Thanks to everyone in the forum that helped me come to the conclusion that E4's are the brakes for me. One more question though on the subject of disk brakes (honestly this the last one), can Hope hoses be trimmed to fit or do you have to run them at the legnth supplied by the factory? Once again, thanks.

Yes, you can trim them. You'll have to bleed them once you have done though.

If you are creful not to let any fluid leak out, you can trim them without the need to bleed. I've had this done successfully to both sets of minis that I own. One set by Hope themselves at Red Bull Mountain Meyhem, and one set by Pete at my freindly LBS. (Just don't ask him about Chris Bonnington)

I've done it twice too without the need for bleeding - just make sure that the hose as a slight drop of oil hanging out of the end so that ther're no air gap.

Is it that hard to bleed them?
Would it not be prudent just to bleed them any way?

Cutting and bleeding sounds pretty straight forward (famous last words eh?)

If you have trouble, the September issue of MBR (in shops now) tells you how to cut and bleed Minis. I've not got any myself but i'd imagine the E4 uses a similar method?

"Cutting and bleeding sounds pretty straight forward " yeah - I thought bleeding was what normally happened when you got cut? ;-) sorry, IGMC!

Seriously though, bleeding isn't too hard. It's a lot easier if you have a length of clear tube to go from the bleed nipple to the waste fluid bottle, though.