On my bike (Kona Operator), the bike came with an E4 brake up-front and X2 on the rear. X2 is coming up for new pads and has sticky piston so I am leaning towards buying a V4 calliper and selling old X2 as i would prefer 4 pistons over 2 and dont particularly want to spend money on a brake thats not suited to me. Does anyone know if this would be an easy swap? From what I can see it would be a case of simply unscrewing the end of the brake hose from old calliper and re-attaching it to the new one and then bleeding it. Has anyone done it? Is it possible/easy enough? Many thanks 🙂
It is as you say, just unscrew, remove the old, attach the new and bleed the system. The lever and hoses are the same. I’d probably put the V4 up front and the E4 on the rear.
Have you tried lubing the sticky piston with some DOT fluid?
Will lube it once i take it all apart and then probably sell it ( i just didnt want to spend money on pads and repairs for a calliper that isn't best suited. Im using sram centreline rotors ( the original not the new ones ). Does the v4 require thicker rotors whereas the e4 doesnt? Ive always found x2 and e4 worked fine with these but hope seem to say pads are spaced wider on v4 for their thicker rotors. Is this the case?
I was going to say you might be better off swapping to an E4 as I think the V4 is based on a thicker rotor. I'm no expert and there may be a way around that with the bleed but you know the E4 will work fine (i also use them with centerline rotors and they work great)
I was thinking towards the E4 now too. Im not particulary interested in swapping out rotors and other people seem to suggest v4 with thinner rotors is possible but not ideal so i guess e4 with correct rotor is prob overall better performance than v4 with incorrect rotor.
Also does anyone know if theres a best way to swap the callipers over e.g. lever angle, calliper height etc. - I read somewhere about keeping the calliper elevated to prevent air going to lever end instead?
I have V4’s with the standard thickness Hope floating rotors and have no issues at all. Really impressed with them to be honest.
Ive ordered the E4s now so hopefully all works out! 🙂
As for the actual swapping of the caliper you need to do a full bleed anyway so makes little difference. The caliper is normally the hardest bit to get air out of.
Don't forget the new caliper won't have any fluid in, so doesn't really matter about getting air in either end, as it will need a full bleed.
The V4 caliper is slightly wider but the pistons self adjust so will work with the standard rotor no problem, it's just the slots at each end of the caliper (that the rotor runs through) are slightly wider on the V4 (and the older V2) so you can run the thicker vented rotor.
P.S, dont forget to use a new copper washer when you swap the calipers over 😉
Thanks very much. Generally in the past i have found just opening up the valve, pump lever and close while keeping lever reservoir topped up has worked well enough but will i need to get the proper bleed kit this time?
Traditional bleed is best, see here..
The Hope Easy Bleed kit makes it easier as it allows you to concentrate on the caliper more.
Thanks very much. Similar technique to what I usually use i just find someone else to keep lever topped up so i can concentrate on calliper. Should be able to find a bit of hose somewhere to add on the end.
I always use a drinks can on the end of the lower tube - seems to help keep it contained
The calliper swap and bleeding has all gone perfectly so if anyone is wondering in the future whether this is possible/easy then it is fairly easy. Thanks for all the help and if anyones looking for an X2 calliper just message me.
