Best Hydraulic Disk Brakes for MTB - Recommendations?

[dieselcruiserhead]

I have been running Avid BB7s for a couple years even on my fancy bikes. The problem is they don't seem to last (either rotors or calipers) though the adjustability, ease of repair, and price is nice. I was considering getting some hydraulics. Interested in best reliability mostly but of course with decent performance...

What I've heard from bike shop lacky buddies is:

New Shimano XT Mineral Oil are good.
Formula is good but looks like QBP is discontinuing them, not sure what that means.

Hayes are bad, Avid Juicy are bad. Hope is pretty good but $$. Tekro = complete crap...

Let me know your thoughts!

 

[Christophe Noel]

You should try Avid BB7s.

Seriously, I hear what you're saying about the short life of the BB7, but it seems you can't open a bike mag these days without finding them for under $50. You can buy a lot of BB7s at that price and still come in under the price of a mid-range squirty brake.

 

[MotoDave]

I've had great experience with hayes brakes, both the older HFX9 and my current Hayes Stroker's. Pads seem to last me about 1-2 years, and I ride twice a week minimum.

I love the feel and adjustability of the Avid Juicy's, and if I were to buy a new set right now that's what I'd go with.

Hope are sort of fiddly in my experience, they take a bit to get set up properly and are good after that.

I've never liked Shimano's attempt to combine Brake lever and shifters, or their proprietary center lock hub-rotor interface, so I have no experience with them.

If you have any other questions feel free to ask, I was a bike wrench all through college and still do all my own work.

My current ride:
http://www.stormracetech.com/IMG_5244Large.JPG
http://www.stormracetech.com/IMG_5245Large.JPG
http://www.stormracetech.com/IMG_5246Large.JPG

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

I've heard mixed reviews on the Strokers, either love or hate. Many that were love but hate now. I can get an almost brand new set of strokers from a friend for $50 an end which is pretty good. I can still get cost so Formula or Shimano is about $100-$150 an end (which is still a lot compared to less than $100 for BB7s again).

 

[1speed]

I'm not a Shimano fan in general with the exception of XTR shift cables and XTR front derailleurs. I had really bad luck with Hayes HFX9's.

I've been running Avid Juicy Seven's on everything for years and love them. I run EBC Gold pads. What problems have you had with the Juicys?

I have not tried Hope's, but I LOVE their hubs.

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

I have run Hope hubs too and like them other than the rear noise. The weight is awesome. I have been running Hadley lately and they're great...

It is mostly from my friends who seem to have issues quickly with their Juicys unfortunately. Less than a couple months, fading, leaks, all sorts of problems...

I have been running shimano cranks (which I think are the best out there) and the derailleurs (all XT) and all are great except I broke a SHADOW derailleur a little too quickly lately so I went back to the 2008 model as I'd prefer to break a hanger first. Otherwise I'm pretty anti Shimano too mostly for no reason at all...

Seems like the opinions here on this vary as much as anywhere..

 

[ntsqd]

My only Hope (on the rear):

It's a cable driven floating caliper approaching 100 years old, or so.....
So is the Pro-Stop on the front. Dang, but the floating rotor is noisy.

I've been running the Avid 5's. I guess that I don't ride enough. Correction, I know that I don't, but I don't seem to have trouble with them living short lives. They usually are grabby when cold. meh, I'm used to it.

 

[alexrex20]

i run hope mini on my single speed. you can get them and parts pretty cheap if you check out ebay.co.uk

 

[dustboy]

I used to run Hayes on my DH bike, and thought they were the greatest thing ever. Good feel, modulation, power, and in 4 years never had to bleed or rebuild them.

Then I got a freeride bike with Juicy 7's. They are even better, so smooth and responsive. Don't know about the current crop of Avid's brakes, but my 7's are at least 4 years old and still going strong. Wouldn't trade them for anything. Maybe you should find an old set of lightly-used Juicys.

Stay away from Magura, I had a set of their Louise brakes and they have failed on me a few times, never worked that well to begin. By extension, I would avoid anything mineral oil based, I don't think it can handle the heat as well as DOT 3/4 fluid.

I'll bet your bike shop friends don't like the Juicys and the Hayes because of the DOT fluid..if you screw up and get a little on the frame, the boss and the bike owner are going to be really mad when you have to re-powder coat it!

 

[bluedog]

I would ask your friend why he doesn't like Hayes or Avid. I own both and have installed dozens of each. Both are very reliable, work great, and have great parts availability.


B.

 

[Corey]

Juicy 3s here and no complaints except the pad are a little noisy.
I read I think in MBA that they are organic, and it is good to switch the pads to metallic.

They also did a small review in the November issue on Magura Marta SL Magnesium brakes, and they gave them a 5 star rating which only goes to products that can take the thrashing.
They are $399 though...

They said they could not get them to overheat, grab, or fade at all.

Found this with Google.
http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=403889

But I have had no problems so far with my Juicy 3s.
I may try different pads when it is time to replace them.

 

[timh]

I have Hayes Sole's on the XC bike...they SUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Have Hayes Strokers on the freeride...LOVE them. They are either on or off which I like. I guess I am wierd, I don't like much modulation.

 

[MotoDave]

Have Hayes Strokers on the freeride...LOVE them. They are either on or off which I like. I guess I am wierd, I don't like much modulation.

Good point there. I've always felt with my Hayes brakes, you use finger pressure on the lever to control brake modulation. With Avid and Shimano its more lever position. I personally like my levers to be rock hard, with very little movement, but that's just a personal preference thing.

 

[ryguy]

I've had hayes and magura on my bikes for almost a decade, original fluid and no problems.

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

I talked to my bike tech friend here in Park City. He is a real high traffic bike tech who has worked at a bunch of the best shops here in both all-type-of bike environments as well as really high end.. Everything from custom builds to maintaining large fleets of different assortments of rental bikes so I really trust his opinion... Also I have built plenty of bikes on my own so I somewhat know what I'm doing though I only have a couple years doing it...

Anyway I called him for specific comments... I was sort of typing as I wrote so pardon the paraphrase...

He says the Hayes stroker use a patented special lube on master cylinders and Hayes was aware they didn't used enough of it on their earlier models. By later they acknowledged the problem and somehow remedied. In general he was and is very happy with the performance of the strokers (still has a set on his Blur and his Spot singel speeds) but after a single race during wet muddy conditions they nearly seized up. Hayes sent a tube of the lube and when he rebuilt them this time he liberally applied and hasn't had a problem since but this is their largest drawback.

Avid Juicy - pretty good across the board, just doesn't like them mostly because of noise and grabby and some problems with getting them to not be noisy, related to the mounting procedure of Avid brakes (the washers -- same with my BB7s and I have problems with noise with them often) so if there is light frame tweaking or other problems they are noisy quickly.

Shimanos the best because of mineral oil, nice and clean and basic and general adjust well and stay adjusted.

Never had much luck with the Avid elixers way to many adjustments, pad contact adjustment. Has bled and had come back the next day with no feel at all.

He says Formulas should be great but make sure you get a good bleed kit with them because they don't use the off the shelf bleed kits. I also found getting pads etc was hard as they are a rare brake.

In general he says with brakes that simple is the best. He says his ideal setup is a XT lever with XT caliper or XTR lever with XT caliper super bare bones. Only had slight fading at higher temperatures but lever feels close to the bar. Out of any any brake you'll get some noise, he runs the full metal pad because that last longer and in general they stop fine. Only issue is right now with colder temps make the mineral oil fluid a little heavier but they warm up quickly.

_________________

I still need to call my other bike tech/store owner buddy who went with that super cheap Juicy 7 deal that was on QBP this spring and says he regrets is over his usual BB7s. We are all on pretty nice well built bikes with sort of a "working man's bling" approach of XT or decent sram on Turners, Ventanas, etc...