Hope Technology and brakes are to many people one and the same and that’s for good reason. Hope were making hydraulic disk brakes that worked and worked well, way before Sram existed and Shimano thought V-Brakes were the answer to our braking woes. Roll on to today and the brake market is not what it once was with the big guys now dominating, but Hope haven’t slipped into the history books and continue to help make bikes go faster by making them slow down. Roll on to 2011 and the big daddy of disk brakes, the Hope Tech M4…

Words and Photos: Olly Forster

Levers.

The levers are pretty substantial by anyone’s standard and scream industrial beauty, but there’s far more to these than their striking looks. The lever blades themselves are built with comfort and indestructibility in mind and thanks to the amazing on the fly adjustments courtesy of the two dials controlling the bite point and the finger reach are easily dialled in to suit all needs. The bite point dial adjusts the free stroke of the lever before the pads come into contact with the disc by turning the little green dial clockwise for less and counter-clockwise for more. Simple.

The other dial controls the finger reach adjustment and helps to get the lever where it should be, relative to the bars. This adjustment is recommended after you’ve set the bit point and in contrast, clockwise for more and counter-clockwise for less. We’ve all got a individual tastes and requirements and when it comes to brakes, individual set ups come into their own and the fussy, fettlers out there will love these levers.

The levers also sport rattle free lever pivots, a flip flop design that allows the Tech lever to be used either on the left or right hand side simply by flipping it over as the brake has 2 diaphragms and 2 lids and works either way. Coupled with reverse sprung lever and all the adjustments, all make for one neat little package crammed with innovative features.

Installation and Bleeding.

Hope brakes have always been easy to install and bleed and even today, with all the advancements in materials and manufacturing, they remain the easiest brakes to set up – just be careful not to contaminate the pads! Bleeding is as simple as it gets involving bleeding from the lever and out to the calliper; using the lever to force the oil through the system and hopefully getting any unwanted air bubbles out.

I will point out that three pulls of the lever empties the reservoir so be careful you don’t suck any unwanted air back into the system by accident and forcing you to start from the beginning again. Hope do recommend getting a trained technician to do the job for you and in all honesty, I agree with them. You can bodge a descent bleed kit together that does the job well if you know what your doing, but the potential to loose an afternoon that should really be spent on the hill is pretty prominent. Your call, but I’d get your LBS on the case.

Now that’s a British cockpit if there ever was one: Renthal, K9 and Hope representing. Hope are pretty popular in the UK which is no surprise, but it’s not just because it says “made in England” on the box. These are designed for wet weather, mud and the punishing nature of riding you encounter on this island we call home.

Callipers and Rotors.

The callipers carry the OTT theme over from the levers and take no prisoners sporting a whopping 4 pads and CNC work that is pretty much art like. Although these are manufactured unlike any other, they still resonate an industrial feel that you just don’t get from the perhaps the more polished big brands and they’re huge Asian production lines. The first negative thing about these brakes were the pads. They are good, but they just didn’t last and I’m not talking wearing here; they just fell apart after two very wet practice days on nasty tracks. New pads in and so far so good, but the market is a wash off after market brands offering varying pads, so you don’t have to stick with Hope’s own.

Brake Features:

• M4 4 Pot Callipers

• Braided or Standard hose option – £10 more for Braided

• Post Mount

• Special Edition Black Anodising and sponsorship Green

• Titanium bolts and standard Steel Supplied

The rotors are beasts, there’s no two ways about it. Hope offer a few choices when it comes to your rotors and thankfully the team at Hope hooked us up with these ‘Saw Discs’ that have a stainless steel braking surface riveted to an aluminium central carrier. As well as offering a significant weight saving, they also allow the rotors to expand or contract with changes in temperature. These are aimed at the gravity market and come in a big 183 and a bigger 203mm.

Rotor Features:

• Stainless steel braking surface

• Aluminium central carrier

• Available in 183 and 203mm in a Range of Colour

The colour co-ordination continues from one end to the other with these stunning callipers. These are in no way small and light and although the supplied titanium hardware helps keep the weight down, these are hefty components when up against some of the other brands fly weight carbon and magnesium offerings.

We ran a standard DH set up on our test bike with a 183 rear and a 203 front, but with an array of mounts and calipers available, you can get the set up you always wanted.

Pricing.

This is where you have to get a pen and paper out as you need to put these together as a kit because these brakes don’t come with rotors or mounts. Financial brake down:

> Individual Brakes – £170 each

> Braided Hose Upgrade – £10 per brake

> 183mm Rotor – £35

> 203mm Rotos – £40

> Boxxer 203 Front and IS 183 Rear Mounts – £13 each

Grand Total – £ 442 GBP(front and rear) – with 2 titanium lever clamp bolts, 2x sets of 2 calliper mount bolts and 6x rotor bolts with each brake.

So, there you go – not cheap, but then part of Hope’s appeal is there exclsuivity and removal away from mainstream manufacturers whose brakes by sheer default are common and not always what the average biker aspires to fit to their pride and joy. Hope really tap into this notion and their die hard customers are the riders who not only swear by the product, but also relish in this exclusivity of owning something that is UK made and easy on the eye. So what about performance?

We run a lot of Hope product on our test bikes and have done, on and off for 15 years. Some things have changed and some things haven’t.

Braking Performance and Conclusion.

My initial reaction to the M4’s was how rad they looked in the limited edition colours and the sheer quality of their manufacturing. Installation was pretty easy and straightforward although bleeding the rear was unusually long winded with an endless stream of air seemingly breeding within the system. Once successfully bled the set up process was super easy thanks to the levers adjustments.

Out on the trail the brakes took in my opinion a long time to bed in. After a few days of riding in mixed conditions they started to shine and delivered predictable and well modulated braking. Before getting to grips with the M4 I was expecting braking performance above and beyond what I had previously experienced from other brands used this year, mostly due to the extra pots and aggressive feel these brakes resonate.

In contrast to my initial feelings before hitting the trails and although these are capable stoppers, I didn’t experience braking performance above and beyond that of what could be considered from lesser brakes. Maybe this isn’t relevant, as they are good brakes, but I just expected more.

The overall construction and quality is second to none and something Hope products are renowned for and this quality of the actual brakes and individual components is reflected in their price. £440 for a full set up is no drop in the ocean, but for the quality, feel and the exclusivity of these brakes coupled with their stunning looks and titanium fitting bolts have already proved these brakes to be a huge hit with riders.

Overall, these are predictable and reliable stoppers with manufacturing quality that separates them from the competition and although the stopping power didn’t blow my mind, they remained capable of the job at hand. If your a Hope fan and looking for some new stoppers for your gravity rig or someone looking for something that little bit special, here’s your answer.

For more information on Hope Technology and their product range, tap the logo below and check their range out.

Comments

comments

TAGS