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Need to sort out my brakes soon. I have M8000 fitted and sone new zee callipers to go on. Which is best, change callipers and hoses or callipers and banjo bolts?
Before you go too much further... There’s a design flaw with the M8000 levers that causes the “wandering bite point”, which is basically that they just don’t have a large enough fluid reservoir even for the stock calipers, to compensate for pad wear...
I wouldn’t be fitting Zee Calipers with M8000 levers myself, it will only exacerbate the problem! You’ll need to bleed the brakes 2 or 3 times per set of brake pads to compensate for pad wear, then let some out again when you swap for new pads! Not ideal...
That’s a bit disappointing, I thought that would essentially give me some xt 4 pots?
I was thinking about doing the exact same thing but with m785 levers
Are these affected with the same issue?
I don’t use the brakes very often and only for very short rides in the last few years but can’t say I’ve noticed any problem with them
Cheers
James
Use these with 4 piston magura mt7. No issues. Never had any issues with Shimano brakes apart from bad bleeds with causes inconsistent brake point.
We have been running a set of XTR levers with Saint calipers and a set of XT 8000 levers with Saint calipers for a few years with no problems. Using the existing hoses with new banjos as the new calipers dont come with banjos.
Also running a few sets of Saints on other bikes and cant tell any difference between them and the modded ones.
Only early M8000 levers affected - you’re likely to be fine. Especially if you’ve not had an issue with existing callipers. Bad bleeds are the cause of most problems but the known batch problem with M8000 means that most blame the brake rather than their own bleed.
You’ll end up with effectively M8020 XT 4 pots. Same calliper.
I’d keep hoses and change banjo bolts unless hoses tatty.
Like Tracey above, my trail bike is running XTR levers and saint calipers. All working perfectly for over a year with no issues/maintenance. Stop pretty quick too!
Zee calipers and M8000 levers for over a year with no issues.
Sounds like a plan. I have a full set of zees and xts, so on reflection I think I’ll just swap levers as it’ll be an easy bleed rather than swapping the banjo bolt.
I can usually swap Shimano levers without the need for a bleed.
Before you go too much further… There’s a design flaw with the M8000 levers that causes the “wandering bite point”, which is basically that they just don’t have a large enough fluid reservoir even for the stock calipers, to compensate for pad wear…
Disagree. I had wandering bite point on the rear and swapped calipers front to back to trace the fault. The fault went with the caliper. QED.
Did a total strip down and inspection found a few things like impacted swarf in the piston. Many believe it's the MC but I think most likely caliper brake dust contamination and occasional swarf issues on the pistons and potentially a clearance issue that drives the pistons off-axis.
I don't trust my life to Shimano brakes these last few years. I've had too many go down this track.