4 pot brakes any good? Looking to replace 2 pot XT.
Freedom of contract. We sell them guns that kill them; they sell us drugs that kill us.
Deore MT520/510 series
I have a set on a bike that I've ridden on the road on the way home from work for about 8 kilometers and they feel alright, waaaaaay better than the Guide T's on a bike I rode on Burke a handful of times.
You're welcome for my nearly completely useless reply lol.
Loads of riders run them in the UK as they were (until Brexit) available for about £40 an end from some German sellers. The general feeling is that they are good and powerful but with less bells and whistles (no bad thing with Shimano brakes imho) and with a slightly less nice finish (eg pad retaining split pin not threaded screw) than say XT.
Just check the pads that they come with, they might be the crappy soft not sintered ones.
My understanding was that the calipers are very similar to xt 4 pot. Why not run xt levers with deore calipers?
The MT520 4 pots are very good, no discernible performance benefit to the higher end offerings IMO. I have them paired with old 985 levers.
I moved from SLX 2-pot to Zee 4-pots, amazing improvement in brake control - not sure I'll ever go back to 2-piston brakes.
Ok thanks for all that in the end I scrolled down page and ended up buying a complete SLX 4 pot set that I found.
Why not run xt levers with deore calipers?
I was eyeing some xt calipers at CRC but dithered too long - they sold out. Is it easy generaly to just buy calipers? Would think it harder to find lower spec stuff split apart?
So, I gotta' buy an adaptor for the rear. Am I giving up heaps by continuing with a 160 on the rear or should I move the 180 to the rear, buy two adaptors and put a 203 on the front?
Last edited by: tungsten on March 27, 2021, 3:37 p.m., edited 2 times in total.
Are you a husky lad?
lol....186~
I’m just a “trail” rider and weigh the same as you and I always appreciate an upgrade in power.
I don’t think the benifits of the larger disk is as noticeable as going to 4 piston, but it’s significant.
Bigger rotors. Unless you're unable to modulate with your finger.
I had a set of 2-pot SLX brakes, and purchased some Deore 4-pot calipers for them ($90 CAD each). I've got lots of old sets of brakes, and since the Deore calipers don't use the repositionable banjo connection, I needed to use some brake lines from old Shimano brakes to graft them over to the SLX levers. They work great now though, SO MUCH POWER.
I like the SLX levers for the reach adjust, but it would be more ideal to graft on some SLX calipers, due to the brake line compatibility. Or if you've got Deore 2-pot brakes, upgrading the calipers would be a direct change-over to the Deore 4-pot calipers.
Last edited by: mammal on March 29, 2021, 2:09 p.m., edited 1 time in total.
Posted by: tungsten
Ok thanks for all that in the end I scrolled down page and ended up buying a complete SLX 4 pot set that I found.
Why not run xt levers with deore calipers?
I was eyeing some xt calipers at CRC but dithered too long - they sold out. Is it easy generaly to just buy calipers? Would think it harder to find lower spec stuff split apart?
So, I gotta' buy an adaptor for the rear. Am I giving up heaps by continuing with a 160 on the rear or should I move the 180 to the rear, buy two adaptors and put a 203 on the front?
Just an FYI, you cannot buy anything Shimano from CRC anymore.
They were up there last wintyer "hot item" "47 people looking at this".
Forum jump:
