XT 756 (4-pot) and brake fade

I've not heard of it. In Australia they're one of the most liked and well used DH brakes. I've been running 160mm 755's on one of my rigs for a few months now on the DH tracks around here and never suffered fade.

BTW: 755's are the old XT 4 pots and I think 756s are the new 2pot calipers.

they did make 756's in 4 pot (they just have the 0degree connection at the lever opposed to teh 755's 90degree connection). I also don't have any problems with my 755's .

They are ok most of the time, but a few of the local trails require that you be on the brakes almost constantly for sections over 1,000 vertical feet with a lot of 20mph to 0mph (switchbacks). It's not so much that I'm dragging the brake, but basically you have no choice but to be using the brakes most of the time.

On the DH trails at the resorts, the trails are designed to carry your speed more, so I don't have an issue there.

Steve71 said:

They are ok most of the time, but a few of the local trails require that you be on the brakes almost constantly for sections over 1,000 vertical feet with a lot of 20mph to 0mph (switchbacks). It's not so much that I'm dragging the brake, but basically you have no choice but to be using the brakes most of the time.

On the DH trails at the resorts, the trails are designed to carry your speed more, so I don't have an issue there.

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Try the resin pads.
I recently went to Downieville, and experimented with changing my pads.
I'm running Saint brakes and levers, which are basically XTs.
With the metallic pads, the brakes started to get real hot and squeal about a mile into the runs. They faded a little, but always had enough power to stop me. They also turned my rotors black.
I changed pads to resin at the top of our third run. All the way down the pads were quiet, and never showed any signs of fading. They also cleaned up all the black residue the metallic ones left.:thumbsup: I don't think I'll ever use the metallic ones again.

-Dan

dan51 said:

Try the resin pads.
I recently went to Downieville, and experimented with changing my pads.
I'm running Saint brakes and levers, which are basically XTs.
With the metallic pads, the brakes started to get real hot and squeal about a mile into the runs. They faded a little, but always had enough power to stop me. They also turned my rotors black.
I changed pads to resin at the top of our third run. All the way down the pads were quiet, and never showed any signs of fading. They also cleaned up all the black residue the metallic ones left.:thumbsup: I don't think I'll ever use the metallic ones again.

-Dan

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Thanks, I may throw in some resin pads and see how they go. When I bought my last lot of metallics, I checked out Shimano's take on Resin vs Metallic. IIRC they state that Metallic is more fade resistant and has greater stopping power. Resin has better modulation and lasts longer.

I had setup my shimano brakes the same as dan51 for my XC bike when i had xtr brakes and liked the power/modulation of 1resin 1metal.

dan51 said:

My experience has been:
Metalic
lasts longer, but eats up the rotor faster
overheats and turns the rotor black
makes more noise when braking, even when not hot

Resin
doesn't last as long
better modulation
very quite, until they get wet

I tried running one of each per caliper on my last set of brakes, and I really liked how it felt.

-Dan

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Sounds good, resin or resin/metalic it is. I'd be so happy if it fixed my fading problem.
I'll post a follow up in a few week once I've had a chance to test them out.

Thanks!!

Steve71 said:

Sounds good, resin or resin/metalic it is. I'd be so happy if it fixed my fading problem.
I'll post a follow up in a few week once I've had a chance to test them out.

Thanks!!

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Great, I'm looking forward to hear how your experience is.
This pad thing has been a mystery to me until my recent experiments.

-Dan

dan51 said:

Great, I'm looking forward to hear how your experience is.
This pad thing has been a mystery to me until my recent experiments.

-Dan

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I've had a bit of time on my resin/metallic pad combo and so far so good. It modulates so much better under 15 mph. It also takes a lot less force at the lever to come to a stop at switch backs. So far I haven't detected any fading, but haven't had a change to ride my ultimate test track yet.

The lack of grinding noise is also a bonus as you can hear your tires better.

Thanks again for the recommendation!!

I have been less than impressed with my 4pot XT's. Sounds like I do a lot of braking similar to you; long, sustained braking. Eventually they start fading and loosing power. The only thing that seemed to make a difference has been usining EBC reds. Unfortunately they don't last that long. The price of more power/less fade.

Now, my Magura Gustavs.....have yet to have any fade or loss of modulation with them even after doing the steepest, longest downhills in existance. If they only had lever blades like the XT, they would be perfect.

Finally I dumped them

I got 756 4pots with a 7 inch FR/All Mountain bike. Been sold to me as the best FR brakes. Well, right from the start I wasn't impressed. When I changed to Koolstop Red brake pads the situation improved and was Ok for my German trails. Then I moved to Colorado... I gave up on the 756 and bought Magura Gustavs Ms.

I had the same problem mentioned earlier here. Brake seemed to be too weak for really steep trails with lots of switchbacks or other slow sections.

And ok, I was already spoiled. My other bike has Grimeccas System 12.1. Like the Gustav Ms they simply outperform the 756 (the way and where I ride). Once you are used to it you won't want to miss it.

Shimano 755 calipers had both the 0 and 90 degree hose fittings. They were never known as 756's that was reserved for the levers.