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I've got 12 year old hopes and I can do well good skids.
Got Hope E4, Shimano xt and Zee's.
In my experience they're all 3 great but when with 95kg of me forced to brake more than I'd like to, following lighter brake dragging riders on a big descent both xt and zees have let me down.
My E4s never have let me down. Power is nothing when the lever pulls to the bars and fluid squirts out.
I really really wanted to like Hope ones as they looked so good and they had that whole easy to service reputation but that’s all I ever did on them. So much time was spent fettling to try to get them to work. The amount of time I spent on non retracting pistons was so annoying. I went to SLX. They always work. I have no idea if they are easy to service as I’ve never had to!
Also dot fluid ate through the paint on my SIDs which I appreciate was my fault but I’m not going to get that with mineral oil.
The E4s on my mate’s Levo were bloody terrifying the first time I tried them! The levers came back to the bars and they felt like they had no power, they certainly weren’t slowing me down much! I fiddled with the adjusters on the levers and made them feel much better but still not as powerful as my Deore 4-pots. They look the billy bollox but they’re just not powerful enough for my liking.
Why did the levers come back to the bars ? Air ?
After numerous Alps trips I've never had a problem with Hope, the only brakes that repeatedly failed on these trips were people with Avid & Formula.
One guy needed to bleed his Maguras every day & one set of Hopes were fixed by swapping the cheap Ebay pads for genuine Hope pads.
Not seen a single Shimano or Hope failure but my go to brakes are Hope V2 for the Alps but I do have XTR on my XC bike, they appear more fragile than the Hopes but have never let me down.
These V2 are over 10 years old, have only been bled twice & can stop me easily with one finger (pictured in a cable car above Alpe d'Huez)
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Interesting thread this. Everyone* seems to have been let down by some brake or other, not always Hope, however people blame that particular brake. So what can we conclude? Brakes are generally fiddly and not particularly reliable!
* except me.. but then there was that set of old Hayes where the hose burst.. fortunately when I was testing them in the garage.
Can I use Shimano brake mounts with hope calipers. Got a couple of Shimano ones already that look like they might work.
Plus the Hope ones are double the price of others.
No. E4 callipers hit the Shimano adapters I have. If you want cheaper I believe Uberbike were getting some Hope compatible adaptors
Bite != Power. Shimano bite, hope have modulation both have power when set up properly.
Can I use Shimano brake mounts with hope calipers. Got a couple of Shimano ones already that look like they might work.
Depends on the mount, some (maybe all I dunno) shimano mounts foul the hope caliper, I ended up getting the hope mounts because my shimano mounts didn't work.
@chiefgrooveguru you won't build any muscles deadlifting those cabs of yours 😉
The E4s on my mate’s Levo were bloody terrifying the first time I tried them! The levers came back to the bars and they felt like they had no power
I'll defend Hope in this case because that would never happen if they were set up correctly. One thing they are is reliable and consistent.
Can I use Shimano brake mounts with hope calipers
Yes if you have a Dremel or a file.
As always you have to equate Shimano brakes to those on a french car. You tickle the brake pedal and the car slams to a stop. Hope brakes are more like brakes in a German car, there’s more brake travel and more actuation force require to achieve peak power, but the power is the same or greater. It’s all about the servo and how/if it’s applied.
Shimano for me are a little too bitey, especially in that panic moment just before you want a fist full of brake. With Shimano you get full power for very little input and I find the bike can dive under braking when you apply more power than you expect. With a Hope, a finger full is a little, 2 fingers is a lot, a fistful is MAX.
Never use more than one finger full on my E4s and still lock em up when I want to.
@daffy I've always thought its more like comparing a servo Vs non servo car set up. My non servo car has way more powerful brakes but the first press after not driving for a while is scary as they don't bite like the servo assisted car.
Hope adapters are CNC'd with a bigger platform for the caliper to rest on, nice and precise, forged are not. The price of Hope adapters is justified IMO, cant say the same for forged ones. Uberbike ones have a skinnier platform for some stupid reason, bad design. NSB are the king of adapters though.
@nixie it is, but very few people these days have experienced non-servo brakes in a car unless they’ve been on a track day.
But everyone has experience the strange sensation of Citroen/Renault brakes when their company gives them the crappest hire car possible because is saves £4.
Good lord, they're all like it? I felt sure it must just be a particularly vicious Berlingo I tried.