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edscoble
amey
Ok, brake update for those who can get to the end of this sentence before falling face first into their keyboard, snoring.
Current setup on the RC295 is as follows:
On the bike: Magura MT7 callipers, standard Magura performance pads, HC3 adjustable brake levers set to "least power".
On the wheels: 2.4 DHR II's, MDR-P rotors, 203 front and 180mm rear.
I fitted these brakes a few weeks ago now, and I've ridden them at (in order) Bedgebury, Windhill, Surrey Hills repeatedly, and Swinley, in rain varying from "Biblical" to "mild".
Given my past experience with Magura I'm going to qualify this somewhat, but at the moment the brakes fall into the "just work" category, and what that means is that the bite point is in the same place front and rear, you get that tactile "clang" as the pads contact the rotor and power builds in a linear fashion as you apply pressure to the lever. Ultimate power is huge, indeed I discovered that I need to pay far more attention to modulating it as locking the front DHR II on steep descents is very easy. Modulating the power is, when not panicking, easy as there's a lot of feel from the lever.
The rear can be locked at will, instantly - not a given with the old (and now replaced by Magura Service UK) calliper, and I'm now over the hump on trusting it I think. Not that I ride around doing skid skids, but the old brake just didn't have the bite to stop the rear wheel, the new one is (by every definition) a new experience.
I will admit that when I got this bike bleeding hydraulics was one of the few things (along with wheel building) that I relied upon my LBS for. That's now reduced to wheel building, as I've developed quite a lot of experience of bleeding brakes in quite a short time.
I'd say that Magura brakes need vacuum to be bled properly, and that it is very easy to think that you've bled them when you haven't. Mine don't pump up when they have air in them, but the bite point will be close to the bars and they'll lack ultimate power - but they can be ridden like this, which would leave you thinking that they were just shit brakes, rather than poorly installed.
During a bleed I'd recommend that you add a step that Howard advised - pull the brake lever and use a toe-strap or a re-usable zip-tie to lock it in place, then apply vacuum with the syringe to the calliper. This can coax air out of the calliper that otherwise stays in place, despite tapping the calliper, having it at the bottom of a vertical hose run to the master cylinder and so on.
The Magura "Fast Bleed" which is on the Magura YouTube service page isn't sufficient to bleed the system, if you want to get the brake bled then you have to do the full version. I imagine (but do not know) that the fast bleed could be a good way of getting a little air out when you've just shortened the hoses on install - I would, on balance, do that first and see if it worked before doing the full version.
I've now made a version of the Magura pro-bleed kit after watching Magura North America service manager (Joel something?) bleeding a brake and talking about how the design of it gave you a useful amount of vacuum on the lever end. When my pro-bleed kit arrived from Magura it actually lacked an element that would give this, so I modified it somewhat. I'm hoping that it now stays in the toolbox for rather a long time unused, but we shall see.
Pros:
Cons:
I'd say the Trail SL's are all you need in the UK unless you're heavy or riding downhill, neither of which apply to me but I will (post-Covid) be riding this bike in the Alps as much as I can (unless Pace release their new Enduro bike before I can get to the PDS) so the four-piston calliper on the back is handy.
I also think the fluoro yellow looks "right" on a Pace, because nostalgia.