What are good lightweight brakes for a light XC build? Prefer 2-piston calipers. Sram seems to have abandoned the category currently only promoting their Motive series. XTR-9200 might not be worth the premium over XT-8200 which seem pretty reasonable especially with the improvements over past XT iterations. Any real advantage to going more exotic, like Formula Cura, Magura, …?
Welp looking around at the Epic 9, Canyon LUX WC, Anthem Advance, etc. I see what they’re using so I guess those options are a safe bet.
If you have the money Trick Stuff Picola Breaks. Supper light and some people put them on dh bikes. But supper expensive and hard to get.
Magura is good but its very high preformace in the sense they must be maintained properly. Where as Sram and Shimmanio you can kinda just set and forget.
I have Shimano M8100 (yes, one gen older, but according to reviews, the Mx200-series brakes are very similar). I am decidedly underwhelmed. I got them, because I needed new brakes in the middle of Covid and I was living in Shimano land at the time. I really liked my M785 XT brakes I had before. The M8100 are very meh. The bite point is meandering around, especially on short, sharp inputs. It no longer provided a “lever action pocket” where you could pre-engage the brakes just above the bite point. The force-lever displacement curve was very flat on the M785s, so you could pre-engage the brakes when needed.
I have had Maguras and had Hopes (4-pot) on a loaner. In terms of lever feel, the Hopes stand out. They were spectacular.
Hey, thanks for the ideas. I’ll look into them in more detail. For my meager application, it probably makes most sense to stick with mainstream offerings, whatever the major bike brands are equipping their high-end XC bikes with, which mainly looks like XTR and Motive brakes.
Formula Cura are the best 2 piston brakes I’ve ever used and usually you can find them pretty cheap online. I also really like the XTs. Easier to find pads if you’re in a pinch with the Shimano.
Not that this helps, but I just switched from 8100 to 8220 brakes, and I’m wishing I had gone to 4-piston brakes sooner.
I was one of the guys wondering why everyone in XCC, XCO, and XCM was going to 4-piston when 2-piston seemed to work fine, but there really is a big difference in performance, and that’s one of the places where I think the extra few grams is worthwhile.
In what ways do you guys think the 4 pot brakes work better? I’ve been very happy with my 2 pot brakes and am leery of dealing with sticky pistons and dragging brakes with 4 pots.
Most of the time, there aren’t really major performance differences, but in the cases where I really rely on my brakes (surprises on the trail, steep/technical stuff), their power is much better.
It was really easy for me to discredit bigger brakes for a long time, because the 8100s were really good, but feeling more confident in those scary situations is worth the added grams.
I’ve also learned to care a bit less about weight since I’m not regularly dealing with sustained climbing. As I’ve added weight to my bike, it’s only gotten more fun to use (dropper post, bigger fork, 180mm front rotor, bigger brakes, grippier tires, etc.).
I only have experience with Hope 4-pot brakes. But they had significantly more power at the same lever force, but were really easy to modulate (a thing Hope brakes are known for). That was especially true after longer descents. Like @eddie wrote, they add confidence because you have more reserves and the weight savings don’t matter for most mere mortals in most circumstances.
Magura MT7 is very powerful, and also light. But they are kind of finicky to bleed, but I am starting to get the hang of it. I would buy them again.
When going from Shimano brakes to mt7’s the biggest difference was that the maguras had both power and modulation, where all my Shimano brakes are on/off when on some kind of loose surface.
Good info. Shimano-wise I’ve had M785 and 8100. I never liked the 785 as they were too grabby and had a lot of bite point wander. I was adjusting the reach multiple times per ride. In sketchy situations like loose off-camber etc., it found getting the right amount of light braking very touchy. I rode them for 9 years so did get somewhat used to it. My more recent M8100s are a significant improvement in both respects, but still not perfect. I get less wander less frequently, and the brakes are less grabby which I assume is do the redesign of the Servo Wave mechanism. With a 180 front rotor I get more than enough power.
My wife has SRAM Level Ts on her bike and I find those pretty decent. No wander and not grabby. More power would be good, but she has 160mm rotors.
Going way back I had Avid Juicy 7s for many years. They worked, but brakes have come a long way since then.
Some of the more niche brands do save weight, but agree with the sentiment that for me it wouldn’t be consequential.
I’ve used Sram and Magura on different bikes for many years. I prefer Magura. Feel great. Great modulation and power. I have MT8 and MT8SL. Very light XC brake. I’ve heard great things about Hope as well, but haven’t tried. If I had to switch from Magura, I think Hope would be my first choice. The Magura’s have not been any more difficult to bleed or maintain than the Sram in my opinion. Once they are setup, I haven’t had to do anything to them except change pads.
I’m with Eddie on this. I’ve had 4 piston on my enduro race bike and it finally hit me, ‘I ride a lot of the high alpine, steep, loose trails on my epic evo I do my Rallon; it’s time to switch’. I can’t believe what I was riding with those older Hopes, hah. I had a nice deal with XTs and my goodness gracious, so good. If my fox 34sc would allow it, I’d run a 203 up front. Ya gotta let the big dog eat!
