Avoiding Shimano, have had too many leaky unserviceable calipers go in the bin. Want something that is unlikely to go wrong, but when it does I can buy a service kit and DIY it back to life. Also want moah powah babeh, moving up from 2pot Deore M6000.

My findings:
– Hope E4 fit the bill but are out of budget, even with tech 3 levers
– SRAM Guide RE get a great write up, but I remember my old Avid Elixirs were a total faff to look after and need reassurance that these won’t be the same
– Magura MT5 tick a lot of boxes, but the levers sound flimsy
– Clarks C4 look excellent and get decent reviews, are they too good to be true? Anyone got these? Haven’t found any performance figures to tell me how they compare to my existing brakes, they could be no more powerful for all I know.
– Tektro Gemini are a bargain basement wildcard, any experience of these in the wild?

What have I missed, and does anyone know of any great deals? Open to second hand offerings as well.

TIA

TRP not an option? I am really impressed with my Slate 4s

Buy Hope Tech 4’s from somewhere that uses Klarna.

Brakes for life.

SLX (or whatever levers you have) with Magura MT5 calipers

The new Sram DB8s – not the prettiest, but they are powerful enough to slow down my beast of an ebike. (they’re not like Avids as are mineral oil.)
https://www.lordgunbicycles.co.uk/sram-db8-disc-brake

– Tektro Gemini are a bargain basement wildcard, any experience of these in the wild?

They are surprisingly good!

Fitted to my rigid Stooge they do an excellent job of stopping, especially with the supplied 203mm/2.3mm rotors.

Issues are the old-fashioned clamps, and the fact the front hose was too short (only 800mm long). Luckily I had some spare Shimano hose and olives, which fitted fine, and they were a doddle to bleed.

However, for the £60 I paid for them from Merlin they’re brilliant.

Avid code RSC are 220 from stif including rotors

https://winstanleysbikes.co.uk/magura-mt5-pro-hydraulic-disc-brake-set

Mt5 pro? £200 all in including rotors and you get the fancy mt7 lever blades and calipers.

If you’re happy buying from Germany you can get a pair of MT5’s for about £110.
I have some on the full sus and when the Shimano deore 4 pots inevitably die on the hardtail thats what will replace them too.
Yeah the levers get slated. But I’ve never had any issues with them. And they are properly powerful brakes with very good modulation.

https://r2-bike.com/MAGURA-MT5-Set-Disc-Brake

Formula Cura review very well.

At that price the magura mt5pro is hard to beat

I’ve got the clarks c4 brakes on my pace build. Haven’t ridden it in anger yet, but they feel pretty decent. Hoping to get out this weekend, if I remember, I’ll let you know!

Having tried a lot and think Guide Res are probably the best bang for your buck. Mine have been completely hassle free which is nice after coming from shimano (lovely but micro leaks). Tredz were doing them for £50 an end so half of your budget.

I’ve got deore 4 pots on one bike and also TRP slates on another, both great. TRP feel nicer. I’m 105kgs and they both stop me fine.

Also had Maguras  trail sports and I liked the levers, only flimsy if your a cack handed gorilla!

Are the slate evos still £100 at merlin?

MT5 pro would be my choice, the standard ones are bonkers but just need a shorter lever.

Are the slate evos still £100 at merlin

Been oos for a while.

Plan B look at teh classifieds on here or Pinkbike for someone who wants to change after getting a new bike.

Someone who like Shimano but teh bike came with AN-Other brand. New good spec brakes, lower price.

I’d buy these for £220 – that’s both front and rear brakes and front and rear rotors to match:

SRAM Code RSC Brakeset 200/180mm w/ MMX Clamp

Total bargain.

Guide RE have plenty of power as they’re the older gen Code caliper with a guide lever. But vs the codes I linked above the lever feels flimsy and has a bush in it that goes a bit wobbly over time and the caliper doesn’t have a bleeding edge connection (which make bleeding totally leak free at the caliper end).

I did a build last autumn and managed to get Hope E4 with Tech 3 levers in mint condition for £180 delivered. They’ve been brilliant.

SRAM Guide RE

Is the answer. Lots of folks will no doubt regale you with horror stories, but really I’ve had a pair on a couple of bikes for at least 3 years now, and they’ve been utterly forgettable, which includes re-routing them internally onto aa near rear, and bleeding them. The pad change can be a little awks occasionally, as the pad fitting is tight, but other than that they’re boringly reliable, easy to live with, have sufficient power, and need next to no maintenance

Had Guide RE on my two previous bikes, used over 4 years roughly 8K miles, I found them to be reliable and for the most part faff free. I’m not so convince the Code R’s on my current bike are going to hold up as well, even if they an easier brake to bleed.

Second hand Hopes to fit in budget, or just save a bit more and buy them new. Spend an extra £100 now and save the faff in the long run

Another happy Guide RE user (and a former Avid user and therefore hater).

The added bonus of buying Guide RE brakes second hand are that you’ll find them very cheap and unused in the classifieds because some people still equate all Sram brakes to Avids.

For reference, see the post directly above!

in terms of offers:

Sram G2 RSC inc 200mm rotors (so long as the hose length works).

£199

https://www.cotic.co.uk/item/outlet_new_brakes_SRAM_G2_RSC_rt

I got formula cura4 with discs from eBay UK for 249 euro. Seller vintagebike89.

Guide RE £106 a set (need bars clamps but easy to get)

https://www.orangebikes.com/shop/sale/bike_components/sram_guide_re_brakes

If buying the REs from Tredz, be ready to spend 5mins a caliper making sure the pistons move freely. I’ve just got a set and you can tell they’ve been sitting on a shelf for quite a while. Very quickly bit of work on the calipers and they’re now great

I wouldn’t even consider Tech 3 hopes against either of the Sram codes or MT5 Pros, I’ve had 3 or 4 sets of the hopes over the years and I’m much happier with the Maguras I’m running now.

Thing you’ve always got to consider with brakes like Hope and Formula (or especially Magura and Tektro TBH), is that if you do find yourself in say the Alps or just in darkest Wales and you do suddenly need pads or hose fittings. The bike shop you find will probably have SRAM parts, and it may not have the bits you need for more rarer/fancier stuff.

It’s not something that should put you off buying whatever you want, and just be a bit more prepared, but its the sort of stuff that I think about.

I have been very happy with MT5s for a while now. The levers are not flimsy, but there are fairly low torque settings for the bleed screw and bar clamps but that’s it really. The standard lever blades are long but can be set for 1 finger braking, depending on what shifters you are running. I found with a xt shifter in the right place, the lever wasn’t. So swapped the lever blades only to shorter ones and all is good. I also went to them from m6000s and they are a huge improvement.

nickc – surely everyone carries a spare set of pads regardless of brand?!

Oh sure, of course, but if you accidently pull a hose out, or I dunno, you smash a lever off or something? Rare events without a doubt, but in the past Magura support (for instance) in the UK has been next to nothing. It’s more likely that any shop you stumble across will have a bin of cast off Shimano or SRAM stuff, or will have likely worked on them, or stock pads and parts, (the pad for Code and Guide is the same)  for some of the others? Not so much.

Like I said, it shouldn’t stop you from buying what ever you want and just enjoying them, things like that are going to be one in a hundred type occurrences, but if they do happen…

Thanks all, some great posts here – glad to see I’m not the only SRAM sceptic having had Avids in the past 😂

It’s looking like it’s possibly between the Code RSCs and MT5 Pro sets, both of which come with discs. I reckon the Guide RE will come in at “not cheaper enough” once discs and clamps are accounted for.. I feel a spreadsheet coming on

You won’t need new rotors unless you’re wanting to change size or yours are worn

Matchmaker things are around £20 from Aliexpress at the moment

HTHs

2 question…do you want to ignore your budget and take a risk?

Hope V4 black/blue – £289.78 with code EXTRA10 at CRC.

Obviously pay on a credit card to protect yourself.

glad to see I’m not the only SRAM sceptic having had Avids in the past

Modern SRAM stuff is miles and miles away from Avids of the past. Quadra 21 were shit without a doubt, but like everything else, RockShox have moved on…

SRAM would be a good option, but buy and install the metal lever pistons. They’re only £10-£15 and save an inevitable headache later on because IME the plastic ones always swell eventually and ruin a ride.

Left of field option, a lot of these new chinese brands use mineral oil and you can buy just the calipers on ali-express. Anodized bling and shimano levers would be a tough combination to beat. Pickup some cheap spares/repairs shimano XT’s and use those levers.

I’ve got Avid Guide-R’s on one bike and a mish mash of shimano Deore touring* levers, 4-pot and 2-pot calipers (guess they were covid supply chain specials). MOAR POWAAAAAA is better in the car park test. But in the real world I jump between them and other than 30s twiddling with the bite point I never really notice them. Both bikes have the same 203/280 ice-tech rotors so more than enough stopping power.

*sounds like they should be awful but they do work, I guess it’s the physically longer levers.

Guide Re are really good value, you could probably pick up a pair for £100.

Definitely look at the Curas if you can get them in budget. They are excellent.
And if you do find yourself in darkest Wales, the UK distro is near Merthyr so you can always go there.