[Closed] XT 785 brakes a few months on, still good? Or should I get Hopes?

Yes they are good indeed, no to double on Hopes

If you want a brake to last the life of your bike buy hopes because of the spares availability. If you want a cheap brake that works well and can accept that when a seal goes its scrap then buy shimano

If you want a brake to last the life of your bike buy hopes because of the spares availability. If you want a cheap brake that works well and can accept that when a seal goes its scrap then buy shimano

Indeed. But as my 9 year old Shimano XT's are now on their 3rd bike without even a bleed, I'd happily recommend Shimano.

shimano all the way

I went from Hope to Shimano and never regretted it. 785's about to go on to their second bike with no concerns whatsoever apart from wishing that i'd ditched my Tech X2s sooner. Hope's look great but lack power and feel. Shimano work out of the box, take no maintenance and stop you on a sixpence

I went from Hope Mono 4's to Shimano XT and Saints on my bikes and never looked back.

Winstanleys have hope race with 50% off so £95 each but you can get xt for around £66 from rose so still alot cheaper & the xt do have more power.

The xt's are fantastic i dont think you would regret getting them not at rose bikes prices

If you want a brake to last the life of your bike buy hopes because of the spares availability. If you want a cheap brake that works well and can accept that when a seal goes its scrap then buy shimano

This.

TJ +1

Hope still suply spares to the C2 (or did when I needed new seals) so I'd have no wories of getting new parts in 5/10/15 years for them.

Shimano's new brakes may be more powerfull, but (IME and others) they fail in winter as the oil turns to wax and the seals suffer (power seems fine once they've thawed out, but my rear one absorbs water).

It's a bit like cheep far eastern lights, they're better, but in the long term will fail sooner. But by the time they fail somethign even newer and more awesome will be arround rendering the old british built ones obsolete.

Left field option; Avid? Apart from being a PITA to bleed they seem ok.

Avids are shite ! Rubbish to bleed, rubbish to change pads, rubbish !
Buy British, buy Hope !

Hope still suply spares to the C2 (or did when I needed new seals) so I'd have no wories of getting new parts in 5/10/15 years for them.

FAir enough, but at £66 for cutting edge technology why would you want to run a 15 year old brake. I have a set of C2'sin the loft, but im not thinking "oh jolly ho, i can get a new half caliper, get that going and get it on my new carbon Blur"
Surely you would go for something that works from new.

Have you ever seen a shimano spares catalogue either? Everything under the sun is available, getting hold of it may be a different matter mind you

I been using shimano xt775 for few years now on both bikes

No probs so far and a doddle to bleed

Magura.........brillant better thans both hope or shimano imho

Everything under the sun is available, getting hold of it may be a different matter mind you - surely a contradiction? A catalogue full of every part made may look great but it's a chocolate fire guard if you can't actually get hold of any of the parts. Japanese motorbikes were the same late 70s/early 80's. You could find lists of every part of any bike, but unless you wanted a light bulb/indicator/brake or gear lever/ cable you were stuffed most of the time (in my experience).

Sad to say as mush as I like to use as much Hope kit as possible, or other UK, I think XT's will be for me next purchase (especially if Rose maintain their prices).

Been running XT's for 9 months now & they've been great. Powerful, no brake rub or squealing & very easy to change pads too. Can't see any point in changing them to Hope from a practical point of view, but Hope products do have the bling factor & just look like such a nice upgrade that I probably would be tempted if I had a few spare quid burning a hole in my pocket.