My Shimano Zee front brake has got seized pistons. I sent it back to CRC who have offered me a voucher (they were originally brought on a C2W scheme voucher 22 months ago) as they aren’t repairable.

This leaves me with the option of replacing just the front brake and having mismatching brakes, or selling my rear Zee and replacing both brakes. Stock availability is a big issue however.

So I could:

1. Sell the rear Zee and replace with a full set of Shimano XT brakes but the reviews seem to throw up a fair few issues with bleeds and fade after a couple of rides. I would be going from 4 pot to 2 pot but this would be a major issue I dont think

2. Buy a SLX M7100 front (2 pot) and a M7120 rear (4 pot) but just swap the callipers round to have the 4 pot on the front. Sell the zee rear. I think this works OK as they are both banjo connectors at the calliper so should be a relatively easy swap over at the calliper. This is prob my preference as the majority of the braking is done by the front and the SLX dont seem to suffer with the same issues.

I dont see many other options with stock availability and having to use the CRC voucher but any suggestions welcome.

Why not stick the working Zee caliper up front and put a four-pot SLX similar on the rear – or even a twin-pot one? Shimano brakes are kind of infinitely combinable, so you can mix and match levers and calipers to your heart’s content. They’re also pretty straightforward to work on, so even if you need to fit a new rear hose, it’s not exactly a big deal. W

Edit: ooops, sorry, I see you sent the complete brake to CRC, can you get the lever and hose back from them maybe? A Saint caliper is around £100 from Wiggle, bolt it on to your existing lever and hose if you can retrieve them.

Shimano brakes are kind of infinitely combinable, so you can mix and match levers and calipers to your heart’s content.

Yep. I have some old Saint levers on one bike and some newer SLX on another, with the 4-pot Saint calipers up front on both and the 2-pot SLX calipers on the back.

Yep. I have some old Saint levers on one bike and some newer SLX on another, with the 4-pot Saint calipers up front on both and the 2-pot SLX calipers on the back.

I have a sort of mongrel menagerie of various Shimano calipers and levers from different eras and groupsets spread across several bikes. The latest combo is GRX400 gravel / road levers with XT mountain bike calipers – works great.

I was hoping that I could get it back of them but I dont think that will be the case so I am kind of stuck.

I’d do what BWD says, but I guess CRC have retained the duff brake?

In which case, I’d get a single 4-pot Shimano Deore front brake unit and not worry about the mismatch with the Zee.

If you’d be happy with 2-pot brakes, CRC have Deore M615 cheap-ish at the mo.

Basically Deore seem to be more reliable than the higher-end Shimano brakes, and work just as well.

i’d stick with four pot either end if it was me as there a noticeable difference in power and feel between the two imho. also worth noting that Zee / Saint callipers have slightly bigger pistons than SLX / XT, enough that i noticed the difference in breaking on b=my e-bike when i swapped over to saints

which reminds me i’ve got a set of 4 pot SLX front & rear that are only c 10 rides old that i need to put up for sale if of interest OP if you decide to change both ends

Bikester have Zee levers in stock if it helps? They have calipers and hoses too if you wanted the full set but obviously you cant use a CRC voucher for it.

my XT’s were suffering from the variable bite point they are notorious for.

they just needed topping up, not even bleeding…