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Have you laid it down on something completely flat? Maybe an arm is twisted but hard to see unless it's laid on something flat to produce a gap or shadow.
Had an issue with a bent hockey skate runner, was sharpened several times and used for multiple seasons but was never noticed by the sharpeners. Pulled it from the holder oneday and laid it on a flat board, noticed the tiniest of a bend. That's when I realized why I was having issues using my edge on that side and sometimes it would wobble skating straight.
Where is the point of leakage you've observed in the Shimanos when stored in the conditions you mentioned? Lever or caliper, and if lever, where on the lever?
always caliper, hard to tell as it gets everything wet
Re: Hope Green Pads
Recently, last Thursday, installed a set on my Kaha’s with SE05 rotors. Got 3 days of riding in over the weekend with a whopping total of 6800’ of decent, and pads are toast, worn almost down to the backing plate… riding was very, very wet and the dirt is a clay that does generate a lot of grip, buuutt, that seem insane to me. Never seen this before, has anyone ever worn through the Hope greens that fast? The o.e. Kaha pads had 6 months of bi-weekly bike park and nor-cal sierras shuttling and they have 2x the pad material left.
Scratching my head on this one.
hope green are awesome pads... called race pads for a reason.
I normally get a couple of park days from a set BUT if its wet you will destroy them very fast like you've experienced.
Galfer purple works well as a replacement an last a hell of alot longer.
im 4 months on my galfer purples and the rear is basically toast, More than likely ill swap Pads and rotor to rear and get new ones for the front.(8 park days + a heap of local riding + some Queenstown wet laps and thats abrasive asf)
I killed a set of Trickstuff power in a day doing a spicy version of the Sellaronda Hero, 90km and 7120mt of downhill
I’m not mad about it, on normal riding they last heaps more
I can kill a set in a couple park days tho ( 10/12k mt of downhill )
Hope race, I took them off honestly, same rotors as you and pads but on V4 brakes, too noisy, I just put the Trickstuff Standard and just bedding them in so far they’re silent as
How was the noise on the Kahas with those pads/rotors?
Thanks for the feedback, that’s kinda what I thought but was surprised to see them get wasted so quickly.
Honestly they were silent until they were saturated, like deep water sections that went up to the calipers type of deep water sections. The trails are multi-use ohv trails so lots of deep moto ruts in some areas.
Thanks for the feedback!
I'm more and more confident the Hope Racing pads are made in the same factory as the Trickstuff Power pads. They look the same new and used, make the same power, wear is even (aka super quick), same noise on the pads ... As they are 7 or 8€ cheaper, they're now my goto pads.
Annoying they had to paint the backplate, as it takes a few runs for the pistons of Trickstuff or Radics to "bite" into the paint.
i haven't tried the Power pads on Hope, sadly, the importer in NZ decided not to get them for the Maxima/V4 shape, no comment on this decision, better, but i'm waiting, i got a set of Standard to try but after one small ride they’re still not biting, so i'm not sure if this is all or they take way longer to bed in, the Power always required 3 decent brake moments to be up to the real power, would really love to know who's making these pads ( the Green Hope )
I've bought alot of hope products and i've never bought through the NZ importer, the guy is arrogant and rude.(i was told this then experienced it)
most of the Stuff came from places like r2bike or lordgun etc. - Our local shop can and has got stuff in the past but they will not deal with them anymore.
I talked with him at a local event and Yep, ill refuse to do business with that outfit - i suggest getting your hope products elsewhere.
oh this time i was talking about Marleen, Trickstuff importer for NZ, that somehow thought it was a good idea skipping the power pads for the top of the line brake.
Have been told the same thing at least for the last 2 years. From what I can gather, Galfer used to make the green pads from hope but a few years ago they switched to trickstuff. That was honestly the reason why I decided to try them, identical compound, cheaper, and easier to get in the US.
I feel I just have to touch in on the subject of using silicone grease to lube piston seals in brake systems, specificially given Hope themself show it in this video.
Personally I've been taught not to use anything but the very brakefluid recommended for your brakes, as other substances will just contaminate the fluid loop inside the brake system. I have to say it's a bit odd to see them dab that grease onto the pistons, because why would you want that grease mixed with your brake fluid...
I know it's an old video, but they do talk about lubing pistons in their pdfs on maintenance and so on, so it has to be something they still stand by.
So, what do other people do on this topic, and why?
Never had any problem with this grease on the pistons even if SRAM says not to be used there.
To "lube" pistons I pump the lever a bit to extract the pistons 2mm or so and take a dot fluid soaked qtip and wipe around the piston. Typically this is at brake maintenance time so it also cleans the pistons. Do that several times, each time with a clean qtip and fresh dot fluid until the qtip wipes clean. After that manually retract the pistons back into the calipers. Wipe the inside of the caliper with a shop towel and isopropyl. Then wipe dry.
Test pistons extension and repeat above for any sticky pistons.
I have the poverty shimano BR-520 4 pistons on my ebike, they are what I would call "adequate"
They are on metal pads, 203mm icetech's.
Would upgrading to the 223mm Galfer Wave rotors and Purple pads be a noticable improvement? Or upgrade the brakes to Mavens/TRP?
Thats tough, but be aware sometimes the 223 galfer wave rotor wont fit correctly in shimano calipers even with the correct adapter, You have to raise it even more.
However you cant go wrong with any of those options, I have Mavens on my DH bike and TRP evo Pro's on my 2 other bikes.
mavens are brutal power... just make sure you do the piston massage with alot of pressure, lots of advice on MTBR(braketime) - then they just work great.
TRP similar setup time but they have some videos to follow. good consistent brakes.
That is a good question, and I am curious to see what answers you get, as I have the same brakes on a bike (albeit one that isn't seeing any really challenging conditions). My understanding is all the Shimano brakes from those Deore up to XT and the non-xc XTR have the same piston sizes, so the hydraulic power should be the the same. You already have the good (and large) rotors, and metallic pads, so I'm surprised they're not cutting it for you. Are they Shimano metallic pads, or another brand?
using Shimano metal pads, I've been on this setup for years and to be honest for where I ride it's fine, just my mate got a vala with top spec Mavens and it blew my mind how strong they were and it got the little cogs in my brain moving which is a dangerous thing
That is interesting. Due to gravity, the pressure in the rear caliper would go up when the bike is hung vertically, but the front seems like it would actually go down, relative to storing the bike in a normal "tires on the ground" position. Did you notice the leaking calipers in only the rear brake, only the front, or both?
Either way, it is odd, as the gravity induced pressures are undoubtedly miniscule compared to the pressures generated by a lever squeeze, but maybe there is something weird with the square seals in the bore holes, where additional pressure via a lever squeeze increases the sealing pressure, but storing the bike vertically is a sort of unhappy middle ground. I've certainly found leaky calipers before, where they were auto-contaminating the pads from behind via a leak in the piston seal area, but just warrantied them, so I wasn't sure of the cause, and I'd never thought to try to correlate it to storage position. I've also seen people who said they had cracked pistons which caused a leak through the piston itself, rather at the seal interface, but that doesn't seem like it would be related to storage position.
My local shop asked the Galfer rep last summer, and he was "yea we're still making them for Hope". Probably not up to the latest developments maybe? Definitely different compound than the Galfer Pros, and while the Pros are good, they don't handle the heat that well. I'm a pretty heavy rider and tend to run the brakes HOT, and the Pros start howling halfway down the local resort. Hope or TS Power, no problem.
I believe the Hope Red pads are still Galfer though.
Their rotors are fine, can't use the Wave as I'd destoy the pads even faster as they're just a cheese grater, but the Sharks are pretty alright (at least when you find them new for 65€ each and not the 90 they retail for). Running the TRP RS05E on the ebike, as it's pretty much a clone, and so far so good. Bit noisy with Power pads, but I don't mind.
Yeah, this is pretty much what I've learned as well, and just being extra careful of checking that you remove all the excess afterwards. I do hear in that video that he say they do not recommend using any brake cleaner or similar in there because it can in some cases make the seals swell.
I feel that must be dependant on the amount of alcohol you get in there and if you push the pistons back inside while being soaked in brake clean/isopropyl alcohol or not. I usually just soak a q-tip in isopropyl alcohol when it's time for clean up, and let the pistons become dry before I push them back in. Being a bit mindful while doing this, as well as double checking the operation of the pistons afterwards as well as making sure no fluid is being carried out on the sides, should do the trick.
Personally I'm just going to ignore their piston lubing advice because to me it just feels wrong. I only want DOT 5.1 fluid in there.
Hi,
I'm having trouble getting a good bite point with the Lewis LH4 lever and Cura 4 caliper combo. When the bleed block is in the caliper, the bite point feels great and the lever travel is short. But after installing the pads and rotor, the lever travel becomes extremely long, and even with the lever fully pulled, there's no braking power. What could be the issue? I’m ruling out bleeding problems since the bite point is fine with the bleed block installed.
Hi Pedal Bob
Do not worry about lubing the pistons using the silicon grease recommended by Hope or the dot compatible grease posted above - using either will not affect the brake fluid and be a far better lubricant than dot fluid. The seal is really good at keeping the lube and fluid separate, otherwise the brakes would leak. What the lube does is makes sure the piston slides smoothly against the caliper, especially when the brake is under load.
Personally, I've been using the Avid dot grease for this for over 10 years and my brakes require bleeds very infrequently, normally every 4-5 years, so I'm sure that the fluid isn't being comtaminated.
Hopes are some of the lowest maintenance brakes out there; center and lube the pistons a couple times a year, change pads every 15-18 months, bleed and refresh caliper seals every 5 years. I use the Hope sintered pads with 220 mm 2.3 mm thick rotors as this is the most reliable and consistent setup. In my experience excessive heat is what wears pads, rotors and brakes out quickly so the thicker rotors make a big difference.
Is there anything specific I should consider if I replace my current Shimano XT RT-86 200mm discs in my Saint brakes with either Magura MDR-P 220mm or Hope 220mm discs? Both options are floating, and the Magura discs seem to be a great bargain right now at Bike-Discount for 38 euros each.
My pad policy is to replace new Shimano H03C pads every season if that matters. They seem to do very well for a season.
Alternative option: I have some MT520s with 1.95 mm thick rotors (Hayes in this case but you could also use Magura or SRAM) and it makes the lever feel noticeably better.
Get the mavens. You adapt to the available power quickly, and I can’t see myself going back to another brake. Have to think a lot less about braking in general, especially where and how much to brake, is so nice.
Started with organic pads and Galfer wave rotors, now on metallic pads and HS2 rotors because I feel like the organic ones wore a lot faster. Don’t feel like there’s much difference in braking behavior between the two once bedded in properly.
Brake pads are 12 bucks without spring and screw as well which is nice.
You use the same brake fluid for 5 years at a time, and then claim you're sure the fluid isn't contaminated. It contradicts itself because the only way of knowing what's inside is to do a service and visually inspect the fluid.
5 years...
Here are my thoughts after 7 months on SRAM’s DB8 brake:
https://www.vitalmtb.com/product/guide/hydraulic-disc-brakes/sram/db8-59421#comment-607871
Okay brake nerds, tell me why I’m wrong.
Post a reply to: Nerding out on Brakes shall we? Not another tech deraliment