What disc brakes for Marin Hardtail/XC riding

[AdamD]

Hiya PH bike gurus!

I have a 2009 Marin Palisades trail with XT running gear. The brakes are the standard Avid juicy 3s which whilst stopping well (when they work and are not rubbing) have gone wrong again for the last time. Either the rear piston has siezed or the lever seals are dragging and preventing the lever returning properly leaving it to flop in the breeze; either way I would like to take the opportunity to upgrade around the problem

A lot of the LBS lads run nothing but hope brakes, they look nice but are apparently a pain to mount with XT shifter pods (when the displays are used - current setup has the brakes mounted outside of the shifter on the bars), I have also started to read good things about the Formula RX and R1, they seem quite light which is appealing and perhaps I could get a 180mm setup for the front and still weigh less than the 160/160 Juicy 3's. I am a little put off by Avid but maybe some of their higher end products are better (Elixir CR?).

I mainly use the bike for XC with some good foresty decents and the occassional trip to wales to places like coed y Brenin, I find the juicy's have numb feel and are very grabby with sintered pads, bit like a light switch. Ideally I would like to improve feel/modulation so I lock up less and improve my bike control, would also be nice to lose a bit of weight (considering those floating style discs) and up the stopping power a bit perhaps Any advice on what brakes to consider would be great, budget is flexible and so far a pair of Formula brakes in white and red look tasty

[colin1976]

Shimano brakes have improved significantly over the last few years. They have a good offering at most price points. If you're on a buget consider Deore.

I'm running SLX on my hardtail and am very pleased with both modulation and power.

[a11y_m]

I've been using Shimano XT discs for years and rate them highly - I've got them with different sized rotors on various bikes for different purposes. Can't fault them TBH, and the newer ones with the "servo" levers seems to be even better. I've tried a mate's SLX and they're just as good IMO.

However, I recently bought a bike with Formula RX's fitted and they're in another league for outright stopping power IMO. Very nice feel too. I've gone from 203f/203r XT's on a full-susser to 180f/180r Formula's on my new full-susser and prefer the Formula's. Just a shame they seem to be around £120 an end, you can pick up SLX or XTs for much less than that.

[Matthew_Eames]

The Shimano M595 Deore brakes (a cut down, but slightly re-designed version of the XT and SLX brakes) got a great review in the WMB grouptest recently, mine certainly seem strong enough for the bargin price...but the Formula's do have a lever feel that's nicer than anything else I have tried, even the entry level K18's are good.