[Closed] Very cheap brakes

Are the Clark's from the UK?

Either way I think they have been rated as vey good for the money on here before.

At that price I'd take them over cable pull for sure.

Clarks sell (or certainly used to) their brakes direct on eBay. And as said above by poopscoop they are generally agreed to be excellent vfm at £50 the pair. I would have thought they'd more than fit the bill for your wife's needs

Cheap is usually a bad idea be it brakes or anything, they are cheap for a reason, and its never good reasons.
That said, Shimano usually make reasonable stuff in the lower end of the market and something like M200 should be more than capable.
M200 brakes can be found on the majority of £1500-£2000 Ebikes

M200 = Shimano Altus.

Halfords have them specced on their £2999 Voodoo Zebop full sus electric.

I got a f+r set of Clarks M3 (I think) off Merlin for about £60 including rotors, absolute bargain. Very impressed with them 👍🏻

M2 are fine. I’ve got a set I bought off Amazon. Paid under £40 for front and rear.

Can do you some karma Juicy 3. Think they work.

Edit
Are you still North East? I'm only over in Prudhoe.

I have found the budget shimano brakes to be completely adequate. Had them on my fat bike for a few years before it became too unfashionable to ride

I put a set of Shimano MT200 (£55 the pair) on a Spesh Hardrock as a family trails bike. Nearly died the first time I went to us y them, then I realised you have to actually pull on the levers rather than just tweak them, like we're used to... Fine after that.

Picked up a set of Clarkes on eBay for £45 the pair. I cannot fathom how they manage to make them. They’re superb for the cost.

Clarks M2 are fine for what you need I reckon. Generally reliable, just a bit down on power vs say a Shimano deore 2 pot. Just get the 180mm rotors with the m2s.

I’ve read a few things about m3s being a bit unreliable to would give them a miss.

I fitted M4’s to my nephew’s bike and they’ve been ok so far too.

I've got a set of Clarks M2 as spares - perfectly functional and no issues.

The M3s however were a sack of shit - the reach adjust on the front was winding itself during use which led to me almost crashing into the side of a van. I sent photos to Bikester and they just refunded me for the set. Seems to be a common fault but there doesn't seem to be a solution.

Shimano "cheapies" are almost as good as anything if you give them 203mm rotors, the 4 pots ones are mint. I prefer the hope style modulation you get in them over the more expensive brakes with SLR leverage dohickey levers that makes Shimano brakes on/off.

M2's on a 29er with 180mm front and 160mm rear for £40 well worth it, they take Shimano pads and oil.

Shimano “cheapies” are almost as good as anything if you give them 203mm rotors,

This is a slight exaggeration, but the cheap Shimanos are pretty decent if you put big rotors on and better pads.

I've a pair of Tektro Auriga brakes that came off a complete bike (maybe 6 months use) I'd be happy to sell for that kind of money

Thanks for the offers - let me get back to you, I need to do some reading and I'm off for a ride.

Encouraging on the M2s. This isn't urgent as it needed to be done by today so I've missed the deadline now. Just one for the future and there's no point having a dead bike in the garage.

Recently fitted a set of M2s. Very good vfm and unbelievable for £50 with rotors.

Hardly seems worth dipping into the netherworld of AliExpress when those are available from UK sellers and actually work.

Get a pair of these - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/402744013145?var=672991619536
I having been using them on my light weight bike for about 4 years now. Very light, cheap, simple and use BB5 pads.
Never bled mine, but had to add a wee bit of mineral oil to top it up over time, simple to do.
I am actually thinking of getting another pair to put on my GF's commuter bike to replace the crappy cable ones.

I'd go for whatever Shimano are in budget. Maintenance free for years and easy to bleed if needed. I’ve put them on a few people’s bikes to replace cable or duff old Hayes and they’ve always been pleased with em.

It’s only going to be ridden on easy paths

Big rotors will be a waste. The brakes just work.

The OHs e-bike has Clarks M2 brakes.

She finds them quite on/off grabby but she's not a "mountainbiker" so not really used to decent brakes. They might be at the more wooden end of the spectrum but a long way from unusable.

I'd happily ride with them.

I'd like to say Shimano, but they're not actually that reliable. But maybe the are reliable on a bike that doesn't get used much where worn pistons won't be an issue. Shimano are the best option for someone who wants performance on a budget, and perhapse accepts that the pistons will be shot in 10,000 miles of British mud.

Nothing wrong with the Clarks at all. They're mostly cheap because they have less costs- they make loads of 'em, they barely advertise, they don't do racing/sponsorship, and they're not trying to be high performance and they don't do a 2 year model cycle so their r&d is low- they have basic products that work well so they'll just keep making them til the world ends. (and, er, I think quite a bit of that r&d is "inspired by" old shimano).

What kind of underscores it, is that mtb brakes got excellent at least 10 years ago, everything since then has been marginal gains, occasional nonmarginal losses, novelties, short product lives which mean new issues creep in as fast as old ones get solved... There's a reason Shimano have years where their top end brakes have been really pretty crap, but the bottom end ones are always a good buy. Clark just operate on a different basis, they'll never make a great brake either.

Actually Clarks just import and rebrand Taiwanese catalogue stuff. If you hunt around you'll find those M2 brakes under a different name. But UK warranty and support is worth paying for to some.

avoid the bottom end Shimano (I had some on a budget hardtail and they had really unreliable bite and would just randomly fail) Clarks and tekktro seem quite good.

wzzzz
Free Member

Actually Clarks just import and rebrand Taiwanese catalogue stuff.

Not quite, Clarks are commissioners of a bunch of stuff that is also available through other means- fairly common.

If your old brakes are Shimano, then MT200 callipers are £14 each at Edinburgh Bike Co-op. I’ve just put some on my daughter’s commuter. Super cheap considering they include pads.

Another glowing endorsement for the M2s here. Well, for the money anyway.

Slight thread-hack, but every time I read about M2s people always seem to follow up any praise with "...for the money".

So how good are they on the whole?

One of my bikes has some venerable Shimano Deore 535s at the moment, on 160mm rotors. They're basically terrifying to ride: lots of lever flex, not a lot of stopping power.

I know I can probably make them be OK by sticking bigger rotors on. Or I could drop 50 quid on some M2s.

Any thoughts as to what might be the better bet?

M2 levers aren’t great. Not one finger friendly. Hard to set up with shifter etc. Power and feel is there but the ergonomics aren’t as good as recent shimano. I prefer the deore 596 (2012?) levers I have on my hardtail.
But they stop you when you grab them.

M2s on my daughters bike are great. She’s not exactly nailing sick vert but they’ve been faultless for family rides.

Thanks @docrobster.

The 596 lever shape looks better than the 535, although the Clarks M2 looks worse than either.

I guess you can't have it all, although on balance I'd probably take "does stop" over "nicer lever".