
The Shimano BL-Mt501/Mt502 brakes may cost half the price of some more premium hydraulic mountain bike brakes, but this doesn’t stop them from performing remarkably well.Ī hinged clamp makes attaching the brakes to your handlebars easy and that’s a great feature at this price point. Sub-Deore level brakes, yet plenty of stopping power from Shimano.
Promax bmx brakes full#
Read the full review of the Hope Tech 3 E4 brake.All that remains is to choose between the black, purple, red, orange, blue and silver-anodised finishes, and buy a matching £45 to £50 floating rotor to really colour-coordinate your precious steed. With an impressive weight of 256g, the price feels very reasonable indeed, so we found the Tech 3/E4 combination hard to see beyond.Īdd customisation options such as shifter adaptors and a variety of brake pad materials, and you have a winner on your hands. The lever feel is firm, with maybe slightly less feedback than the best of the rest – however, a consistent, smooth action more than makes up for this.Įverything, from the solid, dimpled lever blade to the large, glove-friendly bite point and reach-adjust dials, is well thought out and easy to tweak, and fitting and bleeding are a breeze, too. Together, the lever and caliper are nothing short of excellent, with oodles of power to call upon through superbly engineered and adjustable components. Top-loading pads make for easier replacement, and the whole DOT fluid system is bled using the old-school open reservoir method, which is easy once you’ve got the hang of it. The E4, meanwhile, is a one-piece caliper, CNC-machined from T6 alloy, with four phenolic pistons pushing out serious stopping power. This is a thoroughly solid, industrial bit of kit, built to last a lifetime. It’s compatible with Shimano I-Spec A shifters, to cut down handlebar clutter, and other standards are available as optional extras. The Tech 3 is slightly heavier than the more pared-back Race option (by around 40g), but what it loses in weight and titanium hardware it gains in on-the-fly adjustment, via tool-free reach and bite-point dials. With a choice of levers and calipers that can be mixed and matched in the Hope range, we opted for the Tech 3 lever with the four-pot E4 caliper. Adjustments: Reach (TF), bite point (TF).Hope’s Tech 3 E4 brakes are powerful, well modulated and feature useful adjustment. You can find out more about what to look for when buying disc brakes at the end of this article, but otherwise keep reading to see our pick of the best mountain bike disc brakes, as reviewed and rated by the expert team here at BikeRadar. There are plenty of fitting and dismantling sessions too, to figure out how easy the brakes are to maintain and service. When we take the best mountain bike disc brakes out for testing, we keep all this in mind: checking for power, feel, fade, modulation and reliability. Practically speaking, you want stoppers with low maintenance requirements, which hydraulic units generally bring (save for the occasional bleed), and easy swapping out of brake pads when the time comes. Riders with smaller hands will want a shorter lever reach, an adjustment which most sets have as standard, but the ability to change the bite point of the brake can also help get it in the sweet spot where your fingers have the most leverage. Four pistons offer more braking power but can increase weight.Ī level of adjustability at the lever is helpful for effective control and to reduce hand fatigue. Some brakes come with four pistons in the caliper and others with two pistons. Cold forging produces the strongest, lightest weight and most durable bicycle parts.That way, you’ll reduce unintentional skidding and the resultant reduction in braking power and bike control. Available in two arm lengths, both the long 108-millimeter and short 85-millimeter P-1 brake arms are cold forged from 6061-T6 aluminum. Item: 174659124701 Promax P-1 Linear Pull Brakes 85mm Reach Red Aluminum BMX Bicycle Brake.
