Hi everyone!
What do you think is wrong with my 2-piston Shimano XT brakes?
Numerous times this year i was told that I was missing out not using 4-piston brakes.
So why don't we take a look at these brand new Deore brakes and see what they're about.
Apparently it was e-bikes that prompted Shimano to produce
more 4-piston calipers for the masses.
They first had the XT M8020
to go along with the Saint and Zee for downhill.
But today we have for each 12-speed group
a 2-piston and a 4-piston caliper version.
And we also have the non-series MT420 and MT520 4-piston caliper brakes.
Each Shimano 12-speed group provides shared levers.
For DEORE that's BL-M6100 and they offer specific calipers
BR-M6100 is for 2-piston calipers,
BR-M6120 would be for 4-piston.
When it comes to the levers, they use the newI-SPEC EV bar clamp,
It's a two-piece that also uses this extra touch point
for 10% more stiffness felt on the lever.
It has a modified Servo Wave for better modulation
These are for cross country and trail riding
I did a review of the 2-piston caliper brakes
in which I put these right next to the XT,
make sure you check that out!
But in quick summary, the lever shape is the same,
is missing the dimples, just like the SLX,
the reach adjust uses a hex key as opposed to a knob,
the bite point adjustment is missing just like it is on the SLX
and this is very similar finish to the XT.
Mineral oil is used in here which we know,
and here on the back you're gonna see
the product code, BL-M6100, these are made in Malaysia,
and for those who always wonder what 22.2 means,
that's the clamp diameter here next to your grips.
I bought my 4-piston Deores OEM so I don't have the original box,
but if we look at this SHimano XT box
you can clearly see how they use the same lever
with either a 2-piston or a 4-piston caliper.
And whether you bought the brakes retail, with all the hoses disconnected,
or OEM, with everything connected,
I do have a couple of videos on my channel with installation instructions.
But with the main difference being in the calipers,
why don't we focus more on those.
On the back of the caliper you see the model number,
BR-M6120 for the 4-piston,
BR-M6100 for the 2-piston.
They're both made in Malaysia.
They use the same SM-BH90 brake hose,
the 1 meter for the front, 1.7 meter for the rear.
And both calipers have this straight in connector for the hose.
There's no banjo like you would find on the XT or SLX.
Hose still connects to the caliper to the inside
however the bleeding port is in a different spot,
and overall the XT and SLX calipers look different.
If you look at this Deore caliper and the MT520 non-series caliper,
I believe there are rebadged versions of the same product.
Cotter pin or retaining pin for the pads is the same on both
and Deore only has post mount calipers in the lineup.
Brake pads are still removed from the top
and you can have the brakes with resin or sintered non-finned pads.
And this is where the magic happens:
you have 2 x 18 and 2 x 16 mm pistons
as opposed to the old 22 mm diameter piston.
The other big difference here is the material used:
the 2-piston Deore uses resin
and it looks like the 4-piston Deore uses ceramic,
just like the more expensive versions of these brakes.
That is approximately 20% more piston area,
that according to Shimano translates into about 10-15% more breaking power
with the 4-piston calipers.
Just like with the 2-piston, you have the spring in between the pads
and you can see how much bigger the 4-piston brake pad is.
This means not only more braking surface area,
but also means that it has the ability to cool faster.
Here's the catch though:
if the 2-piston caliper can take the Ice Technology finned pads
from XT, XTR and SLX with no problem,
Shimano took away that ability for these new Deore 4-piston calipers.
So the N04C metallic pad
and the N03A resin pad with fins
will NOT fit in this new caliper, as they seem to be too shallow.
I mentioned that the caliper design is very similar
to that non-series MT520, that might be the reason why.
Which means that you are stuck with the D03S resin or D02S metallic pads
unless you look at the Zee and Saint, the old pads with fins.
The H01A resin and the H03C metallic pads from Saint and Zee
seem to fit in here just fine.
They don't follow the contour of the caliper perfectly
but I believe the pad reaches down enough.
And here's the D03S that these brakes came with.
On my caliper I'm going to keep those resin pads with no fins.
Always remember to secure them by bending the tip of that split pin.
Weight of the rear with 1.7 meter hose is 324 grams.
Weight of the front with the 1 meter hose is 305 grams.
The 2-piston version of the front brake is only 14 grams lighter than that
so weight shouldn't be a reason to avoid these 4-piston brakes.
Shimano Deore series rotors are very similar
to these RT66 SLX's,
but they do come only in Center Lock.
But you can use these brakes with any Shimano rotors
160, 180, 203 mm diameter.
And instead of just showing you the Deore next to my XT brakes
what I thought i would do
is just replace the front XT 2-piston brake
with my 4-piston Deore and see if I notice any difference.
And here I am at Harwood Ski and Bike,
the host of the 2015 Pan-Am Games.
If you've never tried it, Harwood is one of the best mountain bike venues in Ontario, Canada.
From the fast and flowy trails...
to challenging sections, like the Bone Shaker
and many other sections of the Pan Am Games cross country track.
This is the sketchy one because of that drop.
Oh, this is nothing!
Woohoo, too much fun!
Alright folks, some super super fun riding today.
Did I tell you how much I love my Yeti SB100? Holy smokes!
Do I love it more with a 4-piston brake up front?
One thing that I noticed right away on the brake is - it bites hard!
So if you are grabbing a whole lot of lever here,
you're probably gonna go over the bars really quickly.
So more power?
Probably... a different feel of the lever?
Not as much, very similar to what I feel here on the rear.
I noticed that I didn't have the dimples here
but I don't anymore,
and I totally understand people that say:
hey, I put my 4-piston brakes on and I don't feel any difference.
The thing is, you get used to whatever you have rather quickly
and yes i do have 10-15% more power
for my front brake and that's great,
but I don't think I would put it in the rear
because I never feel like I'm lacking power here.
But what do I think about the 4-piston Deores?
Well, I'm a bit disappointed that they are not the same calipers that XT and SLX use.
I'm wondering if the MT520, the non-series
is pretty much the same thing, but cheaper?
When it comes to braking power, modulation,
I think they're fine,
but I'm probably the wrong guy to talk about that
because I'm fine with the 2-piston calipers as well.
But I'm gonna keep them and install them
on the Commencal META HT AM that I started building recently,
If you guys haven't seen that on my channel, you might want to check it out!
And i thought I would finish the video right there,
but you know what?
After riding these one more day on the local trails
they're kind of growing up on me!
It's not the extra power because you get used to that
but I think it's the way it comes in,
it's very smooth and that would probably qualify as better modulation.
The 2-piston brakes are plenty powerful
but they're definitely a bit more on-off,
so if you don't mind the extra weight of the 4-piston calipers or brakes
or the higher price tag, because they're more expensive than the 2-piston,
I think I would highly recommend them, for trail riding for sure.
Definitely for something more like enduro,
and, by the way, the downhill guys are using the XTR version of these.
What bout you folks?
Do you use two-pot or four-pot Shimano brakes?
Do you have any experience with the MT520s?
Are they any different than the Deore that I described here?
I would love to hear your comments.
If you found this useful don't forget to like, subscribe,
keep an eye on social media,
and until next time,
hope to see you guys on the trails.
Cheers guys, cheers!