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Just my experience of owning a pair of Hope RX4 calipers, some might find useful.
I bought my pair to fit to a 2018 Trek Crocket Cyclocross bike when the Shimano GRX calipers started their inevitable leaking of oil and contaminating the pads.
They come in an array of colours but I was boring and went for black. You can actually buy different coloured bore hole caps if you wanted to go wild. Note that Hope make a specific caliper for Shimano and Sram, this must be down to the different hydraulic oil types used by both companies, so make sure you buy the right ones.
Cost the RX4s was just under £100 each which is a fair bit more than a replacement GRX calliper which can be bought for about £60. Obviously the Hope calipers are a thing of beauty and come whith 2 sets of pads and a bleed syringe, offsetting the price some what.
Thing to note is that if going from Shimano to Hope calipers, is the hose adapter is not the same and will need changing, this isn't a difficult thing to replace, but you will need to chop a bit hose off and buy a new adapter which are about £10 each. Make sure these are done up very tight and one of mine weeped oil a little despite feeling tight.
One other thing that I didn't realise until fitting the rear caliper is that the RX4 calipers only come in 160mm disc size, my old GRX rear was a 140mm so I had to also buy a new rotor, more cost.....
Bleeding the RX4 calipers is a fair bit more of a faf when compared to the GRX one, this is I think due to the 4 pistons of the RX4 compared to the 2 pistons of the GRX, where air can get a bit stuck. The Hope YouTube tutorial is pretty good so if you follow this then you should be good. However in hindsight, I wish I'd just got them fitted at a bike shop, I've never really enjoyed bleeding brakes, especially dropbar ones but if you're an average or better DIY bike mechanic then you should be fine to do this at home.
Once bled, the RX4 calipers work like a dream, lots of power (almost too much on the rear so would probably have been better designed for 140mm rotors) with a nice transition feel, less like the 'on/off' feel of the old GRX calipers.
Now is a tail of two halves.....
The front one worked great from the off and have had no real issues with it other than the usual uneven piston retraction that happens overtime with most hydraulic brakes, this can be worse with four piston calipers, but if you take the pads out and give the inside of the caliper a good clean and then apply a small amount of hydraulic oil (mineral oil with Shimano) to the pistons and push them in (use something like a plastic tyre lever, don't use something metal or you could damage your piston), this should help sort it. It might take a few times to loosen them off.
The rear was a total pain from the off, the hose leaked at the adapter, just enough to contaminate the pads but not enough to affect brake performance. I nipped this up and changed the pads, and had great performance for about 4 weeks. The pads started to squeal, a sure sign of being contaminated. Checked the hose again, was fine. After removing the pads, their was oil on the rear of the pads, meaning the pistons were leaking, just like my old Shimano ones had that I'd just replaced with these ones. As I'd fitted them myself and a new Hope seal kit was lest than £10, I decided to just swap the seals myself and not go to Hope as I'm sure they'd blame the installer. The seals were a bit fiddly to change but YouTube was to the rescue again. Since I changed the seals, I've not had too many issues, other than the usual uneven piston retraction as mentioned above.
In use......
In use out on the trails and when used all year round, they perform great with a really nice modulated lever feel. They are very powerful and I wouldn't want more power. Pad life seems ok, getting a couple of thousand kilometres out a set (obviously bed them in well first).
Positives.....
- They're pretty to look at (if you're into that sort of thing)
- Easily available in the UK
- They operate really nicely, with a great feel
- Plenty of power
- Don't need separate brackets when fitted to flat mount bikes
- Minimal noise (I used mine with Shimano RX70 rotors)
- If they leak oil, or have worn pistons, at least you can change the seals and pistons etc, which is so much more sustainable.
- Hope tend to support their products for a long time
- You're supporting a UK company
Minuses.....
- They're more expensive than Shimano
- They're more a faff to bleed than Shimano
- 4 pistons is more a faff to look after compared to 2 pistons IME
- They still leak oil sometimes.
Conclusion....
Would I buy again? If had the money then yes as I really like how the brakes operate, but if I was tight for cash then no, I'd stick with Shimano as they're so much cheaper and work almost as well, it's just a shame you can't buy spares for them easily.
Agree with most of the review. Bleeding is a real PITA. But 140mm Calipers can now be had.
Mine have been faultless on 4 bikes, but like others, I had a problem with one hose attachment leak which turned out to be a slightly twisted olive. Is it possible that Shimano hoses are just slightly thinner and thus mean it can slip a little?
Those on my commuter have been to hell and back! In unpainted silver, the surface has oxidised a little and they look terrible, having been barely maintained, BUT, they have been utterly and completely faultless over 5 years and 30000km. My discs never rub and seem to maintain trueness and whilst there is a squeal for the first few seconds in the wet, it's quickly gone and the braking is powerful and effective.
All of the above. Mine replaced a pair of 685's that I then re o ringed and piston sealed.
The RX4's look nice, brake well when not leaking and are set up well but are a major faff. Bleeding is a pain, leaking is a pain and I still get slight rubbing even when changing to new discs.
My next calipers will be Shimano. I don't think these particular Hope's are worth the aggro which is a shame as I've had them on MTB's for decades and they've been A1.
mine have been faultless for 2 years, all i've done is clean the pistons and silicon lube when changing pads. otherwise hose wash
First one I had (rear / Shimano compatible) I fitted fine and whilst being a faff to bleed just worked pretty well. Never managed to get as firm an inital lever as the front though - no matter what I did.
when I swapped that one or another bike and fitted a front I then had all sorts of drama. The front one leaked multiple times out of the connection to the caliper. Eventually got that sorted and it’s mental powerful - but squeaks. Needs some more balancing up of pistons and a re-bleed.
The rear then started leaking out of the pistons in sympathy for the front. I changed the piston seals (more faff) and got it all working again. But have a soft lever that bites too late really - despite on / off with the syringe / pushing the pistons back and then bleeding over and over. Needs some more time on both brakes really.
Wondering if the flat mount 2 piston Maguras would work better. Don’t really need 4 piston road brakes - but had the micro leaking Shimano calipers so thought I’d try something different with the RX4s.
Fit and forget for me. About 18 months in. Faultless
This for me too, though the LBS fitted them.
Mine is 140mm rear and I thought the bleeding was easier than Shimano. I used an Epic kit and followed the tutorial, worked first time. I like that you can screw into the bleed port, it's very secure.
I did have to replace a caliper though, which had a hairline crack. Still, that's one failure over about 7 years.
I hated installing/bleeding the first one I had but having now done it three times I think the trick is not to try and get it perfect first go. Get it close to bled, go for a short ride with lots of braking then come back and finish it the next day and getting the remaining bubbles out seems to be much easier. 6 months since then and I’ve not thought about them.
Haven’t put the miles on yet to comment on longevity though I must admit.
Had some on my summer road bike since 2019. Not a hard life but probably get a few 1000 miles a year. They were a pain to get set up without some rub, but since then I've only bled the front one once, when the fork got replaced under warranty.
Loved my RX4+ calipers
No rubbing, loads of power, easy to bleed (im used to bleeding and setting up Hope brakes)
Both new road bikes have Shimano calipers, im waiting for them to start leaking!
I went back to Shimano after getting tired of minimal rotor clearance and endless, inconsistent bleeds.
I too have issues with the rear caliper- original postmount rx4s.
Might be awkward hose routing around chainstay putting pressure on the hose fitting...
Still faffing with it!
Front one flawless!
Doesn't the RX4+ have a 'better' entry angle for the hose which means it plays better on the rear and less likely to leak at the union?
Mine are RX4+'s and leaked at the front rather than the rear.
I've tried Googling trying to find the difference between the 4's and the 4+'s but come up with nothing (apart from increased disc clearance apparently), can anyone explain the differences / upgrades Hope obviously felt they had to make ?
I've bought a pair of RX4+ callipers for my Topstone, but yet to fit them, so reading the bleeding tips given here with interest
As far as I understood it when I looked, the only difference i could find with the front/rear specific caliper bodies was the angle at which the hose attaches, being more 'forgiving' on the plus calipers, but that was the only difference I could see. There could be others like the better pad clearance but I didn't find any info on that.
To be fair my RX4s could do with the angle being less harsh but they have been fine and no leaking after a year so I don't feel any need to change them.
I went back to Shimano after getting tired of minimal rotor clearance and endless, inconsistent bleeds.
This is pretty much my experience too. Although I had oil dripping from the piston seals when new and had to go straight back to Hope. Once back I never got anywhere near the pad clearance I had with Shimano, so went back to those after a few months.
The hose angle is better on RX4+ - the originals wouldn't even fit my fork (Mason Definition) due to the angle.
I bought one front one and a floating rotor in an attempt to stop my SRAM rival brakes from howling in the wet. It wasn't really any quieter, or not noticeably any more power than I had already. So when I wore both sets of pads out that came with it I swapped back to the original.
The rivals have been faultless for 5 years now, don't really notice the noise in the wet, they just do the job.
The "old" style rx4 had different piston and pad sizes depending on whether it was the shimano or sram version. The rx4+ uses the same size pads for both versions (which is the same size pad as the old rx4 shimano ones). It's why you see the rx4 pads for old shimano version being labelled rx4 shimano / rx4+ and a different pad for rx4 sram version.
Angles might be different too, not sure about that, I had to phone hope to ask when I got confused by the pad identifiers on various sites as I didn't realise the old ones were different sizes.
You're right @neverownenoughbikes, the hose angle is 10º different too:
I've used SRAM/DOT models of both RX4 and RX4+ and found them far more reliable to the Rival calipers they replaced. They're a pig to bleed to begin with and I've had the occasional sticking piston in crappy conditions but a decent clean and a dab of DOT grease has always sorted.
Re: bleeding. I'm not the world's best mechanic but I found following the Hope video fairly easy and have had good results just following it. Have spoken to a few folk who said they couldn't bleed their RX4s not a single one of them had actually followed the instructions 😀
Here's the shimano one:
No problems with pad clearance for me but I did get a set that leaked straight out of the box. The excellent hope customer service kicked in and sorted me within days.
Just realised that I have a RX4 on the rear and a RX4+ on the front. Didn't even notice until this thread.