Frankenbrakes and brake improvement discussion
- Thread starter Udi
- Start date
2021 Magura MT5 NEXT brakes, NEW! For Sale
2021 Magura MT5 NEXT brakes, NEW! For sale on Pinkbike buysell
any collective experience on MT Thirty brakes?
They appear to be an MT Sport lever paired with an MT5 4 pot caliper. I like my MT5s but I have no idea how the different lever is. Was hoping for trail sports but they are hard to come by.
They appear to be an MT Sport lever paired with an MT5 4 pot caliper. I like my MT5s but I have no idea how the different lever is. Was hoping for trail sports but they are hard to come by.
Looks like I answered my own question:
NSMB.com - Min-Maxed With The Magura MT Sport
After riding Magura's 4+2 Trail disc brakes with great results, how would their most budget brake system compare...
nsmb.com
Looks like they are MT5 4 pots melded to mt sport MC/carbon-plastic lever blades. No word on the pads but A) I have performance pads in my toolkit and B) this is a trailbike so whatevs.
Can anyone confirm if there's a difference (like, an actual difference) between Magura MT5 and MT5 eSTOP?
Yes
mt5 have plastic clamps, two piece performance pads, and two finger levers
mt5 estop have metal clamps, four piece SPORT pads, and two finger levers
mt5 FABIO have metal clamps, four piece Performance pads, and 1 finger levers.
Magura rates sport pads below comfort, which are below performance. I don’t know how that translates in the real world, but I found performance pads to be inferior for extended dh at 200lb. Ok for trail though.
Last edited:
did you ever get this done?
I doubled down on my collection of magura brakes and ended up with one perfect set and almost enough parts for another. I'm debating selling off those broken parts as is, buying the correct MC, or trying a frankenbrake with M4100s. The MC is definitely the weakest part of magura brakes, with plastic clamps and shit, so it might actually be an upgrade to get the equivalent priced shimanos.
hey @Udi and other space nerds
What do you think the value/relationship is between mechanical leverage and hand comfort and strength? I swapped my MT5 2 finger levers over to FABIO HC levers and they are much more comfortable- better profile and can be run closer to the bars. I'm giving up maybe 10mm of lever length, but I'm guessing I'll gain considerable control being able to run them closer and with what feels like less throw. Any thoughts?
What do you think the value/relationship is between mechanical leverage and hand comfort and strength? I swapped my MT5 2 finger levers over to FABIO HC levers and they are much more comfortable- better profile and can be run closer to the bars. I'm giving up maybe 10mm of lever length, but I'm guessing I'll gain considerable control being able to run them closer and with what feels like less throw. Any thoughts?
I have no idea what a Fabio lever is? Shirtless lever?
Anyways I have the short levers the come on the Trail Sport. Felt really weird at first but I love them now. Grown to really like the wider blade and I can dial them as close to grip as Iike. I have 203's front and rear and have more than enough braking power for my slow ass and 170lbs.
Anyways I have the short levers the come on the Trail Sport. Felt really weird at first but I love them now. Grown to really like the wider blade and I can dial them as close to grip as Iike. I have 203's front and rear and have more than enough braking power for my slow ass and 170lbs.
Fabio Wibmer. He's like a guy or something.
Magura makes a brakeset with his name on it that is basically gold MT5s with HC levers and metal clamps. So, in other words I'm going from two finger to 1 finger levers.
Just got my MT5 eSTOPs for the trail bike and they definitely feel like they have less bite than the pads in the regular MT5s. Could just be pad bed in. The four piece pads are much easier to install/remove than the two piece however.
was gonna order some TS brake pads.... over $40 for shipping. maybe not.
shipping from yurp has gone nuts over the past year. not worth it to order stuff from zee germanz anymore.
Or just order a lot of brake pads to make it worth it.
Shipping from Germany is a shit show these days.
CRC / DHL was here in two days. DHL from Germany - disaster.
Interesting. Most of my stuff has been delayed by a couple of days. Treesaw's beanies are stuck *somewhere* in Denmark since April 12, took them 8 days to get over here from New York.
Deutsche Post DHL has some weird quarantine rules for international shipping these days, both outgoing and ingoing. They leave the packages sitting on a warehouse for some time before dispatching them.
i just had a DH frame make it from Quebec to the Philly region in just under a week.
I wanted to replace the bushings in the lowers of my old ass, we-don't-replace-bushings-we-replace-the-whole-lowers fork. The only place that had the bushings was in Germany for like $40EUR (already high), and shipping was like $90 FUCKING EURO.
THE FUCK?
THE FUCK?
Yeah, I have two packages in a quarantine at the Frankfurt airport, both showing "Origin post is preparing shipment"
Pretty much. I paid 20e+25e shipping for 15e+30e items.
Were you Ever Given a reason why?
I have seen pictures of Loic Bruni's bike with rubber bands hanging between the grips and the brakes... supposedly because the levers rattle
I asked these guys today and one took the bands off and showed they hyper extend. Whatever retains them busts off or something? I had a similar issue years ago with XT/XSIV levers.
Keep your fingers on the brakes, problem solved! 
I've been riding MT7s a couple years and have never heard them rattle. And I'm pretty obsessive about chasing down rattles and creaks. No idea what those guys are talking about hyper extending. They always go back to exactly the same point.
Are they always sevens, or fives and sevens? The master cylinder is different between the two. It would be hilarious if the cheaper Asian MC was more durable.
@Andeh
I don't know either, maybe you keep your fingers on the levers all the time which keep them quite?
or Loic had been doing a bleed where you left the lever pressed overnight in order to get the last bubbles out...?
What I know is that the picture has been removed from his Instagram. I clearly remember that there was several pictures with one showing rubber bands between his grip and brakes. I even asked what it was for but never got an answer...
I don't know either, maybe you keep your fingers on the levers all the time which keep them quite?
or Loic had been doing a bleed where you left the lever pressed overnight in order to get the last bubbles out...?
What I know is that the picture has been removed from his Instagram. I clearly remember that there was several pictures with one showing rubber bands between his grip and brakes. I even asked what it was for but never got an answer...
Oh they don't do it out of the box. It seems in crashes something tends to break? Not sure what stops it from hyperextending normally, but they're fine when they're working as designed. Its only after the levers get damaged in a crash.
Every sponsored / fast DH rider I've seen on Magura MT5/7 has the levers ziptied or rubber banded, I've seen it from as early as 2016 right through to 2021. I've said it before, the levers are kinda shitty.
They're a good affordable brake, they stop very well.
They aren't a great affordable brake.
That doesn't exist.
They're a good affordable brake, they stop very well.
They aren't a great affordable brake.
That doesn't exist.
The levers are really shitty. The brakes work well, I like them a lot, but the master cylinders are made of cheese.
Having just switched the 2-finger levers to 1-finger levers, I think I might know the reason. There's a tiny little spring that wraps around the pivot pin and hooks onto the lever body. It looks like a clothes pin spring. I didn't hook it on properly when I installed it the first time and the lever over extended and rattled. Once I installed it properly, it worked as intended.
I'm not saying it's user error though - that spring is tiny and cheesy. I can see it breaking easily under heavy use or hard riders.
I need to go check one of the levers on my DH bike, I noticed it can be pulled forward. My other lever nor the same MT7's on my wifes DH bike do it.
Here’s a “frankenhose” question. I want to put some longer hoses on my old HS33’s to fit a different bike. I have plenty of spare hosing from MT5s but magura’s website specifies the hs33/ julie hose is different than the MT. Does anyone know if i can just use the MT hose on HS33 anyway?
Outer diameter measurements: front HS hose: 5mm, rear:5.25 (i may have already mixed hoses withoutnoticing).MT hose:5mm.
So the main question is: are inner diameters different and does it matter? If no one knows i may experiment and report back. But if anyone can save me the trouble I’d appreciate it.
Outer diameter measurements: front HS hose: 5mm, rear:5.25 (i may have already mixed hoses withoutnoticing).MT hose:5mm.
So the main question is: are inner diameters different and does it matter? If no one knows i may experiment and report back. But if anyone can save me the trouble I’d appreciate it.