Hope Brakes

Haing just shot a feature on Hope and spent a couple of days up there with them, i would recommend anyone buys their brakes if for just their business ethos alone.

Wonderful refreshing outlook, great product, supported well and all done in house to v high stds and ethics. Nice people.

G

nathb":2c4ja0me said:

Love Hope brakes.

At the moment I'm using trusty Hope C2's with 203/180 due to using PM forks (IS caliper so 180 didn't fit properly).

However I'm just about to upgrade to my freshly serviced Hope M4's (originals). I have high expectations of them and I'm hoping they have a lot more bite than my C2s. Not that there is anything wrong with the C2s, they're just going on my back up bike.

Click to expand...

You'll be sadly disappointed....

Worst thing I ever did was selling my C2's and following fashion to Enduro / M4's.... The 4 pot was never as strong or adjustable as the C2, slightly better for racing as resisted fade better but i wasnt always racing my bike..

boxxer":yaccjuq5 said:

nathb":yaccjuq5 said:

Love Hope brakes.

At the moment I'm using trusty Hope C2's with 203/180 due to using PM forks (IS caliper so 180 didn't fit properly).

However I'm just about to upgrade to my freshly serviced Hope M4's (originals). I have high expectations of them and I'm hoping they have a lot more bite than my C2s. Not that there is anything wrong with the C2s, they're just going on my back up bike.

Click to expand...

You'll be sadly disappointed....

Worst thing I ever did was selling my C2's and following fashion to Enduro / M4's.... The 4 pot was never as strong or adjustable as the C2, slightly better for racing as resisted fade better but i wasnt always racing my bike..

Click to expand...

I had the opposite experience; I never really got on with the C2's that I had but loved my E4's. They really were some of the best brakes that I've had. I've never had a set of DH4's that the E4's replaced so can't comment on them.

The first M4's which had the Mini lever are not a patch on the E4's that I had. The pair I have on my hardtail are possibly the worst brakes I've ever had.

Mindmap3":3c7mfttp said:

boxxer":3c7mfttp said:

nathb":3c7mfttp said:

Love Hope brakes.

At the moment I'm using trusty Hope C2's with 203/180 due to using PM forks (IS caliper so 180 didn't fit properly).

However I'm just about to upgrade to my freshly serviced Hope M4's (originals). I have high expectations of them and I'm hoping they have a lot more bite than my C2s. Not that there is anything wrong with the C2s, they're just going on my back up bike.

Click to expand...

You'll be sadly disappointed....

Worst thing I ever did was selling my C2's and following fashion to Enduro / M4's.... The 4 pot was never as strong or adjustable as the C2, slightly better for racing as resisted fade better but i wasnt always racing my bike..

Click to expand...

I had the opposite experience; I never really got on with the C2's that I had but loved my E4's. They really were some of the best brakes that I've had. I've never had a set of DH4's that the E4's replaced so can't comment on them.

The first M4's which had the Mini lever are not a patch on the E4's that I had. The pair I have on my hardtail are possibly the worst brakes I've ever had.

Click to expand...

Hmm mixed reviews then!

My C2s aren't going anywhere just yet.

I'm going to test these for a month and decide which go up for sale.

I've run pretty much every Hope brake ever made except for XC4s, V2s and the new V4s and the original cablebrake.

Point of view on Hope is
Shimano XT brakes will do the same as Techs. But cost more. So why bother?
Hope customer service is legendary.
Parts availability is the best in the bike trade, anywhere in the world, barring possibly King, period.

Depending on where you are riding, Uunderpowering your rear brake is a mistake in my book. These brakes are so good you will ride faster - and at some point will find that 160 rotors will reult in fade. Am running 160 Minis and 160 C2s on my Paces, which only get used in Denmark. But my Fully (with Tech M4s) that gets taken to the gnarly stuff and to real mountains, then 180 F&R. 180F and 160R was not enough in Provence.

Match rotors! Even if it is just fr visuals. Brake bias is per person though.

dbmtb":136f9qfc said:

I've run pretty much every Hope brake ever made except for XC4s, V2s and the new V4s and the original cablebrake.

Point of view on Hope is
Shimano XT brakes will do the same as Techs. But cost more. So why bother?
Hope customer service is legendary.
Parts availability is the best in the bike trade, anywhere in the world, barring possibly King, period.

Depending on where you are riding, Uunderpowering your rear brake is a mistake in my book. These brakes are so good you will ride faster - and at some point will find that 160 rotors will reult in fade. Am running 160 Minis and 160 C2s on my Paces, which only get used in Denmark. But my Fully (with Tech M4s) that gets taken to the gnarly stuff and to real mountains, then 180 F&R. 180F and 160R was not enough in Provence.

Click to expand...

I don't mean to sound argumentative, but Hope brakes are more expensive than XT brakes RRP in the UK. The gap widens even more if you take into account the discounts available on Shimano stuff. No one seems to offer more than 10% off Hope stuff.

The Tech Evo 2 brake has an RRP of £125 in the UK, excluding rotors whilst the latest XT is £110 excluding rotors.

I run my XT brakes because they are effective and cheap...not pretty but they do the job very well. My old Saints were the easiest brakes I've ever had; four years on various bikes and nowt went wrong at all.

The spares availability for Shimano is rubbish though, but then a new calliper is so cheap, it's not too much of an issue. A new XT calliper can be bought for about the four pistons needed for my M4's.

What is great about Hope is that they still sell bits for brakes right back to the original Mini's and M4's as well as the Bulb hubs.

Last time I checked with my suppliers - a pair of Tech X2s was a better deal for my Danish punters than a pair of XTs. I don't usually use RRPs as point of reference, however and there will of course be regional price variations. Half the people who buy XT in Denmark get it from German discounters so the distributor has lower volume and higher prices. If I were to buy 2 calipers and a set of levers it would cost me as much wholesale as the Hopes do.

You don't see Hope discounted like Shimano as nobody uses it as OEM parts - probably because Hope know their core audience is the upgrade market so why spoil a good thing? Once people like Bike Discount, One One and soon start getting their hands on stuff and selling what they are supposed to be building bikes with to punters, then yes - you do sometimes see some very silly prices for Shimano stuff.

Even if they are more expensive in the UK, then it's still only a little more than XT for a product that has a quality that XTR doesn't even match. And don't get me started on SRAM brakes.

Here's a pic of my rather lovely looking tech evo stealth lever. Never get bored at looking at these :?