kit.
My M785s seem to tolerate being left in the shed for four months during the winter without complaint, so I'm in no hurry to upgrade.
Sram g2 rsc ordered. I have the bleed kit which saves me buying another kit at more expense.
I re-bled the two brakes
I have also cooked the old pads on the hob. They smoked a bit but after 5 minutes they stopped. A bit of water applied to the braking surface and the two pads rubbed together to rough them up. The rear pad swapped to front and front to back.
I will use them over the weekend and see if the rear behaves.
My XT M8000 were hopeless. They'd work great 85% of the time. Loads of power - and it would all come instantly meaning you didnt need to squeeze all that hard to stop.
Now for the other 15% of the time...they would just randomly 'not work'. As in all of a sudden they'd pull right to the bar. This would happen usually when least helpful - like just before a corner. I persevered with them a while - bleeed them before going away on a trip, and when they did start to become unpredictable you could get them to work again by squeezing the lever rapidly to 'pump them up'. In any case, the unpredictability continued, and after a few nasty brake failure induced crashes I binned them.
The good people at the BPW workshop weren't suprised when I was bitching about them - they had heard it lots before. They thought it was a XT M8000 issue, and said that Deore brakes dont have the same issues at all and said I should get some of those.
However, I felt I'd already given Shimano enough money for brakes that didn't work, so stumped up for Hopes instead. Early days, but totally reliable so far. The adjustability is brilliant - have got it just right, with early bite point and the level close to the bar (to suit my tiny trump hads - I found the SRAM levers to be a bit big). The overal power of the Hopes is less, but ill trade that for them to work consistently any day of the week.
Ran slx on a bike now running xt and xtr on two bikes not an issue in over 2 years.
Someone did say bleeding them properly is critical.
If you are unlucky to get a dud set, no amount of bleeding helps. Had mine done by myself, EWS mechanic, BPW mechanic, LBS, not so local but wrenches for lots of racers shop, those people by Chicksands and they would still go to shit.
The overal power of the Hopes is less
That has been debunked in several tests. The impression of power is greater as the Shimano's are grabbier than the Hopes but the ultimate power is not less (assumption here of 2 pot shimano vs E4s). It's a bit like servo'd vs non-servo brakes on cars. Our golf (servo) feels like it has more powerful brakes as the servo bites than our elise (no servo). However if you stand on the elise brakes its very clear the elise has much, much more powerful brakes.
Ah yes I should have admitted, I've not had M8000s - just 785s and the slx/possibly oe non series but not the most basic one of the same age (685?). They've been great, to the point that the previous owner of the 785s had used DOT fluid and *crosses everything* they still work - the DOT fluid was in there for at least a year whilst I owned them before they ended up needing a bleed.
Next generation of brakes will be out soon, or buy some of the deore/sub deore 4 pots.
Never had a problem with mine, they've been faultless since I fitted them around Oct/Nov 2015.
Awaits the 'shitty SRAM brakes' thread....
Guide RS here for over 3 years, no problems other than new pistons (30 min job), fluid was still very clean when I replaced the pistons
Shimano SLX on wife's 'new to us' bike, rear needed bleeding on purchase. Bled both and new pads, absolutely no issues.
I think sometimes you get a bad batch, poorly set up/bled.
Ive had leaky M8000 calipers and leaky ZEE calipers, will never run shimano again
Also have had Sram Guide R, RS, Code R, they were ok leak wise but the levers did begin to get sticky
Now running Hope E4 and V4 on my bikes, no issues in 2 years
My plan if any of our 5 sets of Shimano calipers start leaking again is to go Shigura...MT4 or MT5 caliper.
I have one set currently being warrantied for a second time.
It's a bloody lottery!
My old XTRs -2008 model I think (came with Dual Control levers!) still fine.
My old 785 XTs that replaced the above on my main bike - one is still great, the other started leaking recently and just replaced the caliper with an 8000 (which is ok at the mo).
785s on my complete bike - fab 3 years on
Bought some twin pot Deores for my son's bike - one ok, one pissed fluid like it was going out of fashion.
And finally - the Deore M615s on my son's school commute bike - cheap as chips, perfect, used daily. Should've replaced all sets with the same model 3-4 years ago when I bought them!
I have MT5s front and rear on the fat bike and just put the MT trail MT5/MT4 combo on the 29+. The most powerful brake I have ever used and also one of the best feeling, (only bettered in feel by Hope but I don't think there is much in it). The fact that they are also dirt cheap just seems like a no brainer.
John
Also, used to like the Shimano brakes but I wasn't impressed with the M8000 XT brakes I had.
John
Hope tech 3 lever with X2 caliper for me, E4 calipers wwould also be great. Mine are 4 yrs old. Always reliable, lovely lever feel, levers pivot on bearings so are still solid after 4 years, reach and bite point independently adjustable. Easy to repair and bleed. Spares available for every single little part. And you'll be a hope customer, so properly looked after forever. They look good too if you're bothered about that.
Powerful enough for me, using large rotors. Nicely controllable power, not on/off.
Had older hopes on my last bike for 12 years (came with the bike) and they were the most reliable thing i ever owned.
Expensive but worth it.
I've just had Rutland refuse my warranty claim.
Anyone got some MT4 or MT5 calipers to sell...?
On what grounds.
That the pads are worn, there's brake dust on the caliper and they can't see a leak... Not sent to Madison mind.
(Pads are old ones from other set of brakes as I'd taken out good Kevlar pads that had become oiled for a house guest to borrow my bike for a couple of rides)
I thought STWF lore told us there was a bad early production run of M8000 brakes and thereafter sorted. Could never swallow that myself.
I've got a mix of Shimano and Formula Curas across the family fleet of bikes and even a Shimula at one end of one bike. I've had M8000 and M820 calipers go bad while others have stayed good. I'm pretty sure that age has made the seals a bit lazy in the remaining M988s (they've done a few years); one M988 master cylinder sprang a leak. I've got good M675s (low mileage, bought 2016).
Latest strategy for recovering any caliper to best working order is to pump the pistons out a little and use wet wipes to get the dust off.
Latest strategy for bleeding is Shimano bucket at MC and a syringe without a plunger at the caliper. Raise and lower them relative to each other to gently flow the fluid first one way and then the other; it gives you multiple goes at getting stubborn bubbles out with zero mess.
Someone did say bleeding them properly is critical.
This is the case for all brakes.
Had an issue with XT calipers leaking after not being used for a while. I fixed my issue by dragging some even older Maguras out of the parts bin, they didn't even need bleeding and they've been sat for 8 or 9 years.