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Frankenbrakes and brake improvement discussion

JakeSM

Chimp
Mar 14, 2021
3
1
My BL-M4100's arrived today. $83 shipped, all the way from Taiwan and month sooner than expected to boot!
Excited to try them on my bike paired with the saint 4 pots.
 
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Sandwich

Pig my fish!
Staff member
May 23, 2002
21,030
5,918
borcester rhymes
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.
 

Sandwich

Pig my fish!
Staff member
May 23, 2002
21,030
5,918
borcester rhymes
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.
Looks like I answered my own question:

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.
 

Sandwich

Pig my fish!
Staff member
May 23, 2002
21,030
5,918
borcester rhymes
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.
 
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Sandwich

Pig my fish!
Staff member
May 23, 2002
21,030
5,918
borcester rhymes
My BR-M4100's arrived today. $83 shipped, all the way from Taiwan and month sooner than expected to boot!
Excited to try them on my bike paired with the saint 4 pots.
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.
 

Sandwich

Pig my fish!
Staff member
May 23, 2002
21,030
5,918
borcester rhymes
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?
 

Salami

Turbo Monkey
Jul 17, 2003
1,784
118
Waxhaw, NC
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.
 

Jm_

sled dog's bollocks
Jan 14, 2002
18,850
9,556
AK
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.
It's like butter.
 

Sandwich

Pig my fish!
Staff member
May 23, 2002
21,030
5,918
borcester rhymes
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.
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.
 

ebarker9

Monkey
Oct 2, 2007
848
242
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.
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.
 

iRider

Turbo Monkey
Apr 5, 2008
5,648
3,089
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.
 

CrabJoe StretchPants

Reincarnated Crab Walking Head Spinning Bruce Dick
Nov 30, 2003
14,163
2,484
Groton, MA
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?
 

StiHacka

Compensating for something
Jan 4, 2013
21,560
12,504
In hell. Welcome!
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.
Yeah, I have two packages in a quarantine at the Frankfurt airport, both showing "Origin post is preparing shipment"

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?
Pretty much. I paid 20e+25e shipping for 15e+30e items.
 

toodles

ridiculously corgi proportioned
Aug 24, 2004
5,479
4,719
Australia
Not sure on Monkey experiences but at todays race, I saw at least 5 MT-7 brakes that had the lever secured with rubber bands or cable ties to stop over-extending. Apparently they break easy.
 

Happymtb.fr

Turbo Monkey
Feb 9, 2016
1,907
1,252
SWE
I have seen pictures of Loic Bruni's bike with rubber bands hanging between the grips and the brakes... supposedly because the levers rattle
 

toodles

ridiculously corgi proportioned
Aug 24, 2004
5,479
4,719
Australia
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.
 

Andeh

Customer Title
Mar 3, 2020
996
973
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'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.
 

Sandwich

Pig my fish!
Staff member
May 23, 2002
21,030
5,918
borcester rhymes
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.
 

Happymtb.fr

Turbo Monkey
Feb 9, 2016
1,907
1,252
SWE
@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...
Screenshot_20210425-200300_Instagram.jpg
 

toodles

ridiculously corgi proportioned
Aug 24, 2004
5,479
4,719
Australia
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.
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.
 

Udi

RM Chief Ornithologist
Mar 14, 2005
4,915
1,200
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.

MT7.jpg


They're a good affordable brake, they stop very well.
They aren't a great affordable brake.
That doesn't exist.
 

slyfink

Turbo Monkey
Sep 16, 2008
9,288
5,028
Ottawa, Canada
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.
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.
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.
 

6thElement

Schrodinger's Immigrant
Jul 29, 2008
15,827
13,058
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.
 

Monty219

Chimp
Feb 18, 2021
3
2
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.