[eman2]

I am tossing around the idea of replacing my Avid Mechanicals with a set of Magura Louise FR 180 front/ 160 rear rotors. Anyone on the Titus board using these or even just the regular Louise brakes. These seem to offer good performance for the money without going overboard $$ wise on martas.

A few other quesition for owners:
1.) do I need to face the disk brake tabs or are there enough spacers to get a good alignment?

2.) how are the stock magura pads for performance?

3.) Are these able to be adjusted fairly easily and keep the rubbing -- hopefully none to a minimum?

4.) Do I need to re-bleed if I shorten the lines?

Thanks for any input

 

[Ted]

I switched from Avid mech's to Louise FR when I got my HH100X two years ago. I prefer the feel of the hydraulic brakes. Answers to your questions:

1) I ran the FR's for two years before I finally had the front and rears Gnannomated. I have seen some piston retraction problems and hope this corrects them. It has not been a real problem for me but I am trying an experiment.

2) Magura offers Performance and Endurance pads. I started with Endurance and had stuttering in the braking. I called Jimi at Magura and he sent me some Performance pads. These helped some. I Dremel relieved all of the edges on the rotors that contact the pads and have not had much of a problem since then. I am back to running Endurance pads. They don't last as long as I would like but I drag my brakes on long downhills every ride.

3) Caliper adjustments with shims are actually very easy and not done often. I don't consider this an issue.

4) Get a bleed kit. After the first time bleeding you will find that it is not difficult. After cutting the lines I had to bleed the rear but not the front. In two years I have bled both two or three times. It just takes a few minutes. It is a little messy though.

I do not like any rubbing and I have found that I mess with my FR's as much as I messed with my Avids. Perhaps after Gnannomating this will be better. Overall, I like the FR's better.

 

[hammerheadbikes]

great brakes
I run the Martas and run a 180 rotor up front, I love em
we do good pricing on them as well...

 

[eman2]

thanks for the info.

Thanks for the reply ted. I am kinda of suprised you said you mess with the brakes as much as you did with your avids. I seem to fiddle with my avids a fair amount and was hoping that by going to hydros that I could eliminate the majority if not all of the fiddling I have to do. Hopefully by facing your tabs, the fiddling will be a thing of the past.

Charles I sent you an email on friday asking for pricing on the Louise brake set.

additional feedback is welcome

thanks
ed

 

[nwmtb]

eman...as ted and charles has already mentioned, the Louise FR's are a great brake. If you take the added steps of having your disc tabs milled from the start, and go slow when shortening the hose lines to avoid fluid loss then i think you'll experience a perfect set-up that has much less problems in the future, and you'll also encounter less tinkering to keep them drag free. In my experiences.....i've found them to be easy to install, and bleeding them a breeze (i'd second the idea of purchasing a small service kit when you purchase the brakeset).

As for the pads ... IMO the Performance pads are the only way to go. After taking a look at a set here in the shop they are also the pads that come factory equipped now.

Ted...your piston retraction issue may be caused by residue build up....have you tried removing the pads and blowing the caliper out with an air hose ???? That seems to work for me.

later, Chad

 

[Ted]

I have not tried that...but I will. Thanks.

 

[dulyebr]

I have the same setup as Charles from Hammerhead, 180mm Marta front, 160 rear. I can't imagine needing any more power or experiencing better modulation. I've never had the brakes fade from heat where my other two buddies have with the 160 Marta front and rear - great brake. I tired Juicy 7s for a while, but sold them.

 

[Homebrew]

Louise...

I have used all of the above, Avid BB, Marta and now Louise. I think the Louise are the best brakes for the money. Much better feel than the Avid Mechs. Louise are a bit more stout than the Martas, cost a lot less, and don't weigh much more.

I would highly recommend getting the tabs faced. It eliminates a lot of potential problems.

Bed the pads in properly, and you shouldn't have any troubles with the performance pads. I think a lot of people just go out and ride without doing this and the pads wear more quickly.

Unless you're rotor is bent, there shouldn't be any rubbing and if you do, some minor microadjust (recenter the rotor) should take care of it.

You don't have to rebleed if you do it right but you will probably introduce some air so you will probably need to bleed at some point.

 

[MendonCycleSmith]

Maybe it's just me, but I have had several customers that were less than happy with their Maguras. Their customer service is excellent, so that is to their credit. Sticky pistons were common (not so with other makers used as frequently), and I am not too fond of any plastic in my lever assembly. A great, powerful, cheap alternative is the Shimano Deore hydraulics. Nice cause they also use mineral oil, and sport an all metal construction. Don't want to be a spoiler in the Magura lovefest, just offering up my 2 cents. I am currently using Magura Marta calipers, mated to Shimano dual control levers, so I'm not a hater, and these have been fine. Facing the tabs is a must, correct alignment of things makes a huge difference, and oddly, most are not truely in alignment from the factory. Ride on!

 

[wildskycomet]

Maybe it's just me, but I have had several customers that were less than happy with their Maguras. Their customer service is excellent, so that is to their credit. Sticky pistons were common (not so with other makers used as frequently), and I am not too fond of any plastic in my lever assembly. A great, powerful, cheap alternative is the Shimano Deore hydraulics. Nice cause they also use mineral oil, and sport an all metal construction. Don't want to be a spoiler in the Magura lovefest, just offering up my 2 cents. I am currently using Magura Marta calipers, mated to Shimano dual control levers, so I'm not a hater, and these have been fine. Facing the tabs is a must, correct alignment of things makes a huge difference, and oddly, most are not truely in alignment from the factory. Ride on!

anybody on the Hayes wagon? My first set of hydros, back in '98 have been bombproof and prompted me to put new Camino's on my Racer X. I thought the reach a djusters might interfere, but no. They have been great, here in the woods, mud and snow of southern VT.

 

[FoShizzle]

Magura Louise best brakes I have ever owned, period.

 

[Markv]

Have Maguras on two Titus frames..

the Martas and the Marta SLs. Have the Martas on my Quasi and the SLs on my Hammerhead. I intially used the performance pads and went through them fast on the front brake.....as in two months of 4 or 5 days a week of riding. I live in SW Idaho and it's not unusual to have 2000 to 3000 feet of fast descending and hard braking.....switched to the endurance pads and and I now change pads less than twice a year.

If I was buying new I would go for the Louise brakes on my Quasi.....

BTW Magura has the best CS I have experienced.....they replaced both sets of levers and calipers on my Quasi when I had problems with air getting into my brakes a year ago. No questions asked! The SLs have been problem free for three years now.....great company....great product!

 

[dulyebr]

Why?

 

[Markv]

The Martas are lightweight xc brakes...

Why?

and not the best fit on my Quasi.....the Louise brakes don't weigh much more and have a larger brake fluid reservoir and probably a larger pad (not sure of that....haven't seen the pad). When I bought the Martas three years ago I was trying to keep my Quasi's weight down (around 29 lbs) and the new Louise brakes had not been released.

My favorite local ride for the Quasi is a shuttle ride with 1200 ft of climbing and 3500 ft of descending......hit speeds in the 35 mph range.

I'm using a 160 rotor up front.....I should buy a 180 rotor/w an adaptor this Spring.

 

[Ridin'Dirty]

Would the standard or FR Louise be the best fit for a RX 100? I ride agressively and weigh 180lbs so....did I just answer my own question? I'm still guilty of trying to shave weight wherever I can though and 160mm front and back was enough stoping power on my old bike which had Shimano M-555 disc brakes with XT rotors (sold them to a friend and could probably get them back since he still hasn't used them).

 

[mntnbiker72]

anybody on the Hayes wagon? My first set of hydros, back in '98 have been bombproof and prompted me to put new Camino's on my Racer X. I thought the reach a djusters might interfere, but no. They have been great, here in the woods, mud and snow of southern VT.

I'm all about the Hayes. I'm currently running 2 sets. One set of 6 in front and rear, the other 8" front and rear. Both Mags. Other than replacing pads, I have never had to do anything to them. It might have a lot to do with proper setup during installation. Most of the people I ride with run Hayes, and only a couple run Magura's. I've seen more problems out of the couple sets of maggies than the dozen or so Hayes' in my regular group.