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I have both Mavens and T4V4’s. The Hopes are good, but absolutely not worth an extra $200.
I’d actually say that the Mavens are better brakes IF you can get them to behave. The Hopes are kinda vague feeling.
not worth the extra $200? ( first i'd love to know where in the world we have all that price difference, a Maven Silver in NZ is the same as V4 braided ), but even if it was to be 200$ they're worth it just for the quality, let alone the control they've got. And i still believe when on braided with a nice thick rotor and proper bleed they feel everything but vague.
Just checking them side by side, the quality and finish are nowhere near, especially the caliper is in another world, then working on them you see even more difference, how the pistons move freely on the hope vs the ones in the mavens requiring a thai massage to attempt to move decently.
Shimano RT6x and RT7x rotors now appear to be simply stamped and then sent out the door without subsequent lapping or machining, so the surface isn't even. I've had numerous problems with brand new metallic pads not making contact with very much of the surface of brand new rotors. This is one of the reasons I use Hayes rotors these days.
I do have a pair of older RT64M rotors that have clearly had a finishing pass, so maybe you're right and they've changed something. Or the M is for "machined"?
New hope brakes, im sure this includes the new bleed screw lever body.
Thanks, money is a bit tight at the moment to be blowing huge amounts on what is basically "dads hobby" hence the question of putting a wig on a pig and making the shimano's a bit better. My buddy owns a shop, so someone will take off the mavens from a new bike and I might come in like a seagull and snag a deal
Her RT-66 rotors were stamped like that. I figured that was the problem and that their nice machined XT RT-800 rotors would be fine.
I guess that might not be the case.
I have had good results by roughing up the shiny side of the rotor with some abrasive paper. Works well enough but should not be needed from new, will be using other brands of rotor in future.
I assume the construction of the "Freeza" laminated rotors means they're pretty flat from the factory, although I understand they have their own issues
Shimano may well have changed their production around, but its also good to keep in mind that there are a lot of counterfeit Shimano and Sram rotors floating around on the interwebs. I've only seen them using all steel construction though, so not sure if there are knockoff alu-spidered freeza rotors out there. I'm actually using some of the counterfeit ones on my DJ bike, and so far so good.
It is also possible that Shimano had some bad batches of rotors, and it might be worth seeing if you can warranty them. I had some Shimano calipers with leaky pistons that they warrantied, and also hubs with wonky end caps so the outer face was not parallel to the dropout, which they also replaced without hassle.
I bought them from Jenson so I would hope they’re legit.
Looking at them, it could also just be a really poor design. Maybe I’m feeling when the big cutout passes through the pads.
Likewise I bought mine from Pushy's and MTB Direct, so almost no chance that they're counterfeits.
Hard disagree. In my experience, going up 20mm in rotor size makes a consistent and noticeable difference, such that I plan on never messing with 200mm rotors ever again. 220 front and rear all the time for me, and I've even gone up to a 180mm rear on my road bike. I miiiiight pull a Brosnan and mess around with a smaller front rotor up front on my MTB if I go back to Mavens, just for funzies, but never on my rear brake. You can pry my 220mm rear rotor from my cold, dead, but definitely not arm-pumped hands.
Are you taking a 180 rear post mount up to 220? What adapter are you using? 2x 20mm would seem wonky if that's the case.
EDIT: Never mind... this must be new bc I swear I've searched this before....
https://support.sram.com/hc/en-us/articles/23146361351707-Does-Maven-re…
galfer even makes a +63mm pm adapter, and Reserve components have a +60mm pm, so you can go from a 160pm bike to a 220 rotor or 223 with the galfer one
As an experiment, I just swapped out the 200 rotors for 180s on my little trail bike.
And it's such a big difference!
It’s an extra 10% braking surface per wheel revolution. If you don’t notice that it’s because you’re nowhere near the limit on the 200s, which is totally fine. Just don’t preach that as gospel when it’s clearly not the case.
Should have phrased that better, my point was that going up 20mm is not going to make enough of a difference to make a set of lower end Shimanos feel similar in power to set of Mavens. Personally, I run 220 HS2's with my T4's so I'm not turning poor 200 centrelines into funny rainbow colors but I didn't feel any massive jumps in power between the two, closer to going to a slightly more aggro pad compound.
Interestingly you might be better off turning your rotors colors vs sizing up. Not knowing what the rotor arms look like on your specific setup makes it all armchair qb’ing but, if your not seeing colors it means the brakes are not getting up to working temp, and based on the pad compound that could be having a negative impact on the overall brake power and bite crisp’ness.
I ran mtx gold pads for a year or so and could only get them into the Goldilocks zone, no pun intended, very infrequently and I’m a pretty decent charger and weight 205+. When they did get there they were great, amazing bite and good power, but when they weren’t there they were good but not great. Sinter greens get there way quicker for me with no perceptible fade. YMMV.
This may seem pedantic but, while it is accurate to say bumping up the rotor size from 200 to 220ish provides "an extra 10% braking surface per wheel revolution", isn't the relevant concern the 10% larger radius of the rotor? That is what gives the extra stopping power. I could see the braking surface area being valuable if we were discussing heat dissipation, but heat didn't seem to be the source of brash's problems with his BR-520s.
P.S. Hello fellow CT rider. Do you hit Case Mountain or Grayville on the regular?
For what it's worth, from what I have read, SRAM suggests that if your rotors are showing a purple or rainbow discoloration, they are running too hot, and you should size up. If the rotors are browned or bronzed, they are at the optimal size. If there's no distinct discoloration, they may not be getting hot enough, and you should consider sizing down, so it it kinda depends on the specific color.
I’m a Grayville local, I was riding there yesterday. I also hit up Case and Blackledge fairly often too.
Announcement from DT Swiss/Trickstuff today, I thought it might be of interest for this forum thread specifically:
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trickstuff GmbH is closing its Pfaffenweiler establishment and relocating its registered office to Oelde
The Board of Directors of DT Swiss Group AG and the Managing Director of Trickstuff GmbH have decided, for economic and strategic reasons, to relocate the registered office of Trickstuff GmbH from Pfaffenweiler to Oelde as of July 1, 2025. The establishment in Pfaffenweiler will be closed as of June 30, 2025. Trickstuff will remain as a brand and provider of high-quality brakes and brake components. Sales, market development and customer service will be based at the new registered office of Trickstuff GmbH in Oelde. Engineering, product management and marketing are handled by DT Swiss AG in Biel. The assembly of Trickstuff products will then be carried out by DT Swiss Polska SP. z o.o. in Oborniki.
The dynamic market development of the last three years and especially the challenges in the MTB market segment make these measures unavoidable. The goal is to continue ensuring the competitiveness and independence of the Trickstuff brand.
"The decision to close the Pfaffenweiler establishment of Trickstuff GmbH in the Freiburg-Im-Breisgau region and thus to make the redundancies was not easy for us. The employees of Trickstuff have worked very hard on the development of the brand and the company in recent years," explains Frank Böckmann, CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors of AG. He further emphasizes: "We are aware that the enthusiasm of the team and the location in the Black Forest are a large part of the brand's identity. Therefore, it is very important to us to carefully accompany the affected employees. We are conducting individual discussions about their professional future, with the aim of providing individual advice and support."
The business and brand partners of Trickstuff were immediately informed about the upcoming changes after the internal communication on May 5, 2025 to enable a smooth transition. Ensuring service quality and the availability of spare and individual parts are the focus. The existing product portfolio of Trickstuff will continue to be available in consistently high quality and quantity through authorized partners (https://www.trickstuff.com/en/support/dealer-locator) as well as through the Trickstuff webshop (https://webshop.trickstuff.com).
ABOUT TRICKSTUFF
Trickstuff has been a brand of DT Swiss Group AG since 2022 and has been known for outstanding brake pads and brake systems that define new performance categories for several years. The development and assembly of CNC precision parts, which are mainly produced in Germany, contribute to the uniqueness of the brand.
Not even produced in germany then ? That's surprising
The bean counters always win, don't they?
How do you like your new Trickstuffski?
Bummer, especially after the Freiburg bikefest weekend. This is what happens when you sell to big bike companies. Any decent riding in Oelde?
Dang! Was very close to biting the bullet and buying their brakes. A huge selling factor was "made in Germany"... And thats no longer the case it appears.
I wonder if DT Swiss will bother to lower prices... Or will they just be pocketing all that extra margin from cheaper labor/operations/supply chains.
Either way, not the best look DT Swiss. I wish the best luck to all the folks who lost their jobs because of corporate greed.
Trickstuff brakes are Massively expensive, They are trying to get the price down by cutting costs... a company that survives is better than one that Files for bankruptcy. Have to sell products with profit to stay in business, im sure your successful business understands that.
As a Trickstuff owner, they are fantastic but that cost is deadly when they are more than 2 x the price of maven ultimates/hope t4v4.
But will they actually bring the cost down? That has yet to be determined. Ultimately I understand a need for a business needing to survive, but we don't know if they were profitable, we don't know if this was done to save money on DT Swiss's end. From my perspective, the long lead times despite high prices were an indicator that the business was working.
That press release didn't read like it was done for the benefit of the consumer or the former employees for that matter.
My understanding is there was slow production due to scale ability of being made locally, Trying to make local products when you have to wait in line is hard work. Which drove prices of these brakes up, With DtSwiss they have a much bigger ability to create in bulk and go more 'mass production'
The lay off read like they were working in an expensive part of Germany, You remove that expensive part, push through more production(are they still being made by the same supplier but not in bulk order?)
With the DT take over i would assume they can assist in that production and with the ability to bring the lead people inside their own business which creates less cost for that 'department' Normally you get more production and more product being sold, Does this mean lower pricing? Id like to only ASSUME they are trying to bring the price down but it wont happen fast.
bulk selling for less is generally a big business thing - hopefully still made in the same factory but bulk production discount.
I could be way wrong which ill accept, dont know what i dont know.... but regardless for us consumers we now have trickstuff for sale locally through the dtswiss chain.
I keep Pair's of shimano XT brakes around to go on Bikes i sell because people love that for some reason and i keep the trickstuff brakes.
Did you even read the announcement?
Post a reply to: Nerding out on Brakes shall we? Not another tech deraliment