Upgrading my brakes for some Morzine and BPW fun next year. Like the idea of Zees but there are mixed reviews and my experience of Shimano brakes is hit and miss.

I’ve got the offer of a cheap new set of 4 pot guides but not sure that will give me much advantage over my 2 pot SLX. And I fear Avid/Sram after an unhappy year with some Juicys.

Not sure I can afford Hope and tbh I’ve not been that impressed with my X2s.

What are people’s real world experience of any of the above? Shall I bite the bullet and go back to SRAM, will they be powerful enough? OR perhaps I should just trust Shimano? After all I have a set of Deores that have NEVER needed bleeding in 4 years!

All input gratefully received.

If you’re going sram I’d go Codes rather than Guides.

Hope you probably need to go V4 if you want a brake for smashing some downhill.

If you want power on a budget how about Magura -MT5 or MT7?

New Deore 4 pots , less than £140.

Magura for me too.  I love my MT Trail Sports.  A pair of MT5’s or 7’s will out perform  everything else listed.  Note they have at least three different lever shapes (1 finger, 2 finger and old school) plus the tricky super adjustable lever as aftermarket.  If looking seriously at Magura, pay particularly close attention to the lever blades on the model you’re looking at.  The single finger on mine is great.  Expect to need to trim and bleed.  The supplied hoses would still need trimming on a MTB tandem…

Deore 4 pots for under £140? Where please!

Edit: found some!

Will Deore 4 pots be any better than guide rs?

Code RSC’s.

Awesome brakes.

Another one for the mix?

Formula Cura 4. I’m planning on replacing my R0 for a Cura 4 front, Cura 2 rear

GUIDES, and for even more power, GUIDE RE’s.

Modern SRAM brakes are a different beast to the Avids of old.

https://www.rosebikes.co.uk/shimano-deore-mt501-4-piston-rear-disc-brake-caliperdeore-mt501-4-piston-rear-disc-brake-caliper-2669652

Front and rear Deore 4 pots for around £120 on rose bikes.

Ive had Zee’s, XT’s, Guide R, Guide RS, Code R,

The Shimano brakes both had leaky pistons

All the Sram brakes were ok but after trying a friend’s set of hopes there was no going back

All were nowhere near as good as the Hope V4 and E4’s im now running on both my bikes

I paid under £300 for each pair of Hopes, with black Friday coming up you may find them cheaper

personal pref i think. I use new xt 4 pots on one bike and saints on my DH bike. I had V4s on a my DH bike and never got on with them. Lovely things but i prefer the on off feeling of shimanos plus having both using mineral oil etc.  I also found hopes harder to set up, shorten cables (the olives) and bleed.

you may differ!

Zees – typical Shimano – light, dainty, quite powerful, needs some fettling to get them right

E4s – tactile, meaty, equally as powerful as Zees, much less faff with hoses/bleeding etc, many GBP

But if you have big hands what you really want is some TRP Slates which are the best brakes in the history of brakes. With the man-size levers wound right out they have a crisp bite point, loads of modulation and proper stick-through-the-spokes stopping power. Can be used with Zee/Saint pads but the standard semi-metallics are most excellent.

got both hope (E4) and shimano saint, Zee and SLX),  Prefer the hope lever but the shimano actual braking.  No issues with either make.

Gave up on Shimano with the bleeding issues & the on/off nature of them. Tried Hope & was underwhelmed by the overall performance & the levers rattled annoyingly. Bought some Guide RSC’s as they were cheap on CRC a couple of years ago & still haven’t felt the need to change – they are awesome.

That’s one thing I thought I would never say, having had the misfortune of some Elixirs.

I’ve got hope e4’s on one bike, and code RSC on another.

The hopes are not as powerful as you (or rather I) would expect, but are very reliable, never overheat, very adjustable, great modulation, lever looks and feels great as does caliper.

The codes are mega powerful, never overheat, not quite as adjustable as the hopes, great modulation, reliability is unproven so far as I havent had them long enough.

Not tried the shimano 4 pots, but I liked my old XT 2 pots from a few years ago – they were more powerful than the hope e4’s.

Overall I prefer the codes to the hope e4’s

Wouldn’t bother with Shimano brakes above Deore level, seen far too many issues for my liking. New Deore 4-pots are awesome though, incredible value for money and loads of power, but still a little on/off for some people. If you didn’t want to break the bank that’d be my first choice.

Sram brakes are awesome while they work, but again, I see so many issues with them. I’ve seen bikes with Sram brakes with sticky levers and pistons that haven’t even been ridden, just sat on the shop floor.

Nowadays I’d always go Hope. I have two sets of E4’s, one set with the lighter Race lever and the other with the standard Tech 3 lever and both are spot on. I’ve never had issues with Hope brakes and yes they can feel a little soft on power compared to some, but honestly that aside they are just awesome. For the riding you describe, V4’s would be my choice if you don’t mind the slight weight penalty, otherwise I dare say E4’s would be fine with 203mm rotors. I’m 12.5 stone and use 180mm rotors on my E4’s for general trail riding and have never found them wanting for power. I’d upsize to a 203mm on the front if I frequented more DH orientated terrain though.

Can only speak from what I’ve had but I much prefer my current E4’s to my previous XT and Deores. They edge the power but feel much better and seem bomb proof.

I have the hopes so much better modulation than the zee brakes they replaced. They weren’t quite as powerful. But I bought some trickstuff pads  for them that brought the power levels back up.

Saint and Zee feel very much on or off to me although very powerful.  I had Sram Guide RS but I couldn’t get the bite point far enough away from the bars which caused problems with my fingers, although they had reasonable power, not really enough for downhill use.  I now have Hope V4 on the front and E4 rear which suits me for a mix of trail riding and uplift.  Once they are set up properly they are awesome.  Good modulation, loads of power and loads of adjustment for bite point and reach.

I find the 2-pot Shimano brakes much more on/off.

Just bled my Zees and put sintered pads in and that’s made them a more grabby and more powerful overall – but I’m now finding I can just drag them slightly to scrub off a bit of speed, where they’d need more of a pull before.

Still might go back to organic pads though.

I find the fade organics can experience makes modulation too hard to predict under heavy braking.

I don’t.

Fair enough, you’ll find you can actually brake in the wet now as well.

That wasn’t a problem before either, cheers.

Had guides, and now codes. Don’t like going back to guides now, they feel weak in comparison.  Love the power of the guides, they don’t seem to be bothered what pads they have either, sintered or organic genuine sram.