I brought a Trek Roscoe last year and I am happy with everything on it but could do with a brake upgrade. I can do the brakes through the cycle to work scheme so I am looking at about a £400 budget for things that I want.

https://www.chainreactioncycles.com/shimano-slx-m7120-disc-brake/rp-prod187888

These look pretty good and I like the feel of shimano brakes etc as well.

Currently have a 180mm front and 160mm rear disc. I am going to replace these so that I have a 203mm front and 180mm rear disc.

https://www.chainreactioncycles.com/shimano-xt-rt76-6-bolt-disc-rotor/rp-prod39007

I will also need some brake adaptors. Does anyone know if you can fit a 180mm rear dsic on a Trek Roscoe? I cant find any info that says either way on their website. The manuals seem pretty generic.

Any other reccomendations for brakes that I might be missing out on? I will most likely go with CRC so that I can order some new shoes and other bits at the same time.

I would go Deore 4 pot over SLX 2 pot.
More powerful, more heat resistant.

Where do you ride, how aggressive a rider and what kind of weight are you?

I’m just wondering if the disc up size will be overkill on braking.

In which case, consider XT or Zee instead and stick with you current rotors.

Cheers Matt – they are 4 pot though aren’t they?

I am over 100kgs (hopefully soon under) but am never going to be a lightweight. Riding last year consisted of Peaks, Lakes and Cannock (local trail centre). I am not massively aggressive on the brakes. I find my current brakes are fine for Cannock but Lakes or Peaks with longer descents and the brakes start to struggle as they get hot due to the high mass they have to stop which then leaves me lacking confidence.

Yes, the ones you linked to are 4 pot.

brakes start to struggle as they get hot due to the high mass they have to stop

This problem will be fixed with the larger discs you’re fitting. Bigger discs means more disc material (thermal mass) which means they won’t get as hot for the same energy input.

After that – I’ve got Magura MT5 which are a four piston brake and I’d recommend them :o)

Massive fan of my magura mt5s which are on my jeffsy and are four pot.

I’d forget the C2W and get Deore 4-pots from Germany cheap.
Adaptors will be £5-10 each from CRC or wherever.

MT5s seem like huge value right now

https://www.bike-components.de/en/Magura/MT5-Carbotecture-Front-and-Rear-Disc-Brake-Set-p45429/

Wow those mt5s are a very good price

I’d upsize the discs as much as you can – I can’t see any downsides really to that. I run 200/180 on my fs and 200/160 on my hardtail.

Personally I wouldn’t buy shimano brakes – you read too many things about seal failures and I’ve had the micro leak issue on deore’s myself in the past. I have shimano hydraulic disc brakes on my road bike and they’re great, but I nervously await the failure of the seals and the subsequent replacement. I think Hope make a replacement caliper so that’s probably what I’ll get when the inevitable happens.

On my mtb’s I run Sram Codes / Guide RE And they’ve all been faultless and meesss minimal maintenance. Run Guide R’s before that and they were reliable too -‘although less powerful then the Guide RE / Codes.

I am curious about the Magura MT5’s myself but have no need for new brakes. If they used the same dot fluid as sram / the same bleed kit I’d have been more likely to try them but they’re mineral oil.

I second looking at the Germans for price. Not sure what brakes you have now but another option could be just new calipers with the bigger rotors.  Bike discount do the slx caliper on it’s own for €56 and you may need a new hose at €20 (for the banjo bolt, olive etc which they sell too, listed at the bottom of the caliper description).

https://www.bike-discount.de/en/buy/shimano-slx-br-m7120-post-mount-n03a-brake-caliper-847203

they also do the Basic  4 pot caliper for €39 that gets good reviews, and uses a different banjo bolt than the  slx but it’s only €10 for the hose/bolt etc

https://www.bike-discount.de/en/buy/shimano-br-mt520-post-mount-d01s-brake-caliper-721662

My 2 pence worth is to consider upgrading just the front to 4 pot unless you really need the bigger stopping power on the rear.

Cheers for the suggestions I will go away and have a look and see what reviews etc I can find.

joebristol – there is a downside to oversized discs – never getting hot enough to work properly under light use, much harder to bed in. Its a small downside but it is there. All my bikes have 160mm discs bar the tandem. Never overheat or found wanting in power

100kg and Lakeland riding?

4 pots and big discs, no question. At least, if you’re doing it properly.

I don’t know what your brakes are, but if you can fit the finned shimano pads, they make a genuine difference on longer descents. I’m yet to get any fade on them anywhere.
Even descending Ben Ledi on 180/160 discs was OK – although it was cold and wet and I wouldn’t recommend against chucking on the biggest discs you can fit.

I’ve just been through this decision making process and done a fair bit of research. What I found out it this (note – based on forums/online reviews/friends opinions not on actual personal riding experience):

Shimano XT 4 pot – good power, reliable, easy to service but prone to wandering bite point and limited modulation.

Shimano SLX 4 pot – as above but without bite point adjust which apparently doesn’t work very well anyway so essentially the same thing.

Magura MT5/7 – loads of power, good feel/modulation , good value but apparently quite difficult to get a good bleed on them so difficult to maintain.

Hope – lots of modulation, very reliable, easy to replace parts but expensive and not as powerful as others

Sram Guide – good modulation and adjustment, ok to bleed but not as easy as shimano. Good brakes but I had issues with mine in the alps over the summer and the bike shop guy said that it was a recurring theme in hot conditions on long descents. I believe there is a lever piston fix for this and the codes probably don’t have the same problem but it put me off a bit.

Sram Codes – good modulation and adjustment, plenty of power, ok to bleed but expensive.

In the end I went for a set of SLX 4 pot, I price-matched the bike-discount price with Wiggle. They seem to be the best bang for buck option and easy to maintain. They arrived last week so haven’t ridden them yet.