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Looking to up grade my current hope x2s, they are about 5years old and showing signs of age along with a few battle scars.
Looking for a bit more stopping power, x2s have been great but found them a little out of their depth in the alps last year. So looking at a set of 4pots.
I did fancy getting a set of hope e4s but £315 a set seems a bit steep.
I can get a set of saints from the Germans for £247 or a set of the xt 4pot for £204.
Looking for anyones advice, usual riding is a mix of Dunkeld,tweedvalley,golfie, 7stanes with an alps trip in the summer.
Cheers.
Cheaper than all those is the newish shimano 4 pot MT520.
I have E4s and they are very nice. And serviceable, unlike Shimano brakes, which are for the bin after the warranty is up.
Shimano zee. Lot of people find them very on/off but mine have been faultless for 3 years now
For great value, £40 for https://www.merlincycles.com/shimano-m315-front-and-rear-disc-brake-set-132886.html is superb.
+1 for Zees
I wouldn’t say they’re on/off and have a decent amount of modulation.
Hope E4's. Have two pairs (and a pair of X2's), one pair of E4's I've had since 2015 and the second pair in 2017, no issues from either pair and they've covered 12,000miles between them!
Could always just get some E4 calipers for your current levers? To be fair, while they are expensive, Hope are IMO the best option at the minute. Shimano's cheaper brakes are excellent but not serviceable, so when years down the line they do give up, they're fit for the bin. Anything above Deore level is dog turd these days, wandering bite points and just general reliability grumbles.
I really like Sram brakes and would buy a set of Codes despite the extra weight, but again reliability leaves a lot to be desired on Sram brakes. I've known faulty levers on numerous sets of guides that have been replaced on bikes that haven't even rolled out of the shop door! I liked my old Guide RS's but they were a bit temperamental.
Both bikes are running E4's now (one with the Race levers, other with Tech 3's) and while they don't have gobs and gobs of power like Codes & Saints, they have plenty for me with 180mm rotors front and rear so if I needed more I can always go 203mm rotors. They're superbly reliable, easy to work on and spares are easy to get hold of if the worst happens. Only real criticism of them really is the fact they use Dot fluid rather than mineral oil, which is hardly the end of the world!
Saints .
Guide RE are worth a look. Around £160 for a pair.
For great value, £40 for https://www.merlincycles.com/shimano-m315-front-and-rear-disc-brake-set-132886.html is superb.
^ This is true. Super brakes for the money and 99% of the time
But they are not ultimately not as powerful or as heat resisting as bigger brakes. Mine have both stunk/burned, struggled and faded on steep stuff at places like Golfie, Dunkeld and Thornilee.
My old Magura's rocked for power - they were 'cheap' MT4's and yet coped with my portly frame for a week in the alps with no complaints. They do make an odd turkey gobble sound when really hot and pushed. I wish I had swapped them off my old bike onto the new one that has the m315's above.
What are Guide R like?
Planet X is doing them for £100 for a pair.
Magura's are worth a look too. Have been really impressed with the ones I've tried.
I have had no problems with Formula brakes over the years and the Cura/Cura4 look good though reviews are a little sparse.
I'm holding out for some Cura 4's to replace my (still flawless) RO's at some point or maybe a 4-pot front, 2-pot rear...
Trp quadiem. Good enough for gwin.
Formula cura 4.
Hayes Dominion A4 or Saints
what size rotors are you using? might be worth going up a size before binning the Hopes?
Not sure what part of OPs brakes are past it, but rebuild the levers and add some V4 callipers?
I'm a Shimano fanboi, but my new bike has Guide REs on it, they're meant to be very good. I wanted XT 4 pots, but they were too spendy.
I have the Hope Race Evo E4 on both my bikes, love em, been super reliable.
As others have said stick on an E4 caliper on the front and all will be good.
unless you just want to have shiny new brakes.
Guide RE’s have to be worth a look if Codes are too expensive. Guide R levers bit with the previous gen Code callipers.
There a trail brake review in MBR Thais month and Guide RE’s came too with Code RSC shortly behind them. That was taking into account cost though where the Code rsc’s are a lot more expensive than the RE’s.
Other than that I’d be looking at some 4 pot Maguras, but making sure they had the shorter alloy levers.
I've recently bought Magura Trail Sport - 4 pot front and 2 pot rear (means carrying two sets of spare brake pads). Only had a couple of rides on them, but good modulation and stopping power so far. RRP is just under £200.
+1 for the new mt501/mt520/deore 4 pots
can be had from rose for just over 100
all the power you'll ever need and lots more modulation than 2 pots
i had the m6000 deore 2 pots and the power was great but they were very grabby