What are good brakes nowadays?

My old Hope Minis need replacing after many years of saving my neck. So, what’s a decent non-silly-price brakeset to get? The Shimano SLX ones look decent value, any comments? Any good deals around?

Cheers.

Why do they need replacing? They are infinitely repairable / rebuildable.

Shimanos are an OK product but are not comparable – anything goes wrong with them they are scrap – no spares available

Why need replacing – they look tatty and I want somethin shiny and new.

I was going to agree with TJ (shudders) but the reason you give is perfectly acceptable. Why not so new hope brakes?

I’ll have ’em off you then 🙂

Think Green!

hope x2 are awesome

Sorry but the old ones will go onto the girlfriends bike. She never rides it though, but it’s part of a secret project to get a spare bike, my old bits trickle down onto her crappy bike without her really noticing until one day the frame is replaced and hey presto – new bike.

Yes, thinking about the X2 – they look very nice and all my Hope gear just keeps working for years.

If it really is value for money you want then buy shimano but if your drawn to shiney Bling over function then Hopes. Both work well Hopes make it clearer to the world that you have some disposable income….

I’ve been through 2 sets of permanently stuck calipers from SLX brakes in about 6 months.

If they jam, there’s nothing you can do, apart from get a new caliper. I’ve replaced them with formula k24s and I’m liking them so far.

all disc-brakes are very good – they’ve all got loads of stopping oomph (technical term).

if you keep your discs free from GT85 you’ll find very little difference in oomph between brakeset-A and brakeset-B. even if A is lots cheaper than B.

even more so when you’re off-road (where your brakes have lots more oomph than your tyres have grip)

paying more money doesn’t get you more oomph, just lower weight and more adjusting knobs and dials.

Good brakes are brakes that are still working after several laps of the ‘Puffer….

Good brakes are brakes where you don’t have to go through an elaborate “bedding-in” process which is impossible to do during a race.

There are no good brakes except drum brakes, and they’re not that good. 🙂

ahwiles – Member

…………….
paying more money doesn’t get you more oomph, just lower weight and more adjusting knobs and dials.

With hopes you get the infinite rebuildability and spares back up. Thats important to me. I have hopes on all my bikes and hope never to buy another brake. Reduce / reuse / recyle. Long life is important

have two sets of slx and think the are good lowish price, reliable and powerful brakes. recently bought some deores (latest one, can’t remember the model number) they feel at least as good as the slx but a good bit cheaper.

shimano slx/xt are good at first, but when something goes wrong you may aswell put them in the bin

I’ve had a few sets of Hope’s over the years, they look nice, but I’ve found them noisey (squeal squeal when damp) and the power is not a patch on some of the order brakes I’ve used. Not good when piling home from the village pub @ midnight!

The best brakes I’ve used for power are Shimano Saint’s. Got mine from here http://www.fawkes-cycles.co.uk/252/products/Shimano-Saint-Disc-Brake-Kit–M810-Post-Mount.aspx, but they’ve got none now 🙁 Worth the £300 bats, but not really panning out on your price front I guess.

I’ve got some Juicy Carbons on my main rig, these are great and if you can get them cheap as they are being discontinued http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=30193.

I paid £180 a brake for mine back in 2006 and you can get the pair for that. Bargain. The standard Juicy’s are scary cheap now, and I’m guessing the only difference is the weight.

Neil

started with hopes – had c2s for about 5 years no issues , bought e4s – burst a couple of seals but i was able to get hold of them. got mono m4s – no issues in 3 years …. all sold for only a small loss tbh ….

shimano xts – lasted 15 months trouble free , then let go. piston seals fried them selves coming down ben nevis north face path. – phone madison – ill have a caliper service kit please – “doesnt exist” – urm . piston seals ? “dont exist – non replacable item” – errr i have the old one in my hand !

along with avid and hayes – shimano just got them selves onto my list of brakes i wont be purposfully buying till they fix their issues ….- i have xts on my merida as they came with it – and avid elixers on the missus bike as they came with them ….. i do have mono minis that might end up on my race bike though

just got me some race x2s on the ragley – they were quite impressive at the puffer brian – the pads look hardly touched – thats the organic alloy backed pads not even sintered !

Formula K18 fit then go ride,clean off and repeat process……simples.
(the fitting part takes place just once incase any nuggets are awake)

New hopes are great!

Didn’t realise the Saint’s couldn’t be serviced. Normally Shimano are decent for spares. Hmmmm…. Lets hope my 300 notes don’t go down the pan! You can buy replacement callipers and leavers from memory, but thats still going to be £100 a brake if the seals go. Mind you the power is stunning.

Neil

two mates just bought these directly from formula…and they are very pleased with performance and price…

http://store.formula-brake.com/items/brake-set-mega-3

I personally really rate Formula

Had K18’s – trouble free, decent stopping power – available cheaply direct from Formula Italy

Have a set of Formula RX I’m using now and again excellent – well made, consistent stopping power. If I could afford them I’d have loved to get a set of R1’s but I doubt they’d offer any more stopping power than the RX.

I have recently gone from Mono Mini’s to Tech X2 because I wanted:
1) More power, or more importantly same power with lower lever pressure
2) More consistent bite point and lever adjustability without an allen key

The X2’s were a bit of an extra faff to set up but now I’m more than happpy

trail_rat – Member
…just got me some race x2s on the ragley – they were quite impressive at the puffer brian – the pads look hardly touched – thats the organic alloy backed pads not even sintered !

That’s good. I’ve been considering a set of those.

It seems to me that most disk brakes are hard pushed to survive 50 miles of muddy riding without a pad change, and most won’t even make it that far. (I base that on my observations at the ‘Puffer each year.)

Of course, while they’re working, it’s hard to get a better brake (weight, modulation, etc), but I can’t help thinking that some sort of brake enclosure such as Honda used on some of its motorbikes (abt 30 years ago) may help brake life. It need not be heavy, just enough to keep most of the goop away from the braking surfaces, and of course, suitably vented.

http://www.discountcyclesdirect.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=9398

8)

the used to make a disk enclosure ….

my experiance with covering things (from 8 years in the trade) is that if folks cant see it they presume its ok …. namely full chainguards , shock socks , gaitors – when ever ive removed any of those ive found a world of hurt underneeth

so im not sure hiding the disk brakes is a good idea – maybe for mechanically sympathetic people like us it would be fine…..

captain – my race x2s did need to be set up on the money to get power out of them …. if you cant set up disks then stay away (and loosening the bolts pulling the lever and tightening them is not setting them up – thats why most folks brakes squeel)

hungry monkey – Member
http://www.discountcyclesdirect.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=9398

Ta, just ordered a pair to see what they look like.

trail_rat – Member
…my experiance with covering things (from 8 years in the trade) is that if folks cant see it they presume its ok …. namely full chainguards , shock socks , gaitors – when ever ive removed any of those ive found a world of hurt underneeth

I agree with that. The exception being Sunbeam oilbath chaincases. There was usually a little crud in them but the design kept it away from the drivetrain, and some were on original chains after tens of thousands of miles. Maintenance is important 🙂

captain – my race x2s did need to be set up on the money to get power out of them …. if you cant set up disks then stay away (and loosening the bolts pulling the lever and tightening them is not setting them up – thats why most folks brakes squeel)

Trailrat, it wasn’t just the caliper alignment. As per the Hope video you have to do the fill, point downwards, pump/tap a few times, refill and roll diaphragm in. If you don’t do the extra bit they end up with air in and feel spongy

Full set of XTR’s ay Merlin with discs and bits £179.95 after accumulator discount, mine arrived this morning. really can’t go wrong and Merlin are great to deal with.

Trailrat, it wasn’t just the caliper alignment. As per the Hope video you have to do the fill, point downwards, pump/tap a few times, refill and roll diaphragm in. If you don’t do the extra bit they end up with air in and feel spongy

thats standard issue hope – been like that since the 90s ….. 😀

I’ve been thinking about repalcing my XTR M975s with some Avid X0 brakes, bad move? I really like Shimano brakes but fancy a change.

epicyclo – I get thousands of miles of life out of my brake pads. So much so I can’t remeber when I last changed any.

The one year I did the puffer I had some very part worn ones in which had to be changed after 6 ish laps. The replacement pads are still on the bike looking unworn.

There is a conundrum about pad wear that is unclear as to why some folk get premature pad wear. Hopes are better for it than other brakes but not immune. I am convinced its to do with the amount of heat in the system. But is also multifactorial.

all disc-brakes are very good – they’ve all got loads of stopping oomph (technical term).

if you keep your discs free from GT85 you’ll find very little difference in oomph between brakeset-A and brakeset-B. even if A is lots cheaper than B.

even more so when you’re off-road (where your brakes have lots more oomph than your tyres have grip)

paying more money doesn’t get you more oomph, just lower weight and more adjusting knobs and dials.

Biggest load of cobblers iv’e ever heard

TandemJeremy – Member
…I get thousands of miles of life out of my brake pads…

But how many of those miles were done in consistently muddy conditions?

I get pretty long life out of my brakes too, but then I don’t voluntarily go grinding through mud for 50 – 60 miles at a time. (When I do go bog hopping I generally use drum brakes.) The ‘Puffer conditions vary – the 2nd and this one were the worst for brakes IMO.

much of them epicyclo. I have looked at a lot of folks experiences of this and while muddy conditions is a part of it two folk can ride in identical conditions one gets tens of miles or less out of a set of pads one gets many hundreds of miles.

I’ve a set of M4s that are seven years old now and are still excellent brakes. I’ve put them onto my Missus’s Rock Springs as I’m looking to fit a PM fork to project Enduro. The Hayes Strokers I’m using in their place are lighter, but don’t feel anywhere near as nice to use, so I’m going to shop around for a set of Minis or whatever the latter day equivalents are.

TandemJeremy – Member
much of them epicyclo…

That’s why I raised the example of the ‘Puffer. Everyone there is sharing the same experience at the same time.

Be interesting if people who did it gave us their brake pad consumption and brake type.

I’ll start:
8 laps on set of Avid BB7s (did a fair bit of walking)

Last years puffer 1/4 of a set of pads in 9 laps

Shadow – Member

Biggest load of cobblers iv’e ever heard

in what way?

(and aren’t you exaggerating? – just a tiny bit?)

Hope are not the lightest but they are the prettiest! When setup properly the latest generation of hope tech brakes are incredible. They just go on working with next to no maintenance and excellent pad life but as said they need to be setup/bled correctly in the begining. Plus Hopes backup puts many other maunufactures to shame, your brakes will be fixed rapidly and usually for free if you should need it and every spare part is readily available.

4 laps from each set of Xt pads in new shape Xt brakes at last years puffer

4 laps from a set at this years puffer before swapping bikes – smee can vouch for them being set up perfect with no scuffibg as he was amazed at how long my wheels spin before stopping the night before !

Soon as Xt hit some mud thy starte scuffing with mud –

The hopes just didn’t – more clearance is glorious and I think that why they last longer