Hope Tech Evo M4 brakes...opinions welcome

Meatfox

Hi all. anyone running Hope Tech Evo M4 brakes?
Whats your take on these?
Thoughts on the Hope Evo X2 or Shimano XTs compared to these?
Cheers

Maddog1979

I've just asked a similar question... i think people will tell you to not bother with hope and run XT's

lawman

Maddog1979 wrote:

I've just asked a similar question... i think people will tell you to not bother with hope and run XT's

This. and then this some more. Xt's are an incredible brake, the lever is pot on for one finger braking and the power is insane, they put my old set of x2's in the stone age and are far more powerful than a mates m4's. Its one of the few instances where there is imo no reason to have other brake, much like shimano cranks.

Meatfox

ok, cool
so what is adjustability like on the XTs? the Hopes look pretty good for that?
basically i cant be bothered fannying about with them too much.

nicklouse

Meatfox wrote:

ok, cool
so what is adjustability like on the XTs? the Hopes look pretty good for that?
basically i cant be bothered fannying about with them too much.

But they are poor for actually working.

You don't need adjustability.

And look at Formula brakes.

Meatfox

But they are poor for actually working.

You don't need adjustability.

And look at Formula brakes.[/quote]

formulas seem pretty popular, although pushing my budget. £98 for each xt is still quite a lot for me...

lawman

Meatfox wrote:

But they are poor for actually working.

You don't need adjustability.

And look at Formula brakes.

formulas seem pretty popular, although pushing my budget. £98 for each xt is still quite a lot for me...[/quote]

Rosebikes.com have xt's for £66 each, all you have to do is swap the hoses over, which is dead easy. you really don't need the adjust ability that the hopes have, you will run the BPC right in to just get the power, reach on the xt's is tool and dead easy. Hope are over-priced and over-rated. Formula are good but the newer models have terroble rotor clearance and eat brake pads in the wet

supersonic

Even budget Shimano work great ie ALivio/Deore/

Meatfox

lawman wrote:

Rosebikes.com have xt's for £66 each, all you have to do is swap the hoses over, which is dead easy. you really don't need the adjust ability that the hopes have, you will run the BPC right in to just get the power, reach on the xt's is tool and dead easy. Hope are over-priced and over-rated. Formula are good but the newer models have terroble rotor clearance and eat brake pads in the wet

so are the levers ambidextrous?
thats a good price!

YeehaaMcgee

I know a few people still having problems getting spare parts for Formula brakes. Add that to the fact they actually need spare parts, and that I don't rate their brakes that highly, and I'm out.
Shimano XT all the way - they're practically a legend in the making. I swear, years from now, people will still look back fondly on them, like us old timers look back on old M636 stuff from over a decade ago.

delcol

from my research the other week, the new breed of xt's leak both at the caliper and the lever. i kept on finding review after review complaing about them leaking.. and it being such a big problem that there was a backlog to get the spare parts to fix them..
it was enough to put me off buying a pair, shame as i could of get a set mega mega cheap...
i went for formula in the end...

i have hope evo tech 2 on my hard tail they been fine for me, a little underpowered but have great feel....

nicklouse

YeehaaMcgee wrote:

I know a few people still having problems getting spare parts for Formula brakes. Add that to the fact they actually need spare parts, and that I don't rate their brakes that highly, and I'm out.
Shimano XT all the way - they're practically a legend in the making. I swear, years from now, people will still look back fondly on them, like us old timers look back on old M636 stuff from over a decade ago.

Any need part that I have bust or worn out.
Lever and pads......

lawman

delcol wrote:

from my research the other week, the new breed of xt's leak both at the caliper and the lever. i kept on finding review after review complaing about them leaking.. and it being such a big problem that there was a backlog to get the spare parts to fix them..
it was enough to put me off buying a pair, shame as i could have get a set mega mega cheap...
i went for formula in the end...

i have hope evo tech 2 on my hard tail they been fine for me, a little underpowered but have great feel....

Both of my sets have been fine for a number of months now, have half a dozen sets locally. the hoses are mega long, so they often need trimming, and I imagine this is where the leaks come from, out of the box they are spot on and as yeehaa says, this generation of shimano brakes, xt in particular will go down as a real game changer

delcol

i do like them they look smart but it was the mixed review what put me off, shame as i could of had a set with discs for £150

ricardo_smooth

The new XTs are fine. All leaking was either with early ones or user error (ie someone messing up the hose trimming)

Meatfox

ricardo_smooth wrote:

The new XTs are fine. All leaking was either with early ones or user error (ie someone messing up the hose trimming)

cool. presumable if the hose is too long and a trim is necessary you got any tips on how it's done right?

ricardo_smooth

Most of it is easy,shimano even provide the instruction on how to do it. You just have to make sure your cable cutters are sharp and that the cut is square.

fashionusme

thank you for your opinion!

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YeehaaMcgee

delcol wrote:

from my research the other week, the new breed of xt's leak both at the caliper and the lever. i kept on finding review after review complaing about them leaking.

Your google or mine is broken then - I've just done a quick search for issues with XT785 brakes, and turned up a blank, apart from one guy who was having problems with contaminated pads - which is more than likely due to getting cleaning materials on the brakes.

EDIT: Oh, and one knob-head who said he preferred his Juicy 3s :roll:

Giraffoto

+1 for Shimano, I have the lowly M596 Deores and they're brilliant. Adjustability is all very well, but it's even better to have everything work first time and not need adjusting.

steelie600

+ sweet potato

delcol

YeehaaMcgee wrote:

delcol wrote:

from my research the other week, the new breed of xt's leak both at the caliper and the lever. i kept on finding review after review complaing about them leaking.

Your google or mine is broken then - I've just done a quick search for issues with XT785 brakes, and turned up a blank, apart from one guy who was having problems with contaminated pads - which is more than likely due to getting cleaning materials on the brakes.

EDIT: Oh, and one knob-head who said he preferred his Juicy 3s :roll:

see

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i have nothing against these brakes like i said i wanted a pair for my new build and at £150 all in they would of been cheap for me to.. it's just from what i read it put me off enough to change my mind and go for something else...

supersonic

I tested some Tech M4s. Nice lever feel, but limited adjustment (as in they did little), not very light and considerably underpowered.

YeehaaMcgee

delcol wrote:

see

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i have nothing against these brakes like i said i wanted a pair for my new build and at £150 all in they would have been cheap for me to.. it's just from what i read it put me off enough to change my mind and go for something else...

Wow, you must have searched quite hard to find those.
Now use your same detective skills, and apply them to Hope M4s.

lostboysaint

supersonic wrote:

I tested some Tech M4s. Nice lever feel, but limited adjustment (as in they did little), not very light and considerably underpowered.

See that's interesting. I'm 95kg and run M4s on the Bandit and XTs on the Inbred and I find that the M4s are more powerful when it comes to real desperate, last ditch braking. The XTs are very impressive with limited lever movement and great one-fingered brakes but ultimately don't ever offer any more braking. The M4s just keep adding stopping power.

supersonic

There's always the chance with any brake that they have not been bedded in properly, a bit of contamination - could hav ebeen the case here, but the bike was fresh from OnOne.

lostboysaint

supersonic wrote:

There's always the chance with any brake that they have not been bedded in properly, a bit of contamination - could hav ebeen the case here, but the bike was fresh from OnOne.

Both mine have been treated identically.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying they are the be all and end all, far from it as I reckon your comments about the Tech lever are pretty bang on (and they don't sit comfortably with changers without matchmaker kit etc.etc.) and I am a big fan of the Shimano brakes as well (I originally had the M595 single pots on the Inbred and they were excellent). I just find the Hope are more reliably powerful when needs must!

YeehaaMcgee

I'm with Sonic here - I've never even had to delve into the forearm-strength-testing end of the XT M785 (specifically M785 - a far superior brake to their previous models, a lot of people ignore that difference) and have never been short of power.
And a certain magazine, WMB, I believe, have mechanical test rigs which back up their claims.

leaflite

Whilst not the most powerful brakes out there, my hope tech x2s have more than enough power for all the riding I have done. The new evo versions are more powerful, the race evos more so. I have found them to be very reliable, with no issues to report in about 1 year of riding. The pads last forever too.

Everybody bangs on about how powerful the xt brakes are, but on the recent braketest on here the dyno results did not support this. They came out about 10nm more than the new evo x2s, about the same as the new race evo x2s(which are significantly lighter than the xts) and about 10nm less than the new race M4s. The new race M4s are also a similar weight to the xts.

I appreciate that this is done indoors and does not necessarily reflect real world performance, but in that particular test the hope brakes did very well. In the table, only formula the one/r0 brakes were more powerful.

I think that hope brakes have very linear modulation, wheras brakes such as the xts have a more curved modulation, with power that increases rapidly at the beginning but then starts to fall off as more pressure is applied. This is probably what makes them "feel" more powerful(as most people probably only use this part of the stroke as pressing harder than this = otb) even though the the actual peak power measurements are the same/less than most hope brakes.

I agree that the XTs are very good brakes and are probably better than hope in terms of real world performance for most people. I just dont think that hope deserve the bad reputation that most on here give them.
http://www.bikeradar.com/mtb/fitness/article/how-we-test-hydraulic-disc-brakes-24345/