I currently have Hope V2 Moto’s on my DH bike, they work fine but I cannot get them set up the way I like. I have had them from new for about 4 years and have never been what I hoped they would.

I recently got XTs for my trail bike and love the lever feel and everything about them so was thinking of going Shimano on my DH bike too.

Does anyone run XT/SLX on their DH bikes? I am curious as the deals available on them are decent enough to warrant buying them new but how do they cope on DH runs?

I do like the saint brakes but I don’t like the M820 price tag (or the Zee’s price tag either). I was at Antur Stiniog yesterday and noticed a lot of riders using the old M810 Saint set ups. How do these compare to the new M820 in their performance? I have only ever heard good things about them so I would happily go down the 2nd hand route with them.

If anyone has moved from Hope V2s to Shimano’s or vice versa it would be great to hear your opinions

New XTs on mine, had older SLX on my old Bighit. I have XT on my normal bike aswell & I’ve ran new XTs in the alps where Ive been on the brakes for minutes at a time and no problems at all, couldnt see the point of spendign extra on the Zee’s. I think all the new style Shimanos are way better than the older style, the older saint gives you more pad surface area but they still use the old lever which is where the improvements have been made.

I thought the SLX had enough power for a dh bike but the pads are quite small so not sure how long they’d last.

There are many bods in the DH scene who use XT/SLX brakes on their bikes, especially if 99% of your riding is in the UK.

Have a browse of the forums over at Ride.io / Pinkbike

Personally, I still use my trusty old Mono6 Ti’s.

Good info regarding the SLX/XT!

I wish I could get on with my V2s, I have given tham plenty of chances but I just don’t.

Scruff – do you use the special ice tech rotors etc with your XT’s?

I know a few people who run the new deore’s on there DH bike. There is next to no difference between them and slx for me I’d prefer to spend less on the deore.

New style XT/SLX will certainly provide the power you need. Stick some Ice Tec pads in for a week in the Alps and job’s a good ‘un in theory.

Having said that, My new style XTs have been troublesome from the start, and have now finally packed in altogether. Madison won’t warranty them as they came from Germany. I’m pretty hacked off and will be getting some Hopes to replace them when I can afford. The XTs were so cheap from Rose that I can deal with the lack of warranty support.

i found that ropey old deores coped fine with the MegAvalanche, and i’m a brake dragging eejit.

no clever pads, no clever rotors.

I dont see the point for Ice tech rotors or pads on a (UK) DH bike where you’d use them for hard short stops not dragging them.

Forunateson09 I managed to get my Rose-ordered brakes warrantied by madison, they were horribly slow though. Never using rose or new shimano stuff again!

I’ve got 810 Saints on a bike- compared to the new XT’s they’re very switch like, but seem to have the ability to bring the bike to a dead halt almost instantaneously, though I’m not sure whether that’s just perception due to the not so great modulation.

Like Scruff says, any of the newer Shimanos are going to be fine for the UK.

Thanks for the comments – good to hear people running XT/SLX on their DH bikes. I am a bit more confident to go down that route now.

I don’t, but they’d be absolutely fine, as would most other decent modern brakes. (I used ancient Formula Oros til recently, always up for the job)