Deore M615 or Sram Guide R?

John Wh

Decided to upgrade the brakes on my Inbred. I feel like I have had my £40 worth out of the Clarkes (no spares available etc.

Speccing standard rotors (180mm front and rear) with Deore M615 comes in at £112.93. Might need a bleed kit to shorten the hoses.

Chain Reaction have the Sram Guide R (full front and back kit) for £139.99.

From what I can tell the Guides are a decent brake and much improved over the Avid stuff. The Deore M615 is tried and tested, loved by many, but is still a fairly budget/mid option. The plus for the Deore, is that I have some spare pads from the Clarkes (same size).

So which one shall I go for? Hopefully most of the components I'm upgrading will be transferred over to a new bike/frame eventually.

Myster101

Think you'll be surprised just how good the Deores are, don't think you can beat them for the price. Also you probably won't need a bled kit, very easy to shorten hoses without needing to bleed even with the brakes fitted to the frame (G clamp comes in handy though). I did a set today and no bleeding required.

Drop me a PM if you want about shortening the hoses.

John Wh

Cheers

I've watched a few videos and read some instructions on epic bleed about shortening hoses. I reckon I should be able to manage that. Think I'm going to go for the in between SLX M675.

The retaining pin for the pads put me off the Deore. I'd rather have a screw, plus the tool-less reach adjustments seems like a nice feature (only work out about £15 more.

Would still like to hear about the Guides if anyone has used them yet. Seems like Sram will have to work hard to shake off the Avid reputation of inconsistency.

benpinnick

I run Guides, great brakes, no reliability problems on any of our sets to date. Over a Deore? All day long IMHO.

PS - You still get a split pin on SLX.

John Wh

OK, fair enough then on the split pins

Cheers for the feedback on the Guides. I only noticed after I ordered the SLX that they ship with pins, but apparently have the threads to accept the bolt from the XT.

The Shimano only really tipped it for me as I have 2 brand new sets of pads from Superstar that were goign to go in the Clarkes and they are the same size pads.

CC are doing the Guide R full set for £139.99, seemed like a bargain to me.

poah

I'd have gone for Zee

http://www.bike-discount.de/en/buy/shim ... -set-86999

John Wh

I thought about the Zee, but with rotors and adapters, they were slightly out of my price range. Probably worth the extra though. Maybe next time

Antm81

Zees are probably overkill Pugh for most riding though.

Do you need new rotors etc anyway? The ones from the clarks would work probably just as well.

poah

Antm81 wrote:

Zees are probably overkill Pugh for most riding though.

Do you need new rotors etc anyway? The ones from the clarks would work probably just as well.

don't see how though and why are guides not overkill as well?

peter413

Zee's are total overkill on an Inbred. There is no need for all that power and extra weight. I'm using Deore's with 160 and 140mm rotors on my Cube (similar to an Inbred), weigh well over 100kg and never struggle for braking power. The tyres let go well before the brakes struggle.

Even on my Mega I only use a Saint caliper on the front so I can happily use a smaller rotor.

poah

peter413 wrote:

Zee's are total overkill on an Inbred. There is no need for all that power and extra weight. I'm using Deore's with 160 and 140mm rotors on my Cube (similar to an Inbred), weigh well over 100kg and never struggle for braking power. The tyres let go well before the brakes struggle.

Even on my Mega I only use a Saint caliper on the front so I can happily use a smaller rotor.

Zee's weigh about 40 or so grams more per set than Deore and its not just about power, Zee modulate it better which is why I use them.

peter413

POAH wrote:

peter413 wrote:

Zee's are total overkill on an Inbred. There is no need for all that power and extra weight. I'm using Deore's with 160 and 140mm rotors on my Cube (similar to an Inbred), weigh well over 100kg and never struggle for braking power. The tyres let go well before the brakes struggle.

Even on my Mega I only use a Saint caliper on the front so I can happily use a smaller rotor.

Zee's weigh about 40 or so grams more per set than Deore and its not just about power, Zee modulate it better which is why I use them.

Deore's are also about half the price. So it's still unnecessary weight and expense for the Zee's. Having owned several Saint's, XTR's and Deore's, they don't modulate any better. I also know someone who has gone from Zee's to Deore's and they haven't even noticed.

I'm not saying Zee's are bad brakes. Quite the opposite but they're the wrong tool for this job.

poah

peter413 wrote:

Deore's are also about half the price. So it's still unnecessary weight and expense for the Zee's. Having owned several Saint's, XTR's and Deore's, they don't modulate any better. I also know someone who has gone from Zee's to Deore's and they haven't even noticed.

I'm not saying Zee's are bad brakes. Quite the opposite but they're the wrong tool for this job.

normally I'd agree but the OP was looking at guides which arn't 1/2 the price of the Zee's. having run SLX as well as Zee there is a difference in modulation and quite noticable on the trail.

peter413

Fair enough I was ignoring the Guide's a bit. I really think something must have been up with your SLX's though. Unless they really have made them worse than both the Deore's and XTR's. FWIW, there is hardly any difference between the Deore's and XTR's. The XTR's feel nicer to use but functionally they feel almost identical power and modulation wise.

Now I think about, the XT's I've used on a demo bike felt a little different too. Maybe I've got lucky to have received so many that are consistent.

John Wh

I replaced rotors mainly because I had a 160mm up front and wanted to switch to 180mm

Interesting reading up on people experiences with different brakes though. Seems like you can't go wrong with any of the Shimano stuff from M615 and above. I would rather over spec than slightly under spec though. Also they will probably be moved to a new frame when funds allow.

rockmonkeysc

I have Zee's on my DH bike and Depression on my trail bike. The Zee's are brilliant but incredibly powerful so I prefer the Depression for the trail Bike. They are just better suited to the use with more appropriate power and modulation.
There's nothing wrong with pins for pad retention. A correctly fitted pin can never come loose but a screw can if not regularly checked.

The Rookie

peter413 wrote:

Zee's are total overkill on an Inbred. There is no need for all that power and extra weight..

Be the first time anyone using an Inbred frame worried too much about weight given how damn heavy the frame is!

John Wh

I'm more worried about the weight on top of it to be honest

Still feels lighter that my old Hoodoo, so I'm going in the right direction!

maddog 2

I have some brand new Guides, taken off a bike I've just bought. Long hoses. Let me know if you want them.

John Wh

Cheers for the offer, but I ended up buying SLX

Antm81

You won't go wrong with SLX, no issues with me using them on some proper DH trails.