Magura Marta brakes – worth the money?

I don’t know much about Magura brakes, although one or two people who’ve had them seem to be keen. I would definitely have bought the new Hope mono mini replacement, but have read some bad reports about them being poor performance.
Anyway, The Magura Marta brakes claim to be very easy to blead, very light and the one or two reports I’ve read seem to give them the general thumbs up, but £440 for the new SL/storm is alot of money.

Any experiences, good or bad?

Ive got the SL’s & they are the best brake Ive used (Hope M4 & Shimano XT are the others Ive had)

Posted on my bother’s log in by mistake…..

(Now back as me)

I’d take Magura (Louises) over anything else, with Shimano a very close second.

Yes they are easy to bleed, but you do need the bleed kit (There’s a screw in nipple that you need in it) but they don’t need much attention.

Shimano are probably a tad easier to set up, but Magura have more power.

I liked Magura Louise’s so much I stuck them on both mountain bikes. 3 have been trouble free for the last 4 years. Once I found out how to bleed brakes properly the 4th one has been fine too.

Had some Hayes 9’s- Something broke internally
Jucy 5’s Seal went
Xt- perfect but sold on a bike
Slx also perfect.
Had some martas, they were perfect but I swapped them for louises as I liked the bite point adjustment.

One bike has a Louise and Slx on at the moment. They both work fine.

So thumbs up from me, I’ve had trouble sourcing pads locally sometimes, no problem if you keep some spares though.

Customer service was really good when I spoke to them and they sorted out my lack of bleeding skills:)

Sold my Marta’s on. Very underwhelming.

I got my Marta’s from an eBay seller in the states. Front & back with rotors came to about 250 including import duty etc. Only issue was having to swap the levers around.

EDIT: Several sets on the bay atm.

Sold my Marta’s on. Very underwhelming.

I wish I could get hold of some, or some Louises, secondhand. They’re as rare as rocking horse poo at the minute.

But look how many sets of Avids there are about! You can’t move for the damned things!

Martas here. On bike for 2 years (were 2nd hand then). Loads of use inc Two trips to alps, and on both trips have outperformed the Avids and Shimanos of others (as the Podster above will confirm). And I use/drag my brakes a lot (again as the Poddy one will confirm 😆 ). Not bad for a supposed XC race brake.

Yeah. Andy does brake a LOT! 😉

Give you £10 for those Martas mate, you know you wanna!!!! 😀 😉

Another vote for Martas. Have them on all my bikes. Fantastic brake and the SL rotors clear winter grit really well. Oldest pair 4-5 years old and still going strong.

what about ease of bleeding them? does anyone have the newer generation with easy bleed EBT system?

I’ve got Marta Sl’s on all my bikes. Very good brakes. Had Avid Juicy and Elixir but they got all swapped for Marta’s. They’re pricey but I guess German labourers won’t work for peanuts.

Got newer and older versions. New bleed system better. No need to take reservoir cover off and just plug syringe into it instead.

Louise BATs here …lots of power, good modulation and feel. I really like them.

What about fitting the calipers? are they easy to adjust to centre them on the rotor?. I’ve only ever had XT, which are quite simple to make minute adjustments to centre them. I tend to swap forks around fairly often see.

Marta’s here, only I have a problem with mine in that the rear inner pad pops out of the caliper and hangs down after a small drop. They pivot on one pin and I think the pistons are magnetic?

i just bought a pair of Marta Mag SL in the sale from cycle surgery (60% off!)

they are literally the best brakes i have ever used – came from a pair of XTs which i thought were good, but these are miles better. More modulation, much more confident feeling, lots of power (still on 160mm discs).

Mine came with Ti mounting hardware, which had quite a lot of locktite on which did make them a bit of a pain to align at first purely because they were so tight in the threads, but fine in the end.

pinches, were they post mount or IS from cycle surgery? and were there any adaptors included? was there any mineral oil included? and pads?

I was waiting for the SL 2011 Raceline limited edition, but might go for those Cycle Surgery 2010 Mags instead.

I have three sets of Marta SLs as I like them so much and one set of Louise on an AM bike, which perform great but I’ve got an annoying leak I can’t track down, so they need constant topping up.

POst mount, with IS adaptors, SL rotors, pads, fully bled ready to be fitted. Ti hardware mounting kit.

i have had magura for about 10 years all are excellent, i sold my martas sl as i preferred the louise bats, and the older louise fr just a bit more oompphh and control for little weight addition for me at 14.5 stone, personal preference, but martas are great and well worth the money.

Have Julie HPs on one bike and Louise on the other and they are ace!

I have a pair of magura louise 2009 for sale, £95 posted
Marta sl rear caliper – £25 posted

if anyones interested see pics HERE[/url]

and email me

p.s yes they’re awesome…keeping my martas on my now….ulp…..1 bike!

another user with Magura Louise’s BAT on both my rigid and AM bikes.

Have performed great over the last 3 years with no issues. Mine are the older bleed style where you have to take the reservoir off but i dont mind and find them easy to bleed and powerful.

i used magura marta and louise for years and really liked them, i now used shimano xt and slx which i prefare. although they seem very similar in performance