Looking at new brakes for a build and reallly like my xt but looking at something bit more bling. Hopes would be nice but are pricey.

Anything else to look at I can get xtr £260 at Merlin.

I had two pairs from the M9000 range and they were the worst brakes I’ve owned. The modulation was reasonable, though not as good as Sram and certainly not hopes but they’d lost the ultimate stopping power that Shimano is renowned for. Also the first pair had to be returned twice before being replaced with the second.

I have a friend with the XTR Trail brake from the same generation and they seem to be brilliant.

Ah think I’m getting brakes mixed up it’s these I’m looking at

https://www.merlincycles.com/shimano-xtr-m9020-disc-brake-set-82367.html

Are these the good ones ?

That seems like a lot of money for a 2 pot brake from a company who don’t sell replacement seals and are renowned for having leaky ones.

If you want bling then just get some Hope E4’s – they seem to be just under £150 an end at Winstanleys bikes – not much more than those linked XTR’s.

I’ve Had those callipers on my road bike for 4 years and 20000km. All good.

I love XTR brakes – got to be the trail ones though with the servowave levers – it is that the makes the difference…..I just upgraded my m988 brakes to 2019 levers as they were getting very tatty – Lovely things.

It would be nice if they did seal kits…my bite point started to wander a bit a few years ago and turned out to be the calliper seals. I ended up buying a set of XT callipers which were quite cheap online and swapping out the seals and pistons. Worked great ever since though was a bit wasteful.

Ah think I’m getting brakes mixed up it’s these I’m looking at
https://www.merlincycles.com/shimano-xtr-m9020-disc-brake-set-82367.html
Are these the good ones ?

Yep, they seem to be the trail ones, very good brakes.

Thanks guys good info 🙂

Yeah they’re good, wouldn’t contemplate the race version as they just don’t have the power.

Wouldn’t bother with Shimano brakes, full stop. I had a set of XTR Trails and they were the first set I tried to have the wandering bite point any brake above Deore level seems to suffer from these days. Add in the lack of spares/repair-ability and they’re just not worth it. Go Hope and don’t look back!

I’ve got a pair of those M9020 brakes and I’ve found them excellent. I’ve had them for around a year. The adjustability is great, the power is more than adequate and I haven’t found any problems with the bite point not being where I expect it to be.

They’re not cheap, but they’re light and good quality. I’d agree that it’s annoying that Shimano don’t make many spare parts available for them (although you can get replacement lever blades if you smash them, I think), but so far that hasn’t been a problem.

I found the XTR race brakes to be really tricky with a variable bite point when hot, they might be better now – they were standard on the first year of Trek Top Fuel (2016?). Since then they have fitted SRAM Level Ultimate’s which are much better. I got two spare sets from CRC last summer for about £80 an end, I haven’t used them yet and was going to send them back for a refund. If you are interested I’ll be at Sherwood this weekend for the first national race and you could have a set for the amount on the invoice. Best to email me from my profile if interested.