[Closed] Zee brakes

Nope, you're not missing anything.

I have the Superstar hoses and fittings, plus Superstar sintered pads (same model as the new Saint ones). Was about £20 for hoses and fittings.

Dead easy to assemble and bleed. only thing you will need is the block thingy to grip the hose when you push the barb in, but you could easily make one. It's just a block cut in half with a hole down the middle.

[img] https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQdGEpxGe4XSRGRFAjMDTNqjQRfsD0qwpxxLmLFQ5E6s69mMcPF [/img]

When i was India many years ago, i saw a bizarre TV show called zee horror show.

It was so stupid and badly made it became watchable; the locals thought it was mega scary.

Maybe it too was made by Shimano.

aren't zee brakes SLX levers with the 4 pot caliper?
Saint are XTR levers with the same 4 pot caliper?

The levers look similar to SLX though I think Zee is missing tool free reach adjust. SLX levers basically cost the same anyway

Great to see link for the £40 caliper please

Not sure what forum rules are on that, but if you do a Google shopping search for "Zee brake calliper" its the first item that comes up.

However, it is from an online company that seems to generally have an OK reputation but I noticed some people have had issues with items that are not "in stock"

Me thinks you will get no joy from the first company to list it as they do not allow you to put the calipers in your basket

Maybe I got a different result to you, I am looking at Winstanleys and I could add to my basket fine. I haven't tried checking out as I'm not spending the £'s yet but it certainly went into the basket OK

I ordered them so let's see!

muddlemeister, funny but I couldn't add them to basket on my desktop computer but on my ipad it worked perfectly.

slx lever and zee caliper ordered
65 quid delivered
not in stock
ordered anyways
In no rush but starts the clock

Stuarty what hose are you going to use - shimano bh90 seems to be recommended but there must be cheaper around

Taking this further, you could buy a XTR lever (£56) and zee caliper and have saint brakes for £95 an end! Cheapest I can find them is about £145 so a saving of £100 on a pair.

Can buy the actual Saint lever for £58 from CRC

Doh.

Well I just got a confirmation email saying part was ordered so doesn't appear to be a mistake.

Anyone got suggestion for cheap(ish) hose (or at least cheaper than BH90 UK retail price). I emailed Superstar but got a useless response.

Superstar hose is bang on. Same fittings as Saint. Under £20 all in!

ERM hope hose ain't a scud
Was going to get the knob around the corner to does some lines using that hel hose that the bsb boys use just to be trick

Seeing loads of peeps sending shimano back to them German sites
TBC
Pizza delivered

I seem to remember that the SLX lever has different internals...it will work but you won't get the same braking dynamics as a proper zee setup.

Yeah this. Zee master cylinder is bigger to create fluid push through. Apparently 10% or so, can't be sure but definitely took more to fill than xt.

Smaller cylinder works for me
Better hydraulic ratio more power offset by having to pull lever slightly harder

Whether it modulates the same remains to be seen

Might be the proverbial stick through the wheels

It also means the pistons might have to be run closer to the disks if they don't push as much oil....

Until you get used to them, Zee are horror power.

Then you get used to them and braking uber late. You forget after a bit, then borrow a mate's bike and get a reminder how phenomenal Zee 4 pots are.......

If it helps others in decision making I have slx m666 on my dh bike and they are definitely more than powerfull enough, german websites have them cheaper than the setup listed above for zee if you dont need the 4 pot power.

So buy the Zee levers? Could I run Zee lever with slx caliper on the rear?

Bike discount we list zee caliper ,lever,hose etc
Less than 100 quid probably better than the way I'm going but i'll have a higher tech brake hose than the 3 core shimano

Does any one sell ,balls,or man the **** up tablets

Whatever you're having, I want some...

What is the "hel hose that the bsb boys use just to be trick" ??

Never mind I worked it out.

What sort of banjo do you use with that hose?

Price of the Zee caliper on WSB is now £76. Guess it was a mistake.

There for one
[url= http://www.winstanleysbikes.co.uk/index.html ]here ffs lol[/url]

Erm yip price seems to go up when u click into it further

Wonder if they will honour earlier orders

I can't say I've had much luck with winstanleys in the past, their customer service has been shocking.

Hopefully they will make up for it by delivering me some discount brakes 🙂

Matt not sure what combo off brake your fitting
As the later servo wave levers are designed for the newer big bore hose

Shimanos pdf shows the sizes
As for hose
Im swaying towards goodridge dash ~3 (3.5mm) carboflex with black ends
As for the fittings the knob around the corner will fit them save me ordering the wrong type

I was planning to do Zee front calliper, SLX rear calliper, undecided whether to do SLX levers or Zee levers

Just giving this some thought - if SLX master pushes a little less fluid than the Zee lever, shouldn't that improve modulation at the cost of a bit of power for the same pull effort?

Doesn't this indicate that the Zee and SLX levers are interchangeable?

Looks like there's nothing stopping you putting a zee lid on a slx body and possibly having tooless reach adjustment and what ever length lever you prefer
Makes you wonder if they gained the better modulation just using the bigger hose

Stuarty, take a look here

http://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/xtr-trail-levers-and-saint-calipers

despatch confirmed from Winstanleys today for 2 zee calipers 🙂

I haven't got any such notification...:(

dizcostix out of interest what levers are you going to use?

using the XTR M988 levers with the xter BH90 hose as advised by madison:

"Hi Dave,

Thank you for your email.

You can use the M988 levers with the new Zee 4 pot calliper. You must use Shimano brake hose SM-BH90 as the inner diameter is smaller.

Regards,

Shimano"

fyi my understanding is that you need to use BH90-SBS or BH90-SBSL (this is the Saint hose with the long gold banjo) with Zee calipers as the Zee and Saint calipers have shorter banjo bolts than XTR/XT/SLX

Got email my stuffs been dispatched
Wished I ordered 2 calipers now

Rember something about the longer banjo for heat transfer

They couldn't honor my order for two calipers. So I canceled my order 🙁 And if you already have the M985's just drop the new calipers on and bleed ?

I picked up on this when everyone else was ordering and got 4 calipers delivered last week - lucky me eh?

After a bit of pondering what levers I ended up ordering 4 Zee levers from Winstanley's as well.

Get the feeling I might save a few pennies but am putting myself through more effort than necessary...

Got email my stuffs been dispatched
Wished I ordered 2 calipers now

Same ! On both counts

Get the feeling I might save a few pennies but am putting myself through more effort than necessary...

Yep, but I am "between jobs" so saving pennies is higher priority than saving effort

I got a full set, but the calipers have only been dispatched today. A bit of a pain in the arse, but good on winstanleys for fulfilling the order.

So who has found the best price for the Zee or Saint BH90 hose? Evans with 15% off at the moment seems to be UK cheapest?

Don't bother with the Shimano fittings and hose (they still appear to leak)....if you are going to buy Shimano then get some goodridge steel braided hoses and fittings.

Goodridge fittings are fairly pricey and their website seems quite useless, totally unclear which kit might work with Shimano M820 and M640 calipers

goodridge kit 108 for those calipers......unless you're using xtr 985/988 levers which means you should use the shimano xtr/saint hose with the smaller bore.

I thought you could fit Goodridge lines to 2012/2013 SLX/XT/XTR sing the 107 kit fittings.

I'm using Superstar hose and fittings - works perfectly on my Zee levers and calipers. Came in at under a tenner an end.

Goodridge 108 kit was for saint m810, I have seen nothing confirming compatibility with m820

Thanks Andy, good to know. Superstar kit 3 right?

Caliper arrived today. Good on Winstanley for honouring these orders

Thanks Andy, good to know. Superstar kit 3 right?

I've got kit 2 as that's the fitment for Saint M810 which the Zee caliper shares pads with - came with both length banjo bolts when I ordered back in mid-September. It's working spot on. But looking at the fitment guide, it now looks like kit 3 is the one.

🙂

No, my mistake kit 3 is banjo to banjo, kit 2 should still be the right one

kit 2 should still be the right one

You guys are most useful 🙂 I asked SS a couple of days ago and they wanted me to figure it out for myself.

Yeah I got told the same.

Makes me want to shop elsewhere, but where else can [s]fulfil my desire for uber-pimping my "steed"[/s] sell me such goppingly coloured components

It's good they do most stuff in black...

I dont care about colour, just don't know where else to find brake hoses and fittings for £20-ish all in

bwaarp - Member

I thought you could fit Goodridge lines to 2012/2013 SLX/XT/XTR sing the 107 kit fittings.

You can.

That's what i fitted to my 2012 xt's to resolve the leaky Shimano hose problems.

My calipers turned up today. Ordered the superstar kit, so hopefully will be running the zee's on my dh bike by the weekend 🙂

Seems theres a lot of "discount" Zee being assembled this weekend!

ERM mine arrived as well
Roll on sat for hoses and bleeding fun

Shimano quotes one way bleeding on servowave levers
Would that be down the way or caliper up

PS slx levers a right nice job regardless of price
How does this I spec lever work

You need i-spec shifters if you want to combine shifter and brake. What shifters have you got - recent XTR and XT can be upgraded to i-spec (I think....)

I believe one way bleed is from the calliper, but not 100% on this - however, since air bubbles rise that would seem to make sense...

Well what a load of faffing about..
Slx lever fitted
Knob couldn't make hose (hungover)
Ended up with hel MTB hose kit 2mtrs hose and far too many fittings
Balls to work with would buy superstar or jag wire instead
might still
Had to buy bleed kit and mineral oil another 9 quid
Couldn't get syringe only 5ml from chemist couldn't be added going to the vets

Faffed about trying to cut hose with various blunt garden clippers etc before I found the cutters that I had left at my arise
On with the faffing about hose on
Spare lump of hose (fish tank pump hose)
Onto nipple looped up over bars and back down into mineral oil bottle
Filled bleed resvoir opened nipple
Coffee sandwich and 2 buns later
Not a bubble in sight
Bucked the pads in threw the split pin in the bin
Old giant pad bolt in place
Pump lever holly Toledo lever solid
Hands washed quick test drive down hill

Enough power to lift back wheel at any speed with one finger
And no brake squeel thank **** for that
Ready for descent run tommorow morn
see how we go off road

Wholy fect did I just type all that tis nearly a book 😳
Totals
64 for lever n caliper
29.99 for hose kit
9 quid for fluid n bleed resvoir
Was it such a bargain mmmm

Still need to do rear brake...
Dilemma. ..lol

Apples to apples - the £30 for the hose kit and 9 for the fluid and bleed does both ends, right? That's £19 an end. 83 in total for a Zee/SLX combo (which I assume is what you did?). Seems worth a bit of faff to me

How much fluid did you use for one brake, I need to buy a kit from Epic and wondering if I need more than one bottle of oil

I paid about £155 all in, with the superstar kit. It was a bit of hassle, but worth it as the brakes are stonkingly good 😀

Looking forward to riding some proper downhill and giving them a real test.

Is it worth replacing my Avid rotors while I'm at it, or don't bother? I doubt I can afford Ice-tech right now so thinking I should just leave it

Don't bother, unless you are riding champery, the brakes will be plenty powerful enough.

thanks. Will just give them a sand and a wipe with some alcohol then.

just ordered my hoses and fluid. Wife says I'll have to have the levers for Xmas...

Can someone confirm fitting kit/hose swap required for this... (see below)

basically i have older saints, and want to fit servowave levers and keep older callipers (will prob just go for deore levers as they are cheaper)

do i need new hose?

http://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/old-saint-brakes-upgrade-lever-or-calliper-or

Didn't know what a ZEE brakes was so I googled it.

It appears to have a old Hope Mono M4 caliper on it.

It appears to have a old Hope Mono M4 caliper on it.

I guess appearances can be deceiving

 

got mine about 6mnths ago from israeli fleabay, £130 posted for the pair 😛 (no rotors though)

amazing brakes

I started doing the hose for the frankenbrakes tonight. Struggling to get the Superstar banjos into the hose all the way - its about 80% on (ie the last barb is in the hose but I can't push the hose right up to the banjo edge). Can I just do up the fitting tight, the olive crimp should presumably push it the last bit on?

ultimate test is if it p*sses mineral oil everywhere on first good pull of course, but thought worth asking.

No idea how I am going to get the lever end hose inserts in. At least the banjos have something to hold and push in. where do you get those yellow blocks?