You have to consider a few things before you upgrade to Discs. Are your wheels disc ready (are your wheels build on disc hubs)? Most forks come disk ready and some frames are but if not then that could be an additional cost. If you have STI (combined shifter/brake) lever then there's another expense.
As to brakes themselves. It all depends on the type of riding you do and your budget. Merlin are doing deals on Hayes Stroker brakes. Hope are generally a bit more expensive. Can you give a bit more info on budget and use?
The bike is disc-ready, and shifters are separate, so that's not a problem.
Most riding is trails, and XC, nothing outrageous, but i want something that will handle tricky lake district rides, weekend trips to seirra nevada mountains in southern spain etc.
budget.....has got to be under £150, prferably much less!
You're not going to get any Hope brakes that will do the job for £150. Have a look at these Shimano 525 available in all sizes depending on the weight of you and the bike.
I have 2 bikes,my old one with cheap Shimano Deore now 5yrs old and have had no problems. Merlin is your friend here.
My full sus came with Hayes 9 carbon(the lever is the only carbon bit).Now 2yrs old with no problems.
Advice I was given whilst on biking holidays.
Verbier....forget Hope. Friends who have gone to Morzine etc have come home and binned their Hopes in favour of XT with large front disc.
Sierra Nevada...anything with cables is good..example..we were about to start 57 switchbacks descent when our guide, Tony, lost his rear brake due to pipe fracture and subsequent loss of fluid. I had a hired Hustler with cable discs and had no problems. Mike reckoned due to the problems he was having with hyd disc systems on his hire bikes he was going to change them all to cable. Did he????
Some of my mates run shimano cable discs(on a buget as per you)on all Stanes stuff and Lakes rides no problem.
Trouble with m525's is, though they are a fantastic brake, they will fade quite easily, and certainly no good for sierra nevada in that respect.
Cable discs are fine unless the pads get eaten on a descent leaving you without brakes at all due to no auto adjust facility.
For the money you'd be best plumping for summat from merlin, either the stroker trail or juicy five full set. Juicy's are lovely brakes, but they can if they feel like it be complete nightmare, though when they're good they're good with good modulation and power. getting pads in/out can be impossible though. The stroker are way more powerful than the juicy's, still good modulation, easy pad change, and better heat resistance, don't think there is a better brake under £150.
What you really want for a first set of discs though are shimano '07 XT, they are totally reliable, with nice friendly mineral oil, easy pad change, lovely feel, great modulation, good heat resistance and so-on. Not the most powerful of brakes out there, but with a 180mm minimum front rotor are quite adequate indeed. Have a look on ebay for a set.
Merlin has the new SLX disc brakes at 125 quid a pair. Allegedly 20 per-cent more powerful than the Deore ones and very similar to the excellent 08 XTs but without the bite point adjuster. I think that's where my money would be going. The '08 XTs are excellent and if these are anywhere near as good, they're a bargain.
Not sure about the heat resistance though Juan, different caliper to XT, are designed to run with sintered pads mind... But don't forget that SLX have smaller caliper pistons to Xt so less powerful, but they ought to be at least similar to the '07XT, so that's fine. Certainly worth a look, but considering you can get stroker trail for similar money... (the rydes btw have smaller pistons and are less powerful)
Aye, forget hope, too expensive and have always been plagued with rpeorts of reliability issues.
Hayes new crop of stroker brakes are very good indeed, though still very new so reliabilty is relastively unknown, but the mags have had no issues with them so far after abusing countless sets for quite some time. The old hfx were a reliability choice though, so no reason why the stroker shouldn't be
Shimano always are the king of reliability/performance/feel mixture though, and just work well, full stop (no pun intended!) I like them the best so far on an overall basis. I replaced my '07Xt with a k18 upfront due to the power levels, but power aside the XT is the nicer brake, and still gives sterling service on the back now.
As good as Shimano brakes are I'd recommend getting a go with the Servo Wave XT's before you buy them as they're not to every ones taste in respect of the lever feel.
Aye, forget hope, too expensive and have always been plagued with rpeorts of reliability issues.
No problems with my Hope m4's as you said they are plagued with reports and no facts.
and if you havent checked out the EBC website your probably to late now, just about all the Hope disc brakes M4's and Mono Minis have sold out as have the Juicy 5's and 7's They were all half price so you would have got top notch brakes for under £150.
I agree XC Man, no problems with Hope here either. As they're out of budget for the OP I thought it pointless to get into a Hope V's The World discussion juts because people can't set them up
Did take some setting up but once done correctly they are great, I resorted to measuring the caliper gap [where the disc runs] and scribing it dead centre so as I could align the Caliper first and then the pads.
*Drops an E-Mail to Hope to add a mark in manufacture*
The Edingburgh Bike CooP have a sale on and were selling M4's for £160 a set. Ummed and arred about getting some by the time I looked agin they had all gone.
