Hope brake fanbois, you won’t want these

Mine are still great after a year!
Just built up another bike with some Shimanos and they feel seriously underpowered in comparison

I had a good look at my brakes last night and couldn’t see any evidence of leaking. The annoying thing is the floating rotors. They’re both just a tiny bit out of true which makes it impossible to get them running silently.

My new front brake is fine, I did finish off a set of the green pads in the rear after some Torridon bog snorkelling though, I got 300km out of them! This place eats pads for breakfast!

I’ve said a couple of times already but we’ve got 3 sets of of Tech 4 E4’s and, touch wood, haven’t any issues. Oldest nearly a year old, newest maybe 6 months.

For those experiencing issues.

How brass a neck do you have ?. I’d press Hope for some sort of disappointment offsetting freebie 🙂

So I had zero issues with my brakes in my 2 week trip with about 5000m of descending and 200km.

Just pulled apart my spare tech 4 lever (which I might add, is a literal 5 minute job!) and the main seal has a bit of a nick in it so that’s why it wasn’t holding pressure.

I’ll get a replacement master cylinder/seal kit ordered and it’ll go on my hardtail.

. I’d press Hope for some sort of disappointment offsetting freebie 🙂

Good idea. If mine start leaking I want trade pricing on a HB.916.

Hope’s staff purchase pricing is literally the only thing I miss about my old life in the bike trade.

Sadly I was in Wharny today and they were working perfectly. I do need a bleed kit for them though so I can keep them in good order.

I’ll get a replacement master cylinder/seal kit ordered and it’ll go on my hardtail.

They used to have a tool to help you get the piston back into the cylinder without damaging the seals. it was a small alloy tube you loaded the piston into, placed it against the cylinder opening and pushed the piston in. It pretty much held the seals in a bit so they wouldn’t catch on the lip and get nicked.
I must admit I havent sen one with any sort of kit for many a year, and maybe it was limited to the early 90’s brakes, so the ones I have wouldnt fit the newer brake bores.

But the idea/concept of how it works does seem a good idea given the initial fitting of the piston seals into the cylinder is fraught with the risk of catching the edge.

GOOD NEWS

Brakes have completely failed today. 6 days ago they were brilliant, though felt oddly spongy after the short drive home.
Checked and aimed for a quick bleed last night, no air came out. Still full to the brim with fluid.

Farmer John’s today and felt spongy again after getting here, little fiddle and got working ok. 2 runs, feeling spongy again and more travel on the lever. Bike upside down to have a look at the caliper and no obvious leaks. Back on its wheels and suddenly the lever goes all the way to the bar and no brake at all. Back is almost the same but still grabs a little bit.

Very poor, there was another couple of lads here who came to get their brakes sorted at the dirt factory shop. Tech 4 V4 with exactly the same issue.

I’ll be getting in touch with hope tomorrow, screams to me there is an issue with the levers.

You’d think with those symptoms there must be air in the system.

I’m home and giving them a bleed now. Seems to be plenty of air in the back brake. What I don’t understand is why it suddenly became an issue after multiple rides out.

Have you had the bike on its side when transporting it? That would do it. Had similar with my tech 3 recently. On its side in the car for days on holiday then when I got it out to ride the back brake pulled to the bar. I wound the reach and bite point all the way out pumped it back to life. Bled it recently and there was a crazy amount of air in it. Felt totally fine before though as it’s always upright.

That’s exactly what has happened. First few times riding with them it’s been local so the bike has always been upright. Monday we drove to a local hill and when we got home the front was crap.
Drove to farmer John’s today and started off ropey, bit of fiddling got it ok but then put the bike upside down to check the caliper (started getting crap) and then when put back upright it was gone to absolutely nothing.
Got back home and the back had done the same.

I’ve just bled them both properly, lots of air. Didn’t do this prior to riding just did it from the lever as I expected them to be good from the factory.

Hopefully they stay ok, I’ll probably leave it a few days and then put it upside down for a while and see what happens.

Interesting thread. Had the exact same issues with the calipers on my Tech 4 V4s (and one of the levers was faulty too). Had to return them to Hope, they replaced a lever body and caliper seals. When I got the back the lever was ok, but the caliper piston leaked again after a few rides.

The front caliper pistons had then also started leaking. Hope sent me a seal and piston kit as I wanted to ride quickly. I replaced all seals and all pistons (didn’t notice anything wrong with them either), and lo and behold, after a few rides leaking again.

Hope acted as if they’d never seen this before. Apparently they have though, reading through this thread. I’ve returned them for a refund. Quality control absolutely terrible.

Also, something else weird I noticed: the T4 lever has quite the wandering bite point. Or mine did at least. Squeeze it a few times in succession relatively fast, and the bite point moves out away from the bars by more than a centimeter. Quite noticeable. Wait a second, and the bite point is back further in again, where it originally started. Etc, etc. Very consistently so. Super annoying.

I’m getting a gobbling noise from mine currently but no noticeable power loss. It feels/sounds like pulsing caused by the rotor shape (hope floating) causing variable bite from the pads. Going to swap to the red pads and see if it goes away.

Anybody getting issues with losing lever pressure when bike is transported or stored anything other than bolt upright?

Following on from last week’s issue of brakes not working even slightly, did a full bleed and got a lot of air out the system. Hence I didn’t contact hope thinking all would be well.

Today, after not using them since said bleed 7 whole days ago, I’ve got the bike out to test it. Turned upside down, press lever a couple of times and the lever goes straight to the bar. I’ve since read that this shouldn’t be done with any brake. But I’ve done it with every brake I’ve ever owned and never once had an issue. Can’t be drawing air in once all fastened as there is no sign of leakage. Unless the process of putting the top cap of the reservoir back on also dumps loads of air in I’m at an absolute loss. This basically means I won’t be able to transport the bike anywhere for fear of any trapped air that I can’t bleed out finding it’s way out of its trap and causing me some issues.

Unless the process of putting the top cap of the reservoir back on also dumps loads of air in

Hope’s instruction to roll the rubber over the master cylinder’s full reservoir is specifically to avoid air getting in and should prevent the problem you are having. If you have air in there then you have a problem either with the process followed or the brake.

It definitely sounds like people have air in the master cylinder reservoir- so it’s not in the “active” fluid that’s doing the braking, and it doesn’t get pulled in usually in normal use as it’s on top, but once the bike’s on its side or upside down it gets in. These all basically come down to faulty bleeds, but some brakes are much harder to get a perfect bleed than others, or have weird additional requirements to prevent it. Anything motorbike-style ie with a removable top is far more likely to get it than anything you bleed enclosed (ie most dual-syringe bleeds).

It’s a bit of a work around, but if transportation is the problem, cut some sections of inner tube or similar and tie the levers in a closed position.

That way, the active fluid is separated from the reservoir.

(Use a pad spacer if removing wheels)

I’m pretty sure that’s exactly the issue, air in the reservoir going back into the system and causing problems. I’ve done 6 brakes bleeds on the Tech 4 E4 and X2 combinations and they seem very sensitive to how you do it.

I’ve had some success with bleeding them off the bike, with brake pads out and a thick bleed block placed in the calliper. The. followed by topping up the reservoir until overflowing and rolling on the rubber diaphragm in the direction they show on the videos. You lose some fluid, and it spills everywhere but it’s the only way I’ve found to keep the reservoir totally full. It stops any air getting in at all.

So far, so good. All the brakes have a good lever feel and seem totally consistent. The Hopes are definitely more work to bleed than some, but I’ve been bleeding motorbike brakes for years so the process actually baffles me less than messing around with syringes.

I can press my levers on both my trp dh evo and magura mt7 with the bike upside down and they fedl great I can then flip the bikes back over and they still feel great ,I can transport the bikes in my car in any orientation I desire and they work great ,none of the above was possible with any of my 5 sets of faulty hopes .when I did send them back to hope I asked them to make sure they were bled correctly from them, when I got them back simply turning the lever upside down and having the caliper raised caused the lever to loose all power, this is completely unacceptable.
I’m a massive hope fan and have used there previous brakes with great success but the new tech 4 is absolutely joke.
They still look insane but just wish they would work .
I’ll place this comment here that they at some point in the near future recall them .

Following my last post up there about all of ours being great, the rear on my hardtail is doing the same as ta11pau1’s with the leaver pulling to the bar slowly. As soon as you release it there’s bite again.

Did replacing the seals sort it @ta11pau1?

Going to try a bleed and if that doesn’t work they’ll be going back to Hope.

I thought that my rear was going on the blink with the lever pulling to the bar, but it turned out that the pistons had started to push out unevenly as the pads wore. After a little fiddling with a screwdriver it’s right as rain, and so easy to do with the new slippery pistons. might be worth a go for anyone worrying about their fancy brakes.
Ps. They work so bloody well!

Did replacing the seals sort it @ta11pau1?

Initial impressions they seem to appear so, yes. It’s now fitted to my hardtail, haven’t been for a ride on it yet but it’s holding pressure.

Thanks, it’s a bloody bizarre feeling when it’s sinking to the bar as you descend. I’m going to give it a bleed, though doubt it’ll sort it, if not Hope can have a look for me.

Should probably leave it, might teach me to drag the brakes less 😂

So just to follow up on my issue. I decided to take the master cylinder to bits and have a look myself and sure enough, there was a small nick in the primary seal, just like ta11paul. Ordered a couple of seals so I’ve got another back up, fitted, bled and all working as it should again.

It’s a pain in the arse but at least they’re really easy to work on and the replacement bits are cheap.

Has anyone got the new/latest v3 one up remote to fit directly on to the hope tech 4 e4 lever? Or is it a band on only scenario? Can’t see anything on google to suggest it’s doable but thought I’d ask here

Im getting a bit of squeaking off the front. Only got the front fitted at the mo so thats annoying. Possibly the alignment.
Only did the loose fit, squeeze lever, tighten it well up but it spun freely so i think alignment wise its ok. Mine is the Tech 4 lever on the tech 3 V4 so without the stainless pistons.
Certainly works well, but as reported you need to put more pressure on the levers than you would with say shimano, but it feels like theres plenty of power there and i’ve yet to really squeeze he lever hard.

Overall the lever has good feel to it.

Has anyone got the new/latest v3 one up remote to fit directly on to the hope tech 4 e4 lever? Or is it a band on only scenario? Can’t see anything on google to suggest it’s doable but thought I’d ask here

Yep, you need the base dropper lever with no clamp, then you’ll need the Hope tech 4 SRAM shifter mount.

Best lever out there IMO, light action and you only need to press it a tiny amount for it to actuate.

Ahhh brilliant!!! Your a star!

yeah I had a feel of the new v3 lever today on someone’s and it felt so much smoother than mine on the same one up post!

Much lighter action than the v2 – just didn’t want the band on version keep it neat

so just buy the v3 dropper remote on its own then purchase a hope tech 4 sram adaptor  and it all just bolts on no messing?!? I assume the adaptor is an official hope one?

https://rushcycles.co.uk/m87b0s666p12441/HOPE-Tech-4-Sram-Direct-Mount-Shifter-Mount-HBSP426

just to confirm is it this one? Obviously left hand side version?

Yeah that’s the one, then the dropper lever described as ‘no clamp’ and you’re sorted. The Hope mount bolts to the tech 4 lever, then the dropper lever to the mount.

I’m on the same One Up / T4 set up as above, works a treat.

Excellent info @tallpaul appreciate that, thank you

and great @razorazoo great follow up info glad it’s all working shall get it all ordered 👍

I just put this on another thred, my very noisy Tech 4 V4’s that work perfectly otherwise went pretty much silent yesterday after soaking the pads with water. So now am really confused as traditionally wet pads are noisy????

are you using the greens, I definitely find them a bit noisy, the reds are fine tho

I’ve had trouble with the green pads that came fitted in some V4’s.
I didn’t do the install so can’t say for sure but I think the pads may have been contaminated when the brakes were fitted to a new bike.
Tried to clean them up and also used fire on them but they still squeal like a stuck pig when they get really hot.

Same brakes work fine with red and purple pads in.
V4’s with 2.3 rotors.

are you using the greens, I definitely find them a bit noisy, the reds are fine tho

Yes green pads not tried the red yet. Started as a chirp and built over the weeks to a screech. Now silent after soaking in water. Bizarre! Wonder if they will stay silent?

How many spare sets of pads do you reckon I’ll need for 10 days of riding in the Alps? Non bike-park stuff, more backcountry riding, but we will be doing the mega route on one day, so plenty of descending!

I killed a barely worn set of green Hope pads in Torridon on a single, particularly boggy and wet ride.

I’ve got fresh pads in now, with 2x spare sets, all green pads. I’ll also take 2x sets of the purple e-bike pads, and might stick them in the rear as I know I’ll probably dragging the rear brake a lot!

Are the master cylinders all the same on the Tech 4 brakes?

I’ve currently got a set with X2 flat mount calipers but thinking of trying some E4’s for a new build. It would save a healthy chunk of change if I can just swap the calipers rather than buying complete brakes.