Starting from the highest end and down: XTR, XT, and SLX for cross country and trail use, with Saint and Zee being their downhill options. Bite-point adjustment is forgone in the pursuit of weight saving. Episode #12 - Top 5 next level the bore and the levers don't come back..Sram don't tell you that. SRAM and Shimano are the market leaders in bike componentry, and for good reason. I would say that this is pretty much the biggest part of the argument right here, how each brake feels and performs on the trail. SRAM G2 Ultimate brakes deserve the nickname the mini-Code for how much power they pack into a small, compact trail brake. Gear. It used to be that only gravity riders would consider four-piston calipers known as four-pot brakes and everyone else would stick to two-piston calipers, known as two-pot brakes. JGbike is an authorized retailer for Shimano, SRAM, SUNRACE, FIZI:K, MANITUO, With braking power tuned for entry level riders and a lever reach designed for smaller hands. CAD and our SRAM Level disc brake review Not all brake discs are actually the diameter they say they are, and even 1/2 a mm here and there can make a difference. All the brakes from SRAM and Shimano work incredibly well. DOT fluid is bad for skin and paintwork, and needs more careful handling than mineral oil, but deals with water absorption better. Which is better for mountain bikes, and which is better for road bikes? Sintered pads have more metallic fragments in the compound and can sound harsh, but wear far better and dont suffer from overheating as much. The XTR M9100 is one of the best XC brakes on the market, but free-stroke adjustment would add that little bit more to these race-bred brakes. There's an article written by this company in Europe called epic bleed solutions (a link below to that in the video description) they wrote an extensive article all about dot fluid versus mineral oil which is really really well done, you can see a couple snippets of that article and pros and cons of each of the fluid right now. Starting with Shimano, the bleed process is quite easy for the home mechanic and you can get a quick top off bleed done very easily without much skill required. And now for the XT two piston versus the level TLM and the SLX 2-piston versus the level TL. SRAM has what's called the Level series so they have level ultimate, TLM, TL, T, and just level. The lever feel is smooth, and you can slowly apply the amount of brake pressure you want in any given situation. Starting from the highest end and down: XTR, XT, and SLX for cross country and trail use, with Saint and Zee being their downhill options. Sign in to manage your newsletter preferences. SRAM level. Sitting between the budget Shimano Deore and higher-end Shimano XT groupsets, Shimano SLX is sometimes overlooked. The two brands use different ways to categorize their brakes for different disciplines. In this article, well tackle all these questions to help you gain insight into which will be best for your cycling needs. Quite a lot of pull action was required to access the brakes full output, which we found quite tiring. One of the key differences, however, is the available gear range. Many riders swear by these brakes and the four piston option was a hit when it first came out. Just like any other mountain bike category, there is a bunch of cross over and you can run a more powerful brake on a smaller bike as many do, or a less powerful brake on a bigger bike, not that many do but you can. Shimano Zee brakes are going to be the budget version of the Saints. NZD. XTR, however, is available only in black. Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 is around 80g lighter and retails $150 cheaper than SRAM RED eTap. I would say in my experience it's a little bit easier to get Shimano's to feel good in terms of just like if you're a quasi novice mechanic and you're at home working on them. It uses SRAMs Matchmaker to integrate shifters and dropper levers onto the bars. Barto Oct 31, 2019 1 2 Next B Barto Member Aug 28, 2019 32 11 Qld Oct 31, 2019 #1 I'm interested in peoples experience and opinions in which brakes to upgrade to. The SLX M7120 might not have the same functions as Shimanos pricier brakes, notably Free Stroke adjustment, but we didnt miss this a great deal in testing. One of the most notable innovations by Shimano came in 1985 when they introduced index shifting. We will break this down into the easiest methods. 113 [Podcast], Best of the Month! However, more mountain bikes are outfitted with SRAM components. - AXS is SRAM's marquee electronic shifting technology, and it is an entirely wireless system. SRAM has directed the Guide Series brakes as their All-Mountain/Enduro brake line up and the Level series is directed more towards the XC/Trail riders. As you might expect, the more you pay for a set of brakes the more likely it is that theyll have these features. Shimano vs Note: Shimano brakes run the Shimano Hydraulic Mineral Oil. EUR The Shimano brake lineup itself has its similarities to SRAM in that they offer a number of different price points for the brake line-up. If you live somewhere extremely hilly, its worth considering SRAM RED. This can be either tool-free or tool-driven. These are features many serious off-roaders would consider essential, such as a 1x drivetrain, a dropper post lever, and a clutch. Both options are available with electronic shifting: Di2 in Shimanos range and eTap in SRAMs. Add the particularly solid-feeling, wide-bladed lever and, for the money, you simply cant go wrong. Shimanos entry level four piston brake, the Shimano SLX (BR-7120), can take a beating. Disclaimer: you can obviously a fix any of these brakes across different disciplines so you might have a cross country bike that has 100 ml of travel and it's a super lightweight hardtail but you're a really big dude so you put downhill brakes on it that is possible and vice versa but what they're intended for that's what I'm gonna go over. The SRAM Level Ultimate will be the highest end and lightest cross country brake model from SRAM, featuring just what you need and nothing you dont. Lastly for SRAM is their downhill brakes, the SRAM Code with two models to choose from: the Code RSC and the Code R. These will be the burliest brakes SRAM makes and they have a large four piston caliper and a huge master cylinder. I really like the lever feel, and I think its easier to slowly add on the power and scrub speed more controlled than Shimano brakes. Magura offers a range of levers with these brakes and in testing we had the two-finger levers, which exhibited a plasticky feel and flexed slightly. New stuff like in the last couple years the SRAM pistons retract amazingly well just like the Shimano's always have so they're just as easy to adjust and make sure that that rotor is not rubbing. The sram levels on my 19 Levo keep going spongy. SRAM recently released the two G2 RS and R brakes to follow their higher end siblings. Hats off to Clarks for producing an effective hydraulic disc brake for 24.99, or even less if you buy two (44.99). It is different but you definitely get used to it. So that's SRAMs cross country light trail 2 piston caliper lightweight brake. What you can't use is DOT5 fluid. The Level's have good feel, OK power, and have been trouble free. You can bleed the brake with it open, wind it in after the bleed and have some amazing and easy to adjust pad contact. WebLevel Level Stealth 2P Level Stealth 4P G2 CODE DB8 eTap AXS eTap 11 Speed S-900 Aero HydroR TL T Base ULT TLM ULT SLV ULT SLV ULT RSC RS R RE RSC R ULT Stealth SLV Stealth RED Force / Rival S-900 Aero HydroR Scheibenbremshebel Level TL T Base ULT TLM Level Stealth 2P ULT SLV Level Stealth 4P ULT SLV G2 ULT RSC RS R RE CODE RSC R The two pistons on the rear caliper are oversized, so theres still a good chunk of stopping power. After a settlement SRAM received in 1991 from Shimano after a lawsuit over attempted market monopolization, SRAM began to take off in the MTB world. Both SRAM and Shimano manufacture incredibly high-quality groupsets for road bikes. SRAM Level T Disc Brake I don't need top of the line parts, but I don't want to buy something that is going to break easily. Cross country brakes will be the lightest version of disc brakesand typically feature only a two piston caliper. Despite a few minor quirks, its hard to fault these four-pot brakes from Shimano. After protracted teasing, it was released in 2021 and brought wireless shifting to Shimanos Di2 groupsets for the first time. And for the final category of enduro / downhill Shimano coming in with Saints vs. SRAMs code RSC. Basically what this means is that you will have more control over your braking force before they lock up. Test of Time. The shifting will be markedly slower on SRAMs mechanical group than Shimanos XTR Di2. Their pistons didn't retract quite as good as Shimano, they have come a very very long way there with their caliper design and the piston material and the piston seals in modern-day in my opinion and I think, you know, a lot of people would agree with this if you've worked on them extensively. Pair this with the lever feel and these brakes are super-positive, engaging power almost instantly, and giving that trademark Shimano brake feel. Shimano Vs SRAM: Road Bike Components. Instead, there's a choice of either a SRAM XX1 Eagle drivetrain with SRAM Level Ultimate brakes or a Shimano XTR drivetrain with XTR M9100 brakes. Each brake is tuned for prompt and consistent pad engagement. Yet both still have some drawbacks compared to the other, and there are also positives from each brand that the other lacks. Over the years SRAM has got much better at feeling sharp without losing their key feature of modulation. The trail-focused G2 replaces the popular Guide brake in SRAMs line-up and the Ultimate is the top-tier version, with rainbow-coloured hardware, lever pivot bearings and tool-free adjustment. The Shimano Deore and SLX are their lower level and less expensive 2-piston brakes. However, getting the right bleed is critical to the performance of these brakes. Video , Currency: Grand Canyon 5 Men's or Women's Mountain & Trail Bike - Slickdeals Reach adjustment is generous, and we measured 1cm range of bite-point adjustment with the factory bleed. This might not sound like a lot, but if youre trying to get up 20% climbs regularly, youre going to notice a huge difference in the gearing. We will get more into personal preference further down, but thoe are the basics of what each brake offers. So in a perfect world you'd be able to test both brakes back-to-back and see which one you kind of like and prefer but there's definitely no one winner. However, some of the MTB-specific tech that you might be after is only available in certain ranges. The action is smooth, but its a bit more resistant than other brakes. Complete Guide To SRAM MTB Disc Brakes I would say that this is pretty much the biggest part of the argument right here, how each brake feels and performs on the trail. Bleeding is a simple process with a dedicated reservoir top cap, however there was difficulty setting similar bite points for both levers. WebThe MT200 disc brakes are an entry-level brake that comes from the Shimano Altus category of brakes. SRAM Level TL vs Guide R I'm gonna definitely say no so it's kind of personal preference, and to be honest, you can kind of get used to either one. About Ghost This post isnt about how one brand is better, but more of a side by side comparison between SRAM and Shimano brakes. Of course, two-piston brakes still have acres of power on hand. At least over here, there seems to be a big price difference in Shimano brakes -you can either go for cheapy MT200 or then it seems to jump by 100% in price to the next level of Deore brakes. Other notable components include the fast-rolling Maxxis Aspen 2.4 tires, an SDG Tellis dropper for extra descending control, and lightweight RaceFace AR I haven't used both brakes, but the Level T are basic entry level brakes near the bottom of SRAMs range, they use a simplified caliper design compared to their higher in the range brakes. It has been argued, however, that Shimanos shifting is a little smoother than SRAMs. Another difference here is that Shimano XTR is only available in an 11-speed setup, whereas for a little extra cash, XX1 can be set up as a 12-speed. Another reason is how well the pad contact adjustment works. Offering the same four piston stopping power, the SRAM G2 RS and R go without the contact adjust to come in at a lower, more affordable price.