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After the second time i've broken a lever on my XT's in less than 6 months i've come to conclusion that they are pretty fragile, and by the looks of it, near impossible to find replacement parts for cheap and quickly, so, looking to shift away from Shimano, what are the options, from what i can see:
Hope E4s 200mm rotors, they look the part, but stock looks a bit iffy just now, do new ones come with the olives and barbs, or is that more cost on top and more parts to source?
SRAM Codes, what are the ones to look at, there appears to be R, RS and RSC, what's the difference, are they decent enough on an ebike, etc, etc?
Was thinking of the Hopes, but will mean needing to buy rotors as well due to compatibility not being there for Shimano and Hope, plus the lack of physical stock is making it hard to work out who has them, the SRAMs are a worry as i'm unsure they have similar feel in the lever, i prefer one finger braking, so not a fan of the 2 or 3 finger levers, is this an option?
Any others i've missed, i know i've not looked at many of the brands, but haven't a clue what formula and the others are like, had a quick look at TRP but they are not really available widely and no stock by the looks of it.
I know about the modulation issues for shimano, not that bothered to be honest as i'll just learn to change like i did when i went from hope's to shimano a few years back.
Hope e4 are underpowered in my experience.
I have shimano xt 4 pots on my ebike, sram code rsc on one of my other bikes and magura mt5 4 pots on the other bike.
I'd go sram code rsc if you don't want shimano xt. They're super powerful, they feel more powerful than the xt, and have been reliable and fade free over proper big descents. The levers work fine for single finger braking.
Magura MT5 are a good budget option, nice modulation and good power.
Well , my ebike actually came with Guide REs which are excellent. They have cured my aversion to SRAM brakes to the extent when the brakes on my other (non e) bike become tired I will try and get a set for that.
Down side is they do tend to squeal on aftermarket pads.
4 pots and large rotors. What about V4's
Havent tried the guides, but on some of the advert vids on YT rate them well. Shimano are very very good XT Saint XTR. Given the extra weight, and maybe luggage too I'd opt for Saints.
Might have to,As Below 😆 )
Hope e4 are underpowered in my experience.
How so ?, I was going to put e4's on the ebike when I get it. interested to know 🙂 In purple too 🙁
How so ?, I was going to put e4’s on the ebike when I get it. interested to know
They just need a Lot of finger force at the lever to get a good level of retardation, wheres xt, sram codes etc need much less finger force for the same level of retardation.
They were bang on reliable though, and never faded, but ultimately I ditched them as they took too much finger effort.
I’ve got Hope V4 with 203mm rotors on my Levo and Hope E4 with 183mm rotors on my 27.5 150mm Bird hardtail (Tech 3 levers on both). The extra power on the Levo’s brakes is ideal for matching the extra mass and bigger wheels.
Will have a check on availability, not seen many Codes or V4s lately, lack of stock and lack of deals isn't good just now!
Hope are easy to live with and infinitely rebuildable. Don't bother with the E4 though. I've got them and they're fine but if I was buying again I'd just go full fat because why not? Especially if I had an e-bike.
Running Guide REs on ours and they have been faultless. They can be had a a good price if you shop around
Never got on with SRAM brakes in the past so have always gone with Saints on our other bikes so suprized with the REs. Plenty of stopping power.
Answers the question. new brakes please.
OP
Just a thought* ,if you leave the levers a wee bit on the slack** side, it can save them in a lot of the smaller impacts.
*if not already doing this
** not so much that they move in use obvs
Both snapped straight off, the 8120s appear to have shaven a bit of meet off at a certain area, both levers have snapped right at that bit, no amount of slack would save it as they've broken upwards.
I've got 8000s on the other bikes, never had an issue with the lever, but they are slightly bigger, think it's time to just bin the 8120s and focus on something that's a bit easier to rebuild, there is literally no spare levers in the UK, you have to replace the entire lever assembly, which is 50 quid, if you can find one, honestly for something so fragile it's embarrassing.
As my near namesake says above, since the early 90's I was always told to leave the levers slightly loose so that you can turn them with some effort. For exactly the reason that it prevents you from breaking one. Had an off just the other day with my Deore M6120's and because I left them loose they just spin round on the bar a bit. Furthermore it was upwards mine twisted as well. These aren't V or Canti levers we're talking about here that cost £20-30 BITD. These things are expensive. Can't hurt to give it a try.......
Ive gone with Guide RSC and Ultimate off Pink bike. With the bleed a ma jig its easy to look after them and I rum the same on all our bikes,its easy for spares, pads etc etc.
Got the last set off Pinkbike.
They were bang on reliable though
E4s reliable? Good one, funny joke that.
As above, tighten the brake and shift levers just enough that they don't move under normal use, but you can turn them with your hand with moderate effort. This lets them move if you drop your bike instead of breaking. Similar with tightening the stem on the steerer - tight enough that it won't move under normal use, but can twist in a crash.
No brake lever is going to be strong enough to handle a 40 or 50 pound e-bike landing on it so not dropping the bike on them is ultimately the only way you can avoid breaking them.
I had the new 7120 SLX brakes and took a slo mo spill on my trail bike and split the lever blade right at the skinny part
Wasn’t even a fast impact
Where as I’ve had many spills on my older Zee’s and never an issue