Just Stop It....

Seriously, these new Shimano XT BR-M785 brakes really do stop! Over the past 10 years of riding 29ers I had been running the same set of original Avid BB7 calipers and speed dial ti levers with Jagwire cables. This of course was accompanied by all of the little cult following tips and tricks that people had come up with to make the mechanical brake work half way decent.

For the most part, they seemed to work really well and I was always able to set them up so they very rarely squealed and annoyed myself or others that may be on the ride. If fact, they were so dialed that the only thing on the whole bike that annoyed me or made noise was the cable end rattling inside the lever pivot.

So why all of the fuss and trouble some may ask and reason? For simplicity sake of course! I had ridden single speed for may years and always felt the less you had to worry about on a bike during the ride the more enjoyable the experience. Well that ideal had been getting long in the tooth as i was spending consistently more and more time keeping the BB7's quiet as the actual caliper body was wearing away and losing the tight tolerances in most all areas and was just flat wore out.

As I searched around for a bargain price on a new set mechanical brakes, I really began to think of all the short comings that these things actually had, especially the fixed piston on one side that was less than ideal. I had considered the new TRP designed Spyre, but they had chose to focus on road and cross models first and would not have a suitable lever throw for MTB's until later this year.

Then, I received revelation knowledge on hydraulic brakes! Shimano had a recent re-design of their lineup with the powerful Servo-Wave mechanism and mineral oil internals for what would be a super powerful brake and hassle free set-up. I was sold, especially at the price of around $115 per brake. The installation was super simple and way more easy than an Avid mechanical, not to mention lighter and zero bleeding even when shortening the lines.

Now for the best part, the performance! They have yielded one finger stopping power that a mechanical brake never delivered. Ridiculously easy to set up, incredible stopping power, and to date, completely noise free operation. The simpletons can keep their antiques. I think that I am going to start embracing even more of the new technology the market has to offer.