Hmmmm, that would go down well with wife - took every ounce of my persuasive powers to be "allowed" to get the bike in the first place (and she got one too to placate things a bit). Heard very good things about Juicys when set up right - they work a treat. Just noisy. And I've heard that drinking DOT fluid is bad for you! Any newish (or even experienced) MTBers out there in the SW or SE - You MUST get this guide - absolutely brilliant for maintenance tips, route guides and technique: www.roughrideguide.co.uk
Seraph - Came through the post last week - ringbound and with a little plastic wallet so you can take individual routes out and keep them dry. Been looking for something like it for years! Bit pricey but I think it's worth it.
Avid make nice levers, but i have always been a fan of hopes for overall usage. the feel and response of the brakes and fine tuning is awesome
i'm talking simple things Matt, they really are fit and forget items, but you can tune how much lever you pull and the modulation of that too. its great so they can be super sharp real quick or progressive over more pull. and they are of British design, can't get any better than that!
another vote for hopes, got monos on mine, and unlike some people will tell you, theyre not noisy if you set them up properly I fitted mine nearly 3 years ago now, was a bit fiddly when i first fitted them setting up the discs properly in the middle of the caliper with the little shims but once they were sorted they havent needed any maintenance whatsoever apart from checking the pads every now and then. Still feel as responsive+smooth as when i got them.
i've never known hopes to be noisy. i've got a mini up front and its great, though the "kids" down the bmx track the other day didn't think it was real due to its design, the ones on their Ammaco bmxs were far better apparently
haha yea the minis are a great bit of machining. its funny what kids say, yesterday i got back home from going cycling with my gf and the bikes (mines a orange evo4 with XT, hope, marzocchi marathons etc and gf's is an airborne liberator with deore and marzocchi Z4's) were still on the roof rack on the car in the drive. As i went in for a beer i heard through the open window "cor look at them bikes on that car" followed by "nah mines better its full suspension". I looked and saw this kid on a 100 Apollo Y-frame haha. when i first got them i was at uni, and lots of guys in the uni cycling club had discs so i got lots of mixed reviews about the hopes- the bad ones were mainly from ppl that didnt have them tho and they would all say the hopes are noisy. Same if you read mtbreview.com as well. My dad had deore mechanical discs on his orange evo2 and when he had a blast on my bike earlier this summer he ordered a set of hope minis straight away when we got back from the ride they impressed him that much.
got to know the hopes guys quite well round 98-99 at the races, always happy to have a chat and let you ride/use the test bikes with prototype stuff on them. ask you what you thought, even as a member of Joe public they listened. mate has a disc up front but it died on him so he went back to V's, but left the disc on, that confused the children again children are like magpies, what ever the shiniest part on the bike draws their attention, on my bike it happens to be the valve caps, some ten years old now "oi mister you get those from cycle king?" i have no idea, they were a present and most likely from Halfords or free with MBUK at the time. " i'm thinking about getting some for my bmx...." or the other one we get is have you got any trick nuts? took us a little while to work out that meant pegs on bmx's...no my mtb doesn't have "trick nuts" very much like the dawg scene on snatch
I'm sure you know it but Hope can custom machine your own choice of letters into the rotors of their brakes - COOL! Got the bikes back from their service and mine seems a lot better - Should be good for a while now.
In my opinion having worked with and ridden with every brake on the market almost.. Hopes are hopes : do their job, 'bling' factor, often overrated! Avid : Good design, however they suffer from a constant spongy lever feel, also a pain in the ass to bleed. Hayes : Bomb Proof, however somewhat agricultural Magura : Nice again however Avid do a much better job for a similar price. Hard to get parts for. Shimano : A lot has to be said for the latest shimano brakes, the saints in particular are awesome, superb lever design, the most comfy i have ever ridden with! fantastic value!
Willber - you write for MTB mags? Know a couple of people who do similar. A mate co-runs Charge bikes too. Happy with my Avids (V brakes on my nold Stumpy are Avids too!) - If I start getting fussy, I start to spend money - And that's baaaad mm'kay?
Haha no i don't write for the mags fella. I used to work in a large bike shop up North both teching and in sales, thats where i've learnt all my stuff from. Theres honestly not a bad hydro brake on the market, it all depends on price and application. For me Avid's and Shimano's are favorites, I would only swap the Avid hoses to braided ones and spend a bit of time properly bleeding them, out of the box they arent set up properly, a lot of shops will send a bike out with them like this too!
I've got Avid Juicy 3's on my Norco, and they are really good for the price, very easy to set up and do a great job of stopping me. Back one honks a lot though, so I think a bit more setting up is in order. In my book there is one bad hydro brake on the market, the Hayes Sole that came as standard on my '06 Kona Scrap, and they are just terrible, with no where near enough power.
Got back from Morzine / Les Gets yesterday. It's just amazing!!! You can commute around the place via DH!! The first 2 days we're a nightmare weather wise, the deepest sloppiest mud I've ever ridden in. binned it at least 4 times each day, cracked 2 ribs and managed to rip my gear selector from my bars, somehow I even bent my crank, the peddle arms run true but the chainring doesn't? Weird. Got my confidence back gradually though and was running pretty well by the end of the week, even DH / Lifted over to Switzerland, which was handy, gave me a good opportunity to bin it in the Swiss Cup course, landed on my arm and pushed it into my bad ribs. Took a few beers in the hot-tub to get over that one. I’ll get some pics up.
Heres mine: Mondraker Ventura 05 With: Maxxis Larsen 2.0 front and 1.9 rear Shimano auto pedals Formula hidraulic brakes, 180 front and 160 rear
Replaced my old 96 pro flex with a saracen from halfools..... only done a 30 mile ride of the ridgeway....very good on downhills heavy going up yhough
