Do many people still ride them these days? Have shimano etc passed them out in terms of performance? I remember back in the day, the mini was the brake to have. Now looking at the CRC website, Hopes are way down the page of bestselling discs. Are they just a niche thing that some people buy to be a bit different.

Side content – I am considering new brakes in the next 6 months or so.

Where have you been for the last six months 🙂

Explain please?

The topic of Shimano brakes vs alternatives, or a variation thereof, comes up about eight times a day.

Clearly I don’t log on to here enough then.

Better than they’ve ever been. Shimano are great too these days, and cheap. Even Avid have stopped sucking. And you can buy top end formula for buttons so you don’t ever need to look at their cheap shite. It’s a glorious day to be alive!

(Magura are still weird)

When the stock brakes die on the bikes I buy i replace with Hope!

If Hope brake prices were always heavily discounted by retailers such as CRC, Wiggle and Merlin, they would be as popular as Shimano etc.

Fortunately, that doesn’t happen and Hope Technology are able to make the profit they deserve. Long may it continue.

(Magura are still weird)

And Hayes!? 😀

Yeah I’m happy for them in a way that they can reap the top prophets. Wouldn’t say no to a flash sale on them either though!

Hope on both main bikes, have bought Shimano XT for new project as they where part of a cheap group set and hard to justify Hope on 3 bikes.

SRAM Guides are definitely worth putting on your list. Genuinely good brakes and so much easier to bleed than the old avids (if you have to shorten a hose etc)

The oem versions go for sale on here regularly, taken of new bikes to accommodate the riders preferred option.

You can get a fantastic price that way.

There’s 2 sets of Guides in the For Sale forum right now…. No, not being sold by me!

What Postierich said. If it’s a custom build then straight to Hopes. Straight forward to work on, spares readily available if you need them & great service from the guys in Barnoldswick. British. Sometimes it’s worth paying that little bit extra. (Not so sure about purple and orange anodising though.)

(Not so sure about purple and orange anodising though.)

That’s kinda what I was thinking myself 🙄 . If they came in red or gold or gunmetal or something like that, I’d be all over them.
Unless the orange ones look more gold than orange.

I’ll definitely look into them IF my year 2012 Formulas ever die.

Magura’s are great. They always just seem to work great. Piece of piss to bleed and nice long lever for using with gripshift.

Magura are decent brakes. However, have you ever had to deal with them ftom s customer service point of view?! Shockingly bad! Vowed never to buy from them again.

TBH it’s quite hard to find brakes that aren’t pretty good, about the only choice you have to make is which lever you like the feel off, and how easy it is to change pads.

I just finally bit the bullet and splashed out on a new pair of Hopes. They are lovely. Got the E4 X2 (i think) and they have 2 nice little dials so you modulate bite point and reach point. If I could afford them on other bikes I would. But have settled with XT on other bike which are fine (and also allow a bit of modulation). But when you want something special and have a spare £250, I’d recommend a pair of Hopes.

Hope are great brakes always have been only have one set now which is X2 on a Hummer they are 7 years old.
What Hope also do now is you can send your old brakes back to them and they service everything and add new parts pads/pistons etc for £50 an end cheaper than my LBS can do which sent this guys 10 year old brakes back the other day and were back in a few days top stuff.

ibnchris – sounds like you’ve got Tech 3 levers and either X2 (dual piston) or E4 (quad piston) calipers. Both are excellent.

I agree with comments about purple and orange. I feel Hope could sell more if they were a bit smarter when it comes to colour choices. They shouldn’t have stopped doing gold and I wish their gunmetal didn’t look like greyish blue, and was just a nice dark grey.

TBF if someone offered me a pair of brand-new-in-box 10 year old brakes for £100 I’d tell them to bugger off! It’s a cool service but things have moved on a long way.

Removed some XT brakes (hate the short levers) off Remedy and replaced them with Hope Tech 3 x2 a few months ago. So much better modulation and feel back through the levers. I’d put them on all my bikes if a could.

7 year old brakes, lever clamp snapped due to fatigue from me overtightening it. CRC, £20 later, sorted. Gets my vote.

I’ve had trouble with contamination on them though and I have not been able to rule out some kind of micro leakage issue, even though it seems improbable. However a go on my wife’s far less used bike reminds me how good they are when they’re not contaminated.

[Magura are decent brakes. However, have you ever had to deal with them ftom s customer service point of view?! Shockingly bad! Vowed never to buy from them again.]

Hi Dalesjoe,

Please explain. I was looking at getting a set of Magura MT7 or MT5 brakes and would be interested in your experiences.
TA!

I run Hope Tech 3 levers on both bikes, X2 (dual piston) on my HT and E4 (quad piston) calipers on the FS.

Did Afan, the Wall, and BPW this weekend on the FS and at no time did I feel the need for better brakes and most importantly (for me) did I at any time feel like they’d let me down. Good to have confidence when trying a BPW red/black for the first time!

I think most of the brakes are now very similar in performance but it’s mostly down to budget and preference. I’ve had the X2s on 3 bikes now over 5 years and done very minimal maintenance so for the cost that seems reasonable.

Agree on the colours as I always just go with black!