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My M4s are not working well at all, LBS said they need a service overhaul from hope which is £60, recommended buying some new Hope X2s which they can do for £100 per end. It just feels like a downgrade but my M4s are not working well at all?
Genuinely, why not just send them to Hope for £60's worth of servicing? They'll send them back good as new!
Or do it yourself. It's not difficult.
No brainer for £60. they will change a lot of parts and you will get a set of brakes that will last a long time.
I had my Tech M4 seals replaced about 6months ago and they'be been fantastic again since. Mine must be getting on for 5 years old now. Well worth the money spending on them to keep them going.
Conversely my brother's slightly older non-tech ones which have never had the seals replaced have been playing up. He replaced it with a shimano deore brake and said it was an upgrade
Thanks for the advice all, that sounds like a really good idea actually! I'll do that then, please tell me it's £60 for the set, not each?!
Surely you asked at the time or can contact Hope using a TELEPHONE.
Convert them to Evo as well. Makes a noticeable difference.
I apologise if I annoyed you! I just emailed Hope (:
And teethgrinder, how does one go about that? Is that a service Hope offer? Thanks!
Just had my hope tech m4's serviced by hope. Come back as good as new,cost £120 mined you.
When you say "My M4s are not working well at all" What exactly do you mean ? Can you be more specific ?
Spend the £60 and get them working great again.
If they are not great afterwards, sell them and tell the buyer they are not as good anymore.
Got money to burn? Buy new brakes!
No better brakes imho. As above get them sorted by Hope
As above there are no brakes to upgrade too. You already have the best. Just get the bits and service them yourself. It's really not hard and a good skill to learn but one you won't need often. Otherwise just pay the money and get a working as new set back. For the price of a service you certainly won't get a set of brakes anywhere near as good as your m4's.
I thought it was £40 per brake? Mine need a thorough overhaul
It's listed on the form you download from the site, I went to some xt's as the refurbishment from Oz is really expensive to do. They were not an upgrade...
You can do it yourself and get the phenolic pistons if you don't already have them. New seals, some red rubber grease (a few quid of eBay) you'll need the cap removal tools, (if you are near Milton Keynes you can borrow mine) us a bit fiddly to get all the pistons out but an hour a brake will get it sorted, bleed them wahey brand new brakes !
Can also do a lever rebuild with new pistons and seals but fiddly, need some circlip pliers , I'm not sure if that's in the hope rebuild?
If it is asking with 2 new sets of pass 120 is steep (when you can buy an SLX set for that) but the hopes will feel like new and imho much nicer to use than shimano
That price will also include new pads so factor that in and it's v good value
officerfriendly - Member
And teethgrinder, how does one go about that? Is that a service Hope offer? Thanks!
Don't know if Hope do it, but I just bought the parts from a mate with a Hope account.
2 each of HBSP273 through to HBSP276. Also got 2 each of HBSP230 and HBSP271. £40 ish. Makes a massive difference using Uberbike finned pads (just not Race Matrix as the suck bags of dicks).
[url= http://www.hopetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/2012TECHEVOMCylexploded.pdf ]Explodey pic of master cylinder[/url]
I completely serviced my m4s recently, it's well worth it, you need the bore tool, a torx security bot/screwdriver and some silicone grease plus seals and potentially new pistons if yours are damaged. It took me a couple of hours are a few of my pistons were stuck.
Magura MT7s might give a bit more stopping power, and pad changes are a little easier with them thanks to magnets on the pistons.
The M4s are really good in terms of spares availability and being user serviceable though. Even in the Alps just over the border from Italy, I've found shops selling Hope bits but no Magura.
Thanks for the input everyone, servicing them myself does sound like a good idea and a good skill to learn too, but I'm very apprehensive about the whole thing, don't know why. Contacted Hope and they said £50 per brake plus p&p so about £120 if insured, at least. LBS reckons I could sell the set I have for £200 (has hope team green caps and everything) and buy new x2s or Zees and it will cost me nothing whereas this will cost me £120+. Honeztly really conflicted and confused. :S
How are you going to get £200 for brakes that don't work?
Neglect to tell the buyer that 😉How are you going to get £200 for brakes that don't work?
Another forumite I know refers to it as "sending them to ebay for a service".
They work, just to nowhere near 100%. I'd obviously mention they could do with a service!
If you are honest I wouldn't expect you'll get £200. I wouldn't pay it.
£200 for brakes known to [s]be too knackered for the seller to bother with[/s] need a service, or £260-ish for a pair of brand new E4's with a warranty?
Nah...
Spurious arguement; It's a bit like not servicing the Bentley and buying a second hand Micra with the money. Voodoo economics.
Zee's aren't as good as M4's. X2's aren't as good as M4's.
When the X2's need a refresh, where do you go from there? V brakes?
has hope team green caps and everything
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ScottChegg, you make a good point, I'll just find some money to get them serviced then. I didn't think the M4s were that good hence me considering buying something else but I'm clearly wrong on that!
Out of interest which local bike shop is telling you to flog them and buy some new brakes from them instead of getting them serviced by Hope? I can't imagine how that would work in the bike shops favour.....
Well I don't really want to say on here as it wouldn't be a nice thing to do. But I can see where they're coming from, they don't work that well at the moment and so I'd get new brakes without actually spending any money. I don't have a job as of now so I have zero income anyway, I'll have to save up for a bit or sell some a bike to get the money to get them serviced. I am looking for a job though!
Are you anywhere near the West Midlands? If so I'll strip, clean, lube and bleed them for you for free. I reckon that will get you a bit more life out them.
Wow, that's awfully kind of you! I could never let you do all that for free! And I'm in London, but wow. Thank you very much for the offer!!
I'm planning on doing my old set of m4 tech evos so it's no biggie to do two sets. I enjoy doing that sort of stuff anyway.
Well I appreciate the sentiment! And is it really enjoyable? Maybe I should learn, I'm honestly just really scared that might mess something up.
It's really quite easy. You just need the correct tools and an hour to spare. There isn't really much to mess up.
Simplistically you just need to use the brake pressure to almost pop out the two Pistons opposite the bore caps. Then remove them by hand. Then undo the bore caps and remove the other two Pistons. Remove the piston seals. Inspect and clean or replace. Clean and lube the Pistons. Re install the Pistons and bore caps. Bleed and ride. That's the basics anyway.