[bettes]

Well on my two week trip to lake garda it became clear to me that my hope mini (185-165mm) brakes can't quite keep up with my 5spot(or should that be big boned body ). Now I've been looking at some different brakes and wanted to use your "expert" advice and real riding experiences on these:

Hope mono mini ( in 185-165 or 205-185): looks real good and you can get black lever blades and piston caps for the all ninja look (I'm a member of the ninja 5spot clan). Feel seemed to be better on the 10mile ride I had on a testbike. Although I'm affraid they will heat up like the old ones.... +20mm adapters needed if I want 205-185.

Hope mono M4 ( in 205-185): great looks like mini, ninja cappable. More power, dh-proven.

avid juicy 7 ( in 205-185): Looks less good. But I'v heared nothing but ravereviews about these and the adjustements look great (kinda like the magura rimbrakes). Hard to get (I know [email protected] has them but only in 165-165 which makes one hell of an expensive upgrade to the bigger size) Don't know about lever feel, is it anything like a hope mini?!

Hayes mag carbon plus (in 205-165): Great brakes allround, don't look that great and lever feel is not as good as the hope (for me). No 7" disc in the back and need for adapters for IS to postmount.

Well those are the choices... What to pick because I just can't deside

greetz
bettes

I know this thing has passed a few million times, so sorry guys! But thanks for the help or advice.

 

[macrider]

I have Hope Minis on my XCE (7"f/6"r) - with aftermarket pads and Goodridge lines - HATE THEM! - I have nothing but problems with them and I'm sick of 'em (but have too much $ invested in them to chuck em off a cliff)

I have Hayes (8"f/8"r) with Goodridge, RazorRock levers and aftermarket pads on my RFX & I love them - no problems, easy to maintain, easy to find parts for - great stopping power

go Hayes, use 8" if 6" doesn't cut it....

 

[CyclingJunkie]

You might also consider...

...Magura FreeRides in 210f/180r. I have the FRs in 180f/160r on my 5 Spot and have had no trouble with these. I weigh 195 and ride many trails that have long, steep downhills. I also really like the modulation in these brakes.

 

[Aquaholic]

Well on my two week trip to lake garda it became clear to me that my hope mini (185-165mm) brakes can't quite keep up with my 5spot(or should that be big boned body ). Now I've been looking at some different brakes and wanted to use your "expert" advice and real riding experiences on these:

Hope mono mini ( in 185-165 or 205-185): looks real good and you can get black lever blades and piston caps for the all ninja look (I'm a member of the ninja 5spot clan). Feel seemed to be better on the 10mile ride I had on a testbike. Although I'm affraid they will heat up like the old ones.... +20mm adapters needed if I want 205-185.

Hope mono M4 ( in 205-185): great looks like mini, ninja cappable. More power, dh-proven.

avid juicy 7 ( in 205-185): Looks less good. But I'v heared nothing but ravereviews about these and the adjustements look great (kinda like the magura rimbrakes). Hard to get (I know [email protected] has them but only in 165-165 which makes one hell of an expensive upgrade to the bigger size) Don't know about lever feel, is it anything like a hope mini?!

Hayes mag carbon plus (in 205-165): Great brakes allround, don't look that great and lever feel is not as good as the hope (for me). No 7" disc in the back and need for adapters for IS to postmount.

Well those are the choices... What to pick because I just can't deside

greetz
bettes

I know this thing has passed a few million times, so sorry guys! But thanks for the help or advice.

I'm been running the Hope MonoMini's for at least six months now. 180F/160rear. I posted waaay back when(Turner Harmonics), about my frustration with the noise that these things emit from time to time. I've messed with them every which way, and they still seem to have a mind of their own when it comes to squealing. There's no rhyme or reason to it.

To my knowlege, EBC still doesn't have a set of aftermarket pads available for the Mono Minis.

I think that in Hope's quest to shave some weight off of the system, they made the rotors a bit too thin. I have to true them from time to time. More so, on the rear than the front.

I do like the lever feel. And, I do like the overall ease of bleeding the Monos.

I have a set of Goodridge lines ordered. I'm looking for a bit more firmness in the brakes.

Would I do them again? Probably not. I'm really not sure what I would try next.

 

[tscheezy]

I have tried each of those.

I was not impressed with the Minis with 6" rotors (demoed on a Spider). They may have needed a bleed or better pads, but they were pathetic in terms of power. Lever feel was alright (the fact that they were NOT mushy makes me wonder if they really needed a bleed... glazed pads?).

I briefly rode Pete's Spot with Mono Minis 185/160. They were nice, but didn't wow me in any particular way. I don't care for the lever shape especially though I could get used to it. The brakes are pretty, lever feel alright, and power decent. I did not ride them long enough or down enough of a hill to really put them through their paces. I'll defer to others here.

I own Juicys. They appear to be fade-proof as far as I can tell from dragging my brakes all the way down the Moab Rim, and that's with 6" rotors F and R. The power and modulation simply put every other brake I have tried to shame. That is not an exaggeration imo. They required no more lever effort (1 finger, always) to reel me in than 8" Hayes I tried on a Gemini. Everyone counters this by saying "oh, those brakes must not have been set up right." That is a totally valid argument, but EVERY other brake I have tried has fallen short of the Juicys, so I guess that means every brake out there aside from mine aren't set up right... right? In the end, if you can't get the size Juicy you want, then this is all moot anyway. Personally I'd wait for them to become available, but that may take months, knowing Avid.

I tried Hayes Carbon 9s (6"/6")on a Yeti 575 and hated them. They had pretty poor lever feel (little modulation) though power was decent. The carbon blades are simply terrible in shape and the pinch-perch has got to be an engineering mistake. The Yeti bar may have been undersized but getting the pinch bolt snug enough caused the whole thing to deform and strip. Sorry, but I would never buy those things. The Mags (8"/8") on the Gemini were ok. I liked the aluminum lever much more than the carbons and again power was good, but lacking in feel. Consistant, good, but nothing to wow me.

Sorry if I have insulted anyone's personal choice in brakes here. Just relating my experiences...

 

[kpicha]

Well, here's another experience. My Hayes were set and forget, Totally! Other than pad changes they didn't ever need a darned thing done to them.

My Juicy's haven't been as "set and forget". They have awesome modulation but I got them with a wavy rotor that started stuttering after 50 miles, Avid sent me a round one, with a burr on it, that no matter how much I try to file away doesn't seem to help. And now b/c I've been relying on the rear brake more, that one will start fade after a couple of hours of hard riding. I really love the lever feel and modulation but the little quirks are somewhat annoying and have me feeling that I should stick with Hayes next time around.

Haven't tried Hopes yet, but a lot of riders swear by those, too.

 

[ozlongboarder]

thats why its hard to buy brakes

I have rode two bikes with juicy 7's in 6", yeah they have great adjustability, but.... One was good but not jaw dropping great and the other was like a POS. If I used the same amount of force I need to stop the POS set on my avid 7" mechs I would be in the ER. The guy that owns them put them on himself.

I have also rode Soupboys RFX and Monkey with hope M4 and Minis and they worked great, but he is also a half decent wrench.

For every rider that has success there is another guy who has had a problem with the same system and you cant always say the guy is not a good wrench.

Maybe the $1000 brembo's will be the answer

Thats the end of my pointless ramblings , oh yeah I went with Mono M4 8/7 .

 

[DDawg]

Well on my two week trip to lake garda it became clear to me that my hope mini (185-165mm) brakes can't quite keep up with my 5spot(or should that be big boned body ). Now I've been looking at some different brakes and wanted to use your "expert" advice and real riding experiences on these:

Hope mono mini ( in 185-165 or 205-185): looks real good and you can get black lever blades and piston caps for the all ninja look (I'm a member of the ninja 5spot clan). Feel seemed to be better on the 10mile ride I had on a testbike. Although I'm affraid they will heat up like the old ones.... +20mm adapters needed if I want 205-185.

Hope mono M4 ( in 205-185): great looks like mini, ninja cappable. More power, dh-proven.

avid juicy 7 ( in 205-185): Looks less good. But I'v heared nothing but ravereviews about these and the adjustements look great (kinda like the magura rimbrakes). Hard to get (I know [email protected] has them but only in 165-165 which makes one hell of an expensive upgrade to the bigger size) Don't know about lever feel, is it anything like a hope mini?!

Hayes mag carbon plus (in 205-165): Great brakes allround, don't look that great and lever feel is not as good as the hope (for me). No 7" disc in the back and need for adapters for IS to postmount.

Well those are the choices... What to pick because I just can't deside

greetz
bettes

I know this thing has passed a few million times, so sorry guys! But thanks for the help or advice.

I have the mono M4's on my 5-spot and they work great, no problems. I'm about 2 bills and run the 8" in front and 7" in back. If you want to save a bit I'd reccommend Hayes 8" as well.

 

[CrashTheDOG]

avid juicy 7 ( in 205-185): Looks less good. But I'v heared nothing but ravereviews about these and the adjustements look great (kinda like the magura rimbrakes). Hard to get (I know [email protected] has them but only in 165-165 which makes one hell of an expensive upgrade to the bigger size) Don't know about lever feel, is it anything like a hope mini?!

bettes, there have been plenty of reviews here in Turner, and obviously in Brake Time, regarding the Juicy, so I won't bore you with details other than to say I doubt you'll need the larger rotors with the Juicy's. I'm 215-220 w/gear and have yet to find myself in a situation where braking was anything but one fingered.

 

[Acadian]

bettes, there have been plenty of reviews here in Turner, and obviously in Brake Time, regarding the Juicy, so I won't bore you with details other than to say I doubt you'll need the larger rotors with the Juicy's. I'm 215-220 w/gear and have yet to find myself in a situation where braking was anything but one fingered.

ya...dare I say that the Juicy's are almost TOO POWERFUL!! I tried a set on a friends bike and jebezus where they ever grippy!!

 

[JTP]

get pre-2004 Shimano XT's

The ones with the 4 piston calipers.

 

[bettes]

bettes, there have been plenty of reviews here in Turner, and obviously in Brake Time, regarding the Juicy, so I won't bore you with details other than to say I doubt you'll need the larger rotors with the Juicy's. I'm 215-220 w/gear and have yet to find myself in a situation where braking was anything but one fingered.

Just spent an houre reading the brake forum... if shortening the lines is a prob along with getting spare parts. That is a major issue for me (I'm in europe).
But the reviews are so good... damn split mind

greetz
bettes

old xt's no thank you... tried em didn't like em (that's why they didn't make the list)

 

[skibaru]

- juicy

I purchased the Juicies for my new Spot. Hope Mini's were my second choice.

At 50 miles the Juicies Wavy rotors (both F&R) started making a horrible metal on metal pulsating scrapy sound. Avid knew all about it and replaced the rotors with round before I could even complain. Instantly no more trouble with that.

After about another 50 miles my bike is unfortunitly back at the LBS with little to no rear breaking. I don't know whats up but Avid has already told me they will do whatever it takes to make the breaks 110% correct. I was thinking it just needed bleeding but Avid wants to have them to do a complete rebuild. I am hopeful esp with CrashDog praising them. I'm feeling again that Avid knows.

As for the breaks themselves, I like them. Extremely nice modulation and I like the adjustments. They do not however IMO (atleast not yet) have that drop dead right now over the bars kinda feel that some other disk breaks have. But it's not like I miss that. I feel the Jucies have far superiour finer tuned 1-finger modulation control, it's almost like having anti lock breaks (loose). But don't get me wrong, you if you wanna skid, you can skid. You get more power the further you pull.

I'm hoping my current problem is solved quickly and all indication is it will. Fortunitly my LBS has about half a dozen Jucies in stock. Perhaps one is already on my bike Sorry if I describe things like a layman as I'm not much of a gearhead and don't get to test ride all the new gear.

John

 

[CrashTheDOG]

Just spent an houre reading the brake forum... if shortening the lines is a prob along with getting spare parts. That is a major issue for me (I'm in europe).

Avid definately has some issues to work out with production, particularly now they've been bought up by SRAM who changed the manufacturer of the system. It will also be interesting to see if SRAM makes any changes to the line or cheapens the materials. I'm anxious to talk to them at Interbike and get the skinny. With that said it's a good sign that Avid continues to provide excellent CS as described by skibaru. Long story short, if you do go with Avid's just make sure you get your hands on a bleed kit and a few extra compression fittings, particularly being in Europe.

 

[newton]

Well on my two week trip to lake garda it became clear to me that my hope mini (185-165mm) brakes can't quite keep up with my 5spot(or should that be big boned body ). Now I've been looking at some different brakes and wanted to use your "expert" advice and real riding experiences on these:

Hope mono mini ( in 185-165 or 205-185): looks real good and you can get black lever blades and piston caps for the all ninja look (I'm a member of the ninja 5spot clan). Feel seemed to be better on the 10mile ride I had on a testbike. Although I'm affraid they will heat up like the old ones.... +20mm adapters needed if I want 205-185.

Hope mono M4 ( in 205-185): great looks like mini, ninja cappable. More power, dh-proven.

avid juicy 7 ( in 205-185): Looks less good. But I'v heared nothing but ravereviews about these and the adjustements look great (kinda like the magura rimbrakes). Hard to get (I know [email protected] has them but only in 165-165 which makes one hell of an expensive upgrade to the bigger size) Don't know about lever feel, is it anything like a hope mini?!

Hayes mag carbon plus (in 205-165): Great brakes allround, don't look that great and lever feel is not as good as the hope (for me). No 7" disc in the back and need for adapters for IS to postmount.

Well those are the choices... What to pick because I just can't deside

greetz
bettes

I know this thing has passed a few million times, so sorry guys! But thanks for the help or advice.

any speacial reasons why there are no magura brakes on your list?

just wondering.

I'm running Louise FR (large rotors) on my Spot an I'm quite content with them.

BTW how was Lake Garda? What did you ride? Pics?

 

[bettes]

Well there are no magura brakes on there because I'm not a fan of there "feel" and modulation, haven't tried the louise FR so can't comment on those.

Lake Garde is trailriding heaven! We rode all over the place.
We did:
Mt Baldo/Altissimo to Torbole(kabel lift up )
Mt Tremalzo to Riva
the panorama ride to Pregazina from Riva
Mt Brione (The small one between Riva and Torbole, not a famous trail but nice rocky descent)
Round Lake Tenno

Well to say it in a few words:Trailriding and 5spot heaven

pics... I have a few but those are on regular film, have one with me wheeling during the pregazina climb... I'll post that when I get home.

 

[newton]

Well there are no magura brakes on there because I'm not a fan of there "feel" and modulation, haven't tried the louise FR so can't comment on those.

Lake Garde is trailriding heaven! We rode all over the place.
We did:
Mt Baldo/Altissimo to Torbole(kabel lift up )
Mt Tremalzo to Riva
the panorama ride to Pregazina from Riva
Mt Brione (The small one between Riva and Torbole, not a famous trail but nice rocky descent)
Round Lake Tenno

Well to say it in a few words:Trailriding and 5spot heaven

pics... I have a few but those are on regular film, have one with me wheeling during the pregazina climb... I'll post that when I get home.

so the road from riva to pregasina is really open again after all those years (heard about it but couldn't believe it)

I have to get there soon before they close it again.

Looking foreward to your pics.

 

[bettes]

Looking foreward to your pics.

Here it is, not a great shot but you get the point Was riding with a bunch of HT fanatics that wouldn't know fun if it bit them in the @ss.

greetz
bettes

 

[newton]

Here it is, not a great shot but you get the point Was riding with a bunch of HT fanatics that wouldn't know fun if it bit them in the @ss.

greetz
bettes

A wonder you survived.

One would think your HT fanatic company would have drowned you in the lake after having them descending all the trails you mentioned above.

Or did you loose them on the Altissimo trails?