Deore or xt brakes???

Probably been answered a million times but in your guys professional opinion, is it worth the extra £’s for xt? I only ask as the deore gets brilliant write ups that make the xt write ups look just ok?

Iv got a 2013 zesty 214, love it, but it’s got the rubbish avid elixir 1 brakes on it. Tbf, they’ve not had anything go wrong in that time, but 3 weeks of it sitting in garage, and today the rear brake is stuck on. Iv bled it to the best of my limited ability but it’s still not right and Iv never really been very impressed by them. They are ok. But that’s it. And I’m all for a bit of upgrading…. And I like shiny things!

My local bike shop will do me a complete brakeset… XT front and rear, with XT rotors, fitted for £200. Which I think is pretty good??? The same but in deore, is still £140. Can’t help but think I’ll kick myself saving £60 and wishing I’d gone for xt?
Any advice? Or experiences good or bad?

Thankyou

Probably been answered a million times

Not far off 🙂

Think this might be the most helpful thread for you.

Brilliant! Thanks! I did search bit didn’t find that on the first few pages so gave in!!! Thanks for doing my lazy trawling’!

This was a good bit…

“
XT brakes are great, often touted as ‘all the brake you’ll ever need’ (DH excluded obviously) but they look identical to Deore level stuff.
They have some nice features like tool free reach adjust which the Deore stuff doesnt have.
Deore brakes are probably the best value component in MTB-ing, for about £75 you get a front and rear set that will be bled and ready to go….and they’ll be more than good enough for 99% of the riding we all do (DH excluded again of course!).”

Personal preference then it seems. Think I might just spend the extra £60…. I like shiny!!! Iv Thor the money today so why not. It’s the only upgrade i will have made on the bike so gonna make it a nice one!

crc have got deore brakes front and rear, sans discs for 60 bangers. Thats got to be tempting.

Just got a set for when my avids next piss me off badly enough for me to go fully mental at them and bin them, with hammers. We all know it’ll happen.

Can’t comment on deore vs xt as I’ve never tried xt, but the deores on my hardtail have been faultless (6 months old)

My son has Deore, I have xt and slx. Out of the 3, I reckon the slx win – you can replace the split pins for the pads with bolts for a few quid and then they are just about same as xt with a bit less useless lever adjustment.

No difference between xt and deore for normal people…apart from the shiny shiny.
They both work very well…personally, having xt at the moment and my son having deores…if I was looking to buy again..id buy deore without a doubt.

Just got back from my first ride on SLX brakes. Apart from the stupidly long hoses out of the box I’ve no complaints at all. Loads of power and as long as you wind the levers out a bit on the little adjuster thing you can easily modulate it all through one finger.

Hmmmmm, spanners in the works. Iv got mates… Running both. I’m gonna see what they both say, maybe have a go…. And see if the shiny shiny gets the better of me over the sensible.

I keep finding cheap bundles, like said on crc, but when you look into it the levers are all arse about face! Guess that’s why they are cheap. Think it’d be a bit dangerous swapping front and rear round

Why not just buy deores from CRC and a pair of discs for under £100/and fit yourself? The hoses are on correctly.

The latest deore in that shiny murdered out black I think look better than xt. I’d take deore over xt, but not zee which are easily the best of the bunch.

You’ll need to shorten the hoses anyway so it makes no odds to swap levers at the same time.

SLX imo for the easier reach adjustment and the ceramic pistons as XT.

Be careful buying the Deore front and rear set from CRC, I made the mistake of not reading the description properly.

When buying the set the hoses are 740mm/1300mm and when you buy them individually the hoses are 1000mm/1700mm.

Got Zee’s XT, SLX and Deores. Bought the pins from Wiggle and a tap from ebay for a couple of quid , so sorted the pins on the Zee’s ( already tapped), deores and SLX for not a lot. Zee’s seem a bit lacking. Just changed the pads for Disco Kevlars and seem a lot better. Deores running Uber floater discs, same as the XT’s. If I had to decide on value/ performance, then Deore is top. Know of a fat bike rider of this parish riding Deores in Spain with Ciclo and didn’t have any issues, so ceramic pistons don’t seem needed.

I’ve got both. Performance wise they’re very similar but the XT’s have a better finish, more features and more robust construction. Depends what your priorities are to be honest but the XT’s are the better product.

I also have both Deore and XTs. Hardly any difference in stopping or weight.(Excluding rotors).
XT obviously look a bit more trick and have lever and pad adjusters that most people don’t use.
One selling point for XT is that the new ones have “I Spec B ” adaptors meaning that if you have a compatible XT shifter you can clamp the shifter onto the brake and have a single clamp on the bars. That does leave a bit more room on the bars, but is not a massive difference TBH. XT is a luxury but does look nice… The Deore brakes are amazing value.

^^^ my sons Cube Acid with Deore groupset came standard with ispec..

Yeah, my mates Deore spec Parkwood has I spec.

XT is a luxury but does look nice… The Deore brakes are amazing value.

That’s it really although if you compare XT’s to other brands they’re great value too. I’d have liked to have bought Hope instead of the XT’s but couldn’t justify the extra cost atm.

Can’t help but think I’ll kick myself saving £60 and wishing I’d gone for xt?

You’ll be reminded of the £60 or whatever you saved every time you brake

I’ve the XTs on my bike and my wife has the SLX on hers. The only difference that I can see is that the XTs have a “bite adjustment screw” which I’ve never touched.

I have both and I prefer the deores.

I run XT on my HT and I’ve had them previously on a FS Ghost. They are certainly powerful, but can be a little grabby. Of course, its nice to have a reach adjust dial rather than allen key adjust but a) I only tend to adjust my levers once and b) I carry a multi-tool so it isn’t exactly a hardship to have to use this instead. The freestroke adjust is, for me, pointless. I don’t even think it does anything.

I have a set of deore on my specialized enduro so its a big, fast bike. If anything, I prefer the modulation of the deores over the XTs and have never wanted for more stopping power, even after a day at Antur Stiniog.

I was skeptical (read snobbish) about getting a set of deore but I wouldn’t hesitate to get another set or recommend them.

That said, I did try some SRAM guides at the weekend and they were better again 🙂

I have both and have no issues with either. A pair of XT’s can be had for about £110 if you look around online (deore’s even cheaper) and it’s no hassle fitting them yourself.

I have owned both and prefer Deores- I find the Servowave adjustment spoils the feel of the brake and makes it more difficult to get a short lever throw with the lever close to the bar because of the action of the cam. I was really disappointed when I got a set of Deores that they felt how I wanted my more expensive XTs to feel!