New brakes required

What’s wrong with the ones you have out of interest?

I've had my Dominions on a month and absolutely love them, upgraded from SRAM G2 RSCs. The power is amazing and accessible with very little effort - my hand/finger pain is gone, lots more confidence so don't comfort brake anymore just hard braking when necessary. I've had to adjust my lever angles to help keep the bar from escaping from my hands, and adjusted the reach so the front one bites first - they showed up my poorish rear braking habits.

Haven't shortened the hoses yet though so can't comment on the bleeding.

I'd just keep the ones you have TBH.

The lever fade is more noticeable than any I’ve had before
Swapped out the pads and running the MDR-P disks as I’d just bought them before I sold the MT5

I've got the MT420's on (hence my question) with 401 levers - I think they are similar to SLX (no idea why Shimano can't just call them SLX instead of "Series" something or other). Seem OK to me.

I have Cura 4’s and they are good. More recently I have had Code RSC’s and they have been reliable and with good power and feel.

Guide RE's

I had code R on my ebike from new and they were aweful - needing bleeding almost every ride. Been back for warranty twice and returned exactly the same.
In the end I decided that if I was spending 6k on a bike I want brakes that actually give me confidence and make me want to ride it, so I got saints.
Installed them myself, wasn't sure if I would like them but first ride in and I wish I'd done it months ago. East to install, easy to bleed, lever feels great, power is very good. Much better than code R and glad I did it. £400 is a lot of cash tho.

Aye saints are a lot of cash but as you say the bike is worth a lot and it moves pretty damn quick and needs stopping with confidence

Don't know how much Zees differ from saints but are alot cheaper and massively powerful

To be fair the Zee isn’t that much cheaper

I had code R on my ebike from new and they were aweful

Huh, that's annoying, I've got the same brakes and I have to say that apart from Saints, they've been some of the most reliable and consistent brakes I've owned, and have only needed a single bleed in the 3 years I've had them on the bike. I've been totally impressed with them.

As it's an ebike and you're riding steep trails, I'd go for full DH brakes like Zee, Saint, Dominion or maybe the Curas.

Code R were OK (and super-reliable) but struggled to cope with my heavy enduro bike on steep Inners trails, I wouldn't want them on an eeb.

hayes dominions get great reviews and are what i`d probably get.

I love my maguras but if i had to bleed them loads i might not!

Fade is all about heat. Discs and pads are getting hot. You feel it at the lever but it's not down to the calipers or the lever/master cylinder.

The best way to control the heat is to fit bigger discs or discs that cool better.

The next best thing to do is change pad - different pads will behave better/worse with the heat.

Final thing to try is to brake less ;o)

It’s not so much brake fade
Best way to deceive it is like when your forks are open and you go through travel softer
The. Adding compression and it feels firmer
Then forks open and it feels softer
Especially on the steeper stuff where I’m using them to stop me from DEATH😭

Sounds like you want a firm bite point. If you look at some reviews online, this (or the opposite) is something that is sometimes mentioned.

How much do you want to spend? I've had great results with MT5s, but since you've had a poor experience I'll leave them out.

TRP DHR EVO - Great, sharp lever feel and lots of power. Less sharp than shimano, much firmer than sram. Very well made. Use shimano pads and oil. Easy to bleed

Code RSC - Different universe to (in my experience, crap) Code R. Nice firm lever, but more stroke and modulation than shimano or trp. Amazing power, no fade (at least with 220 discs) but they do need bled a bit more than some others to keep them nice.

If I had deep pockets I might take a punt on the Hayes. They get such good reviews generally. I've never used them in anger, but from carpark testing, then seem to have an incredibly light lever action which appeals to me and the way the caliper can be aligned is really clever.

Ye the MT5’s were a pain,great when they worked but had to bleed them or at least a lever bleed most months
I’ve done a fair bit of research on the TRP the Hayes and Formula Cura
The fact the TRP are comp with Shimano means I can keep using the pads etc
I’ve not long bought the Magura MDR-P Rotors so I’ll either need to punt them or see if the TRP would run the 2mm rotors instead of the 2.3

if you've got a wandering bite point a good bleed can sort it. If not, you basically don't want shimano to replace them. They're very prone to it

It wanders slightly but the feeling it gets when it heats up and goes a bit rock hard then soft is very off putting

If I had deep pockets I might take a punt on the Hayes. They get such good reviews generally. I’ve never used them in anger, but from carpark testing, then seem to have an incredibly light lever action which appeals to me and the way the caliper can be aligned is really clever.

The alignment screws, I think, are a solution to the problem of the pads running very close to the rotor. Rather than Hayes thinking we'll be nice and make this job easy, it's more a case of they had to do something for people to have any chance of aligning them well enough.

They have a very high hydraulic leverage ratio (7.0; Trickstuff Direttissima is 6.0 and Maxima is 6.7, more here), which if I understand correctly means they multiply lever force greatly (hence the power) but don't move much fluid - so the pads have to run close.

Magura MDR-P Rotors so I’ll either need to punt them or see if the TRP would run the 2mm rotors instead of the 2.3

They will run 2mm rotors no problem.

it’s more a case of they had to do something for people to have any chance of aligning them well enough.

Still sounds less painful than aligning magura calipers by eye and noise!