The new Julie: the upstart!! Of course no worry, no compromise 100% MAGURA Brakemeister technology. Twin piston fixed caliper featuring automatic pad adjustment. Cool matt black finish with matt silver forged alloy lever blade. Fits to all forks and frames with IS mounts. Frontbrake also available for Manitou Postmount. The price????.....will shock the scene and care for a massacre.....
Submitted by
Inverleith02
a Weekend Warrior
from Angus
Date Reviewed: February 25, 2012
Strengths: None that i have seen but could be down to the clowns that made up the bike!
Weaknesses: Plastic, flimsy, noisy and dreadful performance that frankly puts your life at risk!
Bottom Line:
It is difficult to say whether these brakes are so poor or whether they came from the spare parts we thought we'd never use bin! They are simply shocking and have already been fixed twice. Confidence in this particular product and the bike shop are shot, time to cut my losses and get a new set.
Bike Setup: Cove handjob, magura forks and brakes, shimano drive train and hubs
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Submitted by
MrHyde
a Weekend Warrior
from Calgary, AB, Canada
Date Reviewed: April 13, 2011
Strengths: Rock solid dependable, NEVER had to touch these things, ever! I love the levers, and the feel on these cheapo's is top notch. They come set up with 7"/6" rotors - perfect for trail bikes.
Weaknesses: Mine had plastic perch/reservoir, which is lightweight, indestructable, but has a little bit of flex to it. No biggie, it still feels firmer than most. My levers are aluminum, not plastic as others complained about. The calipers are monsterous and heavy compared to most high pressure designs.
Bottom Line:
I got these brakes a long time ago and have yet to touch them. I believe mine are the 04 or 05 model. They have better feel and stopping power than anything I have tried from anyone else. The only downside to these things is that they are heavy, and the lines are what seems to be flimsy plastic tube, although I have never had an issue wit that either. The feel at the lever is rock solid, and makes a properly bled hayes feel downright mushy. The closest anything has come to that rock solid feel is an old set of hope mono mini's with stainless lines. Consitering what I paid for them, and how long they have lasted I think I can say there is no better low budget brake, period. If you look at the other reviews you'll see other people with the same experience, then the oddball one saying they suck..... and they don't. I would chock up the low reviews to dud brakesets/installation/setup. Mine have been flawless, with an awesome blend of power and modulation, while staying silent year round in Canada. My next brake purchase is going to be from Magura again, but it's going to be significantly lighter this time.
Similar Products Used: Hayes El camino, sole, HFX-9, HMX-2, Stroker Trail. Hope mono mini.
Bike Setup: 5" full squish built light (other than these brakes)
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Submitted by
ruary
a Cross Country Rider
from Phoenix, AZ
Date Reviewed: November 1, 2010
Strengths: Excellent stopping power, simple to service, inexpensive, fantastic customer service
Weaknesses: Not the lightest brake.
Bottom Line:
These really are excellent brakes. I have had these brakes on a couple bikes because you could not beat the price and performance combo. I have ridden a ton of miles on them, and had my share of crashes, and have never had a problem with the plastic levers. I really like the shape of the levers and the brake feel. The are incredibly easy to service and I especially like the fact that Maguras use mineral oil instead of DOT fluid that will ruin the finish of your frame. I have a friend who had Julies and had a sticky piston. Magura sent a new caliper out at no charge. Who does that now? Awesome customer service. I see recently that you can pick up Julies for like $10 each on ebay. Unbelievable deal.
Strengths: very good brakes with great braking power . actually these brakes giving me on\off feeling
Weaknesses: i don't like its levers . in wet conditions you may get weird sound from the caliper area but it does not affect breaking power.
Bottom Line:
great brakes to get as stock component much much much better then shimanos 520 brakes. don't think that i'd buy this model again . will stick with Magura but with more advanced models.
Similar Products Used: hayes 3, tectro mechanical disk brakes , shimano 520 hydraulic brakes
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Submitted by
Bigtwin
a Cross Country Rider
from Surrey UK
Date Reviewed: January 12, 2009
Strengths: None
Weaknesses: Stopping ability!
Bottom Line:
These came on my F700 XC ride. What they are doing on a bike like that is anyone's guess; they have terrible.
In the warm and dry - fine. Otherwise - forget it. They don't adjust to pad wear, they seize and drag at the first sniff of wet and mud, and even when (rarely) they actually work properly, the stopping power is unimpressive - my Hopes knock them into a cocked hat in all respects. They have been nothing by a P-in-the-A the whole time. I've adjusted them everywhich way, changed the oil, changed the pads, stripped, cleaned, lubed, you name it.
Submitted by
Matt Wildermoth
a Weekend Warrior
from Auckland
Date Reviewed: March 25, 2007
Strengths: indestructable
Weaknesses: none, so far...
Bottom Line:
I honestly can't beleive that the plastic levers haven't snapped yet! I've had my bike for aboout 3 years, and although i've managed to break, snap, buckle, bend and pop almost everything else on the old girl, the brakes just won't give up!!! The braking is definately not as sharp as it was when they were new, but I'm pretty sure thats due to a harder compound pad that replaced the old ones. Anyway I'm gonne keep hammering these till they die, which could be a very long time....
Similar Products Used: cheap, painful V - brake setup
Bike Setup: Giant XTC
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Submitted by
Ralph KOCH
a Cross Country Rider
from Cottlesbridge VIC AUSTRALIA
Date Reviewed: February 3, 2007
Strengths: Have done over 2000kms on these brakes,Bled the fronts once and replaced rear pads-got the pads from Singapore on e-bay for $9.00. Crashed a million times and only pinched the tube once
Similar Products Used: V-BRAKES, Shimano Deore Discs
Bike Setup: Gary Fisher MARLIN
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Submitted by
andy
from spokane
Date Reviewed: October 11, 2006
Strengths: strong power especially in the front.
Weaknesses: brake levers are complete garbage.who would make a brake lever out of plastic, and then put them on a freeride bike? barely fell on rock and snapped the plastic lever clean off. had to tie it back on to finish the ride.
Bottom Line:
great stopping power, just super cheaply made brake levers. buy something else or immedeatly replace levers with something that is non plastic.
Submitted by
antony aiken
a Racer
from grimsby england
Date Reviewed: November 12, 2003
Strengths: super power, affordability, sales, adjustability....etc
Weaknesses: looks, performance when new, flimsy plastic lever.
Bottom Line:
these brakes are awesome, i had to put softer pads in my hope mini to come even close to the stopping power of the magura. the mini is ok for dependability and looks but thats it, it wont stop 14 stones of rider at 35mph in the wet like the magura will, (dont give me crap about how much more powerfull hopes are, that they maybe but they dont work as well!!)
great brake now on the back of my bike thanks to some goodridge hoses!!
Similar Products Used: hope mini, hayes hydraulic.
Bike Setup: raleigh fishbed slalom frame, dmr jump seat, truvativ hussefelt cranks, middleburn DH chainring, shimano XTR rear mech, doere shifters, hope mini front, magura julie front ( now rear (no need to waste a good brake now!!) rock shox jusy race forks with adjustable everything, mavic d521 rims, nokian gazzalodi 3.0 tyres, hope bulb hubs, dmr V8 pedals, truvative isis sealed BB, azonic riser dubble wall bars, goodridge braded stainless hose for magura, cat eye stadium lights and finaly truvative chainguide!!
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Submitted by
antony aiken
a Cross Country Rider
from grimsby england
Date Reviewed: March 31, 2003
Strengths: very very powerfull front disk, i have a raleigh fishbed and as such have magura julie disk at front and caliper at the rear, they are super powerfull, i need them for doing stunts and stuff on my local skate park!
Weaknesses: too strong, i came off over the handle bars after a clear jump over a half pipe and running into a kid on a skateboard!!
Bottom Line:
these are the best brakes i have ever had, i have been using them non stop for about 3 weeks now and the only complaint i have is that they are too powerfull for my weight of bike, i work at Halfords and have some British champions working in the cycle departement, they said the bike was too light for trials cos the front would just float away from them, but i can bunny hop it about 4 feet from stand still, and its a hardtail slalom bike!
Similar Products Used: only a wavey designed mechanical thingy and they where useless!
Bike Setup: Raleigh Fishbed Slalom 6065-T6 alu frame (super light 3kg) alu crank, single speed front and 9 speed shimano 3.0 downhill deralier rear. Vuelta USA alu rims, front shock preload adjustable hydraulic setup with magnesium bodies and steertube, magura julie front disc, rear hydraulic calipers with red trials pads, Kevlar trials tires with custom tread pattern, microadjust seat, carbon fibre bars and a shimano headset casette. phew!
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Submitted by
Hans Verschoor
a Cross Country Rider
from Utrecht, Netherlands
Date Reviewed: November 22, 2002
Strengths: Good braking properties.
Weaknesses: Screeching at the first drop of rain. Just try to moisturize a dry brake with CLEAR tap water and listen ....
Bottom Line:
BAD, BAD service or better: no service at all. I tried to reach Magure by e-mail over and over agian, but they(deliberately?) refused to answer. It looks like they skip "nasty" messages. Magura service SUCKS !
Similar Products Used: Magura HS33, but no other disc brakes so far, but that will change as soon I've got the money for it.
Bike Setup: Fishlips frame, RockShox Psylo SL, RockShox saddle post, Selle Italia saddle, Shimano XT, Magura Julie, Mavic CrossRoc's, Schwalbe Jimmy tyres.
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Submitted by
Joseph Jozwik
a Cross Country Rider
from Holly, MI
Date Reviewed: November 3, 2002
Strengths: I geuss its cheap. They do stop with good power when working properly. When setup seems like they do not require maintence for awhile
Weaknesses: When the brakes go down or have problems support is a pain to find. Magura support looks like a monkey translated it and any english person cannot understand it. Parts are not cheap. They are tricky (VERY TRICKEY) to work on.
Bottom Line:
If they wouldn't have come on the bike I would have got something else. There a pain to work on and there are lots of little BS thing that sometimes go wrong. However there cheap and when they are working I usually have months that they work well until I have to work on them for awhile. If anyone out there needs a suggestion or some help I will do my best to help you just email me. If I had the money I would upgrade to Shimano XT Disc. But since I have 4 bolt hubs it cost a ton to get new brakes. But I have learned a lot on working with these Julies. bottom line. Don't buy them if you already don't have them.