Ok im skint atm. but these guide r brakes, while the power and modulation seems good are not giving me confidence.

I spoke to the lbs in halifax and they offered to swap them for hopes at cost but this is more than i can get away with atm.

So im wondering if i can pick up some leavers with bite point adjust ability on the cheap and just swap the levers? Is this right, or will they still be poor. the issue im having is they feel fine with the leaver wound out but ive got small hands so it makes them hurt on long rides.

I’ll suggest a pair of guide re calipers as they will have loads more power.
Failing that selling yours and trying to source a set of zees as the levers suit small hands well. (my kids use deores with no issues… Ages 11-8-5)

So your issue is wound in for comfortable hands they bite too close to the bar perhaps? Buying levers is often a more expensive way to purchase or near the same cost as buying a full brake.

If staying with sram you need a guide or code rsc for bite point adjustment. The guide re wouldn’t necessarily solve your issue as they still have the same levers as the guide r. The guide r’s adds swinglink which may help (starts with pads further from the disc and moves them in much quicker) but doesn’t have bite point adjustment.

Personally I’ve not liked Shimano brakes – either how they modulate or the lever feel. I’d probably avoid the Deore / slx / xt brakes and try the Zees (as suggested above) if you want to give Shimano a go – they are meant to offer much better modulation than the 2 pot caliper.

If your guides are new ish you might get £80 for the pair on eBay if you sell those to help fund the next brakes.

Hope would also obviously offer good modulation but you probably want e4’s to offer similar power to the guides – but they are expensive.

Not sure if Magura might offer a more cost effective solution – something like the mt5 might offer loads of power and good modulation?

Given then calipers are essentially the same on all Guides, the levers are the weak points.

The Guide R lever being the budget model, is turd, in short.

The RS’s, or RSC’s will make them feel great. I don’t know what the differences are internally) externally they have more adjustments, but every set of Guide R’s i’ve ridden have been awful & every set of RS’s, RSC’s & Ultimates have been lovely.

I’d look for a second hand set of RSC’s, occasionally people sell them super cheap (there’s a set in the classifieds for just over £100 at the mo for example). If your R’s are nearly new, stick them on eBay for £80 and it won’t cost you much at all 🙂

You also need to regularly do the ‘pad advance’ procedure with the guide rs to keep the bite point from sneaking gradually towards the bars. Wheel out, clean caliper (optional), pump breaks to advance pistons (keeping pads in), space pads, repeat as necessary.

But as above – guide rs on my mrs bike need some regular love to keep them feeling good.

RSCs on mine – contact point adjust helps massively with this.

No issues with my Guide RS’s – had them 2 years. Change pads perhaps – race matrix are good and I’ve used these for over a year.

Given then calipers are essentially the same on all Guides, the levers are the weak points.

Guide RE are code callipers aren’t they?

The guide re is the old code caliper yes – bigger than the other guide callipers. Different to the current code though – I don’t think it’s a bleeding edge calliper.

I think there are some RSC’s on the for sale forum at the moment?

They come up pretty regular on the likes on pink bike too.

You probably won’t lose much money if you buy some slightly cosmetically “used” RSC’s and sell on your R’s if they are in good nick.👍

Are you using the centreline rotors?
I swapped mine for a set of Shimano SLX by accident ( I swapped wheels ‘cos I had a ripped tyre) and they felt loads better so kept ’em on permanently.

I had the same problem… they were ruining a brand new bike for me. I put them on ebay when the first set of pads wore out and put slx on..so much better and not so much money to spend taking into account the sale of the guides

What Hob Nob said…

Except I’ll elaborate… The lever differences are such when moving up from a Guide R…

RS – Gains Swing Link cam giving much better modulation, and much nicer forged lever blades replacing the cheap pressed ones.

RSC – Gains Swing Link, nicer forged lever blades, but also the Bite point adjustment too.

Ultimate – Gains Swing Link, Bite Point adjustment, but replaces the forges ally lever blades with carbon.

Guide R’s are pretty poo for sure, just changing to RS’s is a HUGE step up in performance and modulation! The RSC’s and Ultimates aren’t really worth the extra, but they’re lovely all the same.

You can get Guide RE for £80 an end and then sell yours on to get some money back. Probably the cheapest way of doing it

RE are more powerful but have the same lever as the R the op already has. Needs an rsc probably for the adjustability.

I have small hands and my REs are wound right in and have loads of power to stop the Levo. I have Saints on all the other bikes and its hard to tell the difference. I did have some Rs but they felt way underpowered.
Unless you want to throw a lot more money or buy second-hand there arent a lot of options out there

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F253755820103

Could try these for £85 plus p & p an end?

*cough* I have a set of guide RS for sale *cough*