The Truth About Mountain Bike Brakes
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 ต.ค. 2024
- What are the best mountain bike brakes you can buy?
There is a lot of choice when it comes to picking some disc brakes for your bike. With prices and specs varying wildly, we put four pairs to the test to see how they compare.
Does spending more give you better performance?
We chose three brakes from established brands covering budget to ultra high end. We then added a bargain basement, internet special wildcard into the mix, to see if they can live up to their ridiculously cheap price tag.
The answer might surprise you.
Which brakes would you choose? Let us know in the comments 👇
#mbukmagazine #mtb #mbuk #brakes #mbuktech
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What brakes do YOU run on your MTB whip? 🤔
Formula CR3 - because they were fitted to the bike. Now, I'm considering replacing them (for summer rides) with four-piston Deore XTs. However, if - for some reasons - I were to follow common sense I'd go with the BR-M420s.
I thought, from reading reviews they wouldn't be amazing but the SRAM DB8 4 piston brakes on really steep stuff (eg. Cwmcarn off-piste kind of steepness), they are impressive. I switched out the SRAM Centreline rotors for floating ones which are 203mm rather than 180mm and fitted ceramic pads and it's very impressive and not a huge amount of money.
Shimano Saints 200mm front and rear
@@PrzemyslawSliwinski merlin cyclesnhave them £199.00 a pair for 4 piston xt ...use your loyalty for another saving
Lewis LH4, iiipro E4's, SRAM DB8 & SRAM codes RSC...
Not on all the same bike lol
I have a set of two piston formula cura but couldn't find the pads I wanted so they're sleeping for awhile 😅
Also maguras mt5 but they are on my wife's bike, I have a profound dislike for them... Some would say hate 😂
Honestly, why buy a shady knock-off when you can find a pair of new shimano mt200s for $40 or less. Don't know where you took the $100 price tag from.
they're made in the same factories, one makes more with their trusted brand and one gives you more for their money.
@@growingup4487 They are not made in the same factory lmao. Those AE brands just rip the designs off and use cheaper materials, reverse engineered then made as cheaply as possible.
All these prices (Tanke aside admittedly,) are RRP, rather than actual sale pricing. There are great deals around to be had on the Shimano's and Hayes as well, no denying that!
@@brandonfields5720and you don't think Shimano make thier brakes as cheaply as possible? I have the cheap shimano brakes on my bike, but let's be honest the quality of the aliexpress brakes won't be that much different.
@@bikeradarmost german webshops sell shimano products for way below rrp without any sale going on.
Brake performance is mostly dependant on the size of the disc rotors and type of pad material. Budget brakes often come with crappy pads but are interchangeable with Shimano pads.
Yep, as stated, all brakes here used 180mm rotors front and rear. Swap out the pads/rotors in the Tanke's and they'd be better for sure
It says something that I hate mountain biking, don't understand why people like, and will never consider it (Roadie for life) but I i still watch the mountain bike videos because you guys make the videos entertaining as hell.
The Hayes A2 are often half their regular price. Amazing brakes for the money.
They're a really good brake, not the lightest, but power and modulation are impressive. The lever feel is also super light, so little effort needed to pull the levers.
I waited over 6 months for my Picolas to arrive. But they were well worth the wait & the box they are sent out in is a nice extra touch.
Hope E4s are incredible value for money. Really boutique look and feel but cheaper than a lot of SRAM/ shimano/ Hayes etc.
Should have included deore, imo the best value brake on the market. Performs the same as xtr at a fraction of the price, as long as you can live with a slightly higher weight and a bit agricultural looks.
My low end brand mechanical cable disc brakes work just fine for me. But I am a pretty casual gravel and off road rider. No black downhill trails with major jumps for me thanks. Lol
So, what I've learnt from this is that £30 Ali Express brakes will cause DTV to cry a little, because you've avoided the rock step on Twisted Sister 😆🤣. Quite tempted by the Dominions to replace the Zee / MT401 / Deore 6020 calipers I've got on my family's fleet of bikes. You get both the power of a shimano with better modulation, or so I've been told. With people asking for a sytematic test, sometimes, subjective feel and preference would trump outright numbers.
The Dominions, both A2 and A4 are impressive for sure. The modulation is better than Shimano, but as you quite rightly say, feel is subjective and a lab will never tell you that.
Power is nothing without control after all!
I love my purple iiipro E4 bought from Ali express for about 90 euros. they function properly even when going over 45 kph. the price and looks is unbeatable.
They look similar to the Clarks CRS C4 brakes we tested a few months back, we were impressed!
www.bikeradar.com/reviews/components/brakes/disc-brake-systems/clarks-crs-4-brakes
@@bikeradar but less than half the price of those Clarks. 😂
This video is a fascade, are they running the same brake pads? Same amount of pistons?
Not running the same rotors either.... Run the brakes with the same brake pads and rotors then you can make a judgement.
Yeah, they clearly didn’t give a crap about doing a legit comparison. This was just clickbait.
@@nicks8026 Its starting to become a trend in mountainbiking and cycling channels... not good. The biking industry overall is absolutely out of its mind lately, aside from some good value products, most of the components today are EXTREMELY overpriced. I would NEVER pay 400$ for brakes.... neither do the pro's, they get them for free.
We ran the same size rotors, 180mm front and rear, and the same number of pistons, 2, to make it fair. Yes, we could have used the same rotors, but if you are buying a complete brake set, you are likely to use appropriately priced rotors, or they will come as a complete set.
While we could use the brand of pads, the pad shape will be different, so that makes a difference we can't control. However, it would be nice if ALL 2-piston brakes used the same shape/size of pad! But that is unlikely to ever happen!
@@bikeradar I run Chinese DOT4 brake handles on my DIY E-mountainbike; and I run Hayes brakes alongside them, Shimano rotors. I'd argue that best value for money is what cycling is about if you are on a budget. The Tanke brakes have to be bled to get the lever feel just right, then buy better pads for them that won't disintegrate after braking hard two times on a solid, proven rotor; and I think this test would've had a slightly different outcome.
Mt200 slap with 203 rotors is all you need if you're on a budget.
i want a cycle i don't have money can you help me
Would have loved some actual tests like iso 4210 or something, like this it's just "feeling"
Give over
As we've said in other comments, power is one thing, but a lab test will not account for things like modulation. Feel is very important, its your fingers pulling the levers, not a machine and you ride the bike dynamically on a trail, not statically in a lab.
To my knowledge, I've not seen any lab tests that take into account air flowing over the caliper either. Yes they take into heat build up, but there is no accounting for how well/poorly air flow affects it. You will have that affecting performance on the trail.
Mt420's best brake ever. Almost as good as slx and totally idiot proof
Can i have a full sus bike plssssss
These sorts of comparisons are little more than clickbait. Rather than doing “ripoff AliX product vs high end product,” why not try a more realistic comparison and do something like, “low cost SRAM 4-pot brake vs higher end 4-pot,” like the Dominion A4? It would be far more helpful. People who throw AliX crap like this and the baloney fork on their bikes are beyond help.
We felt this was an interesting topic to cover. Times are hard, things are expensive, so there will be people who look at the Tanke brakes (or similar) as viable options. In honesty, they are not all that bad.
We plan on doing a broader test of the big brake brands in the future, so stay tuned for that! Thanks for watching 🤘
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@@bikeradar Apologies, it just seemed like it because of the bad testing methodology.