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i read your thoughts about 3 times already, new batch of Trinity is coming next week and i'm considering waking up at 5am and brake the bank, currently on tuned MT7 with Oak lever, i love the radial levers and so Intend make heaps of sense, lighter feel, more power, better construction, seal and spare parts availability, twisting hose, mineral oil, easy af bleed, it sounds great on paper, although it means 1000$ expense and early wake trying to get them. other option i feel is good for spare parts and such would be the Hope tech4 V4 that would...

In my experience the Monolithic rotors tend to loose bite and power after aggressive riding pretty fast. They started of great but all of a sudden they lost all power. I now have Galfer pro pads with Galfer wave rotors 223/203 and can't say I have tried more powerful brakes. Would recommend to get new rotors as it did wonders for me.

Stock Cura4 pads are not great. aliexpress Kingstop ones are much better.

I'd love to get your opinion on the Lewis brake performance as I think you'd be pleasantly surprised coming from those brakes. I certainly prefer mine over my DH-R Evos

I just got a set of Cura 4s for my new enduro build. For background, I've ridden Dominions, TRP DH-Rs and Quadiems, Shimano XT, Codes, and done a parking lot test on the mavens. I'm running 203 front/rear rotors (Formula Monolithic) with Galfer Standard pads. Stock levers. 150lb rider but quite aggressive. Overall I'm just going to say that the Cura 4s are pretty good. They bleed quite easily, although they are brand new brakes, so time will tell if the bleed gets harder. They have EXTREMELY good modulation, dare I say the best of any brake I have tried...

I'll use the rotor to do it with the wheel installed. It's important to make sure the pistons are moving in and out easily before pressing against the rotor to center the pistons, otherwise you'll just be sitting there bending the rotor. On a new/lightly used set of brakes, I'll do some form of the "piston massage" procedure by removing the wheel and cycling the pads in and out with a tire lever or flat head screwdriver to isolate which set of pistons are moving. On a used brake I'll do the same but remove the pads to clean up...

Had both Cura2 and Cura4 and there is more free stroke on the cura4 with the normal lever than the Cura2 but the FCS lever bridge that gap according to this review and Cura2 is known to have very little dead stroke: https://nsmb.com/articles/formula-cura-brakes-two-piece-lever-blade-upg… Trickstuff power pad are great on cura4, noisy as soon as there a bit of moisture and at big mountains wear rate can probably be measured in laps but bite and power is very good compared to the stock organic and metallic pads.

holy, i thought the V4 calipers were the widest, but just on the outside i assume, they look wide on the left while intend seems to be equally wide on both side, i'm wondering if it would be a problem with Industry Nine System wheels, i'm currently torn between the Intends and the Hopes T4V4 for my next brakes, 0 rush but thinking about it

Updated Geometron

Thank you! Cheers for your A+ nerding in this thread, the photos are sweet to see too.

Since Radic's are having their day in the Sun here, I have an extra set for sale - mineral oil. on the "other" site 2022 Radic Kaha Brakes For Sale (pinkbike.com) My perception is that the Maxima's feel more powerful and have a more intuitive power delivery than the Radics which have a very strong but more linear power similar to a stronger Code RSC or Code/Cascade combo. I am selling these Radics as I got another set of Maxima's.

Thanks for the Hope tips! I just bought an alignment tool but (like you said) didn’t know there was a tuning block. The alignment tool does help a ton! Do you mind measuring the width of the tuning block? I have a lot of spare bleed blocks so prolly could just shave one down.