Shimano M985 or M987 XTR Race brakes do not have servo wave, so pads should not move as fast and therefore have better modulation. Not cheap, though.

M988 XTR Trail are servo wave like XT and others.

Hope.

Well that escalated quickly as they say! 😕

Anyway… Found some Formula R1’s at a very good price, only downer is the bore caps are red (she doesn’t want any red on her bike!). At this rate I’ll end up giving her my T1’s and putting new brakes on my bike!

Gonna have a look more at Hopes this afternoon, see which option would be best.

Though I’ve also just remembered that when I used Aztec rotors on my old XT’s, the lack of material on the rotors caused the brakes to feel softer and less powerful, which could be a cheap/easy fix potentially.

Hi mboy
I have some Formula T1 brakes (The One), brand new, unopened for sale.
160mm rotors and very colour neutral 😉

I’m after £220 including paypal fees and postage with insurance and tracking.

my email is edayeaye AT yahoo.co.uk

Cheers

Forget avid, and agree that servo wave shimano can be a bit grabby at times. The best modulation (and reliability) I have experienced is from my 10 year old XT M755 4-pot calipers (still in use). Nice and powerful, tons of lovely modulation. Probably not a realistic proposition I know…

shimano but not with resin pads have more than enough modulation – if you need anymore then you need to learn how to brake properly. My son used to grab the brakes but now doesn’t and is much more confident.

The latest Deore feel less grabby to me, but that may be smaller discs being used.

If price is not an issue, but still cheaper I think than Hope, dual piston Shimano Zee are like throwing out an anchor, but have way more modulation than other Shimano offerings. So much so, I thought they needed bleeding, but after this concluded the real power just comes on later into the stroke. I think one piston bites earlier? I even messed around with them tricking the pistons to bite sooner, but this just made them grabby.