Brakes – Sram Guide vs various Maguras?

Further to a previous thread I posted, I’ve decided the Shimano Deore brakes I have aren’t good enough on one of my bikes. I’ve ruled out them having any Shimano calliper seal dramas – they just don’t have the bite I want. Note these are m535s not the current version which are much more powerful as I understand it.

I’ve decided to sell them and get some different brakes – looking for eBay bargains at the moment.

Sram guide R’s seem to be plentiful and I know what they’re like as I’ve got them on my other bike. So I’m torn between watching patiently for a set at a decent price, or whether to look at maguras (I’m not too keen to buy more shimanos or formula).

Noticed a few MT5’s and MT4’s coming up. They look like they come with long 2 finger style levers but that’s not an huge issue unless as long as they have enough power for 1 fingered braking.

Has anyone got either of these Magura models and got any experience within Shimano / Guide brakes to advise on how they compare bite wise? I particularly want a front brake that you can stoppie / endo with 1 fingered – but still want some modulation (hence ruling out current Shimano brakes).

Not sure what your budget is but the MT Trail Sport are a relatively cheap option. They come with the 1 finger lever and they are MEGA powerful!

Budget is sub £100 so I’m looking at second hand stuff mostly – none of the trail brakes are coming up at the moment.

There are quite a lot of Guide R coming up with light use as they’ve been swapped out for Hope brakes where the seams were oem fitted to a lot of bikes it would seem.

Just Magura curious I guess….

Hey Joe, just sent you a message.

I went from Deore to MT5 up front and MT4 rear, and have found them to be great, delivered cost was £125

Swapped from Shimano to magura mt4 then mt6.
Really like them plenty powerful .
One finger breaking is not a problem.
The lever is quite chunky compared to a Shimano lever so that take a little getting used to.
But they feel really nice.
They also come with tons of spare barbs, olives and bolts as well as fluid etc. If you buy new.
The lever body is quite big so don’t sit as nicely with the shifters as Shimano do but it just takes a little more fiddling.

MT Trail Sport is on my hot list of things to try.  I really like the sound of them, and they’re MMX friendly which is important to me.  The lever on the longer bladed MT 4&5 can be swapped out for the shorter more angular one if wanted, but by the time you’ve done this you might as well have bought the Trail Sports.

Guides are good, but the Guide R is very much the bottom of the heap. The lever is internally different to both the other models, being far simpler and missing the swing link.  No necessarily less power, but far less control.  That said, from a Shimano background it might actually be preferred over the highly modulated RS and RSC.  There’s no shortage of power with  properly working Guides, but you can probably reckon on the lever stopping about halfway to the bar with progressively less gentle scrubbing before that.

In the end someone offered a good deal on guide R’s so I’ve gone for those.

i tried finding deals on Magura mt5’s / trails but failed. Did find an mt5 new for the front on eBay for £35 but couldn’t find anything suitable for the back. Plus the guides have really nicely shaped lever blades compared to the magura mt5 I think – I’d have needed the trails for the nicer lever as mentioned above.

if this had been for my main bike I’d have probably had a go at the trails but it’s for a cheapie bitza bike I use on the local pump track etc.

i know what the guide r feels like as I have them on mtb aeris with 200/180 discs and they work great for me. I had the previous guide rs with the nicer lever action and the lever felt a bit more expensive (less wobble in the pivot) but aside from that I’ve not noticed any real difference in hard use.