Hey everyone!
After using the good old Deore XT M8000 brakes for at least a couple of years, on a few bikes,
Shimano introduced their new XT M8100 brakes.
These were launched with their 12 speed drivetrains and in the next couple of minutes I'm going
to take a look at these two side-by-side
and see what are the differences or similarities between the two.
And right off the bat you can see the difference in the bar clamp used.
This is the good old i-Spec II.
The new brakes introduced i-Spec EV, which is beefier, looks a lot more like SRAM, and
they also use this extra touch point here, with the handlebar.
That's supposed to give you about 10% more stiffness here on the brake lever,
under extreme conditions,
think about extreme heat conditions.
Attaching shifters or dropper remotes to the iSpec-II uses a bracket like this
that slides right under the bar clamp.
Shimano gives us the details - maximum 15 degrees adjustment up and down,
and 12 mm left to right.
i-Spec EV brackets or adapters are very different, they look something similar to this.
This is a WoolfTooth adapter to SRAM shifters.
It would get attached right here on the inside of the bar clamp
hence my analogy with the SRAM Matchmaker.
They give you 2 more millimeters left to right range of adjustment
and a lot more rotational angle,
60 degrees from the 15 degrees before.
Also, this new bar clamp is two piece.
Yes, you still need to push on that little tab to open it up,
and the torque recommended by Shimano is 4-6 Nm.
With the change, the tightening bolt was moved from down under to over to the top.
Is the same 4 mm hex that you need.
The old lever and master cylinder seems to be slightly, slightly bigger,
this new one is machined nicely.
And, on the old one, you have all the description printed down there.
The new lever does not have that surface available, you're going to see that it uses mineral oil.
And here on the back, side, you're going to find the part number,
the fact that is manufactured in Japan,
and 22.2 mm, that is the standard diameter of our handlebars.
Viewed from the other side, you can see the lever shape is the same,
made for one finger braking.
The dimples here to provide you better grip are only at the end,
kind of encouraging you to use the maximum leverage.
On the old style you have dimples over here as well in case you use two fingers.
The Free Stroke adjustment is to be found on both brakes in the same spot.
Also, the tool-less Reach adjust is available just like in the past.
This little yellow tab you see over here, as well as the piece of white plastic
that's preventing you from pressing on the lever,
are there because the new brakes don't come
with any hoses attached to them.
But both the lever and the hose are filled with oil.
The necessary rubber boot, mounting screws, and you have the insert right here.
You're going to need it to attach the hose.
I assume the olive is already behind that connecting nut.
Only in the box of the front brake you're going to find this bleeding block, the yellow piece.
You have the insert in here as well.
And it is curious that with these new sets, Shimano stopped shipping these yellow blocks.
You need this to hold on to the hose when you're pushing the insert to get it ready.
I have this step-by-step video on my YouTube channel, showing you how to shorten Shimano hoses.
Use it to connect the hoses to these brake levers as well.
The new and the old box side-by-side.
On the old box you can see the XT is made in Japan
and the lever and hose are connected together.
On the new box, all that information is here on the opposite corner.
That's the barcode, and manufacturing location.
That is because here, we're going to have a lot more information added to this box
as they seem to try to reduce their SKUs in as many ways possible.
First of all, by giving you the levers and the hoses disconnected,
they don't have to worry about the European vs North American left and right.
Next, if you look over here, this box is common for the Race brakes we're looking at here.
So that's the BR-M8100, and also the four piston version, the BR-M8120,
also called the Trail version.
They recommend using the Ice Technologies discs and they can be used with both metallic
and resin pads, with or without the fins.
The most important part here is that both versions of these brakes use the same lever,
and the lever is using the Servowave action.
And ultimately that's the length of the hose included in the box.
Shimano's also limiting the type of pads they provide with these Race brakes.
You can have a resin pad as G03A, and you can have metallic with fins.
Looking at the old M8000s, you could have resin, resin with fins, and metallic with fins.
The great news is that the new and the old pads have the same dimension,
so you can install the old resin finned pads into the new calipers, no problem.
The same white ceramic pistons are used on the new calipers,
but the other things that are changed are
one - the bleeding port which now is here, at the end of the caliper.
And two, look at where the hose enters the caliper this time.
It is in the inside of the caliper.
The old one had the hose on the outside,
and especially if you had a full suspension bike,
this would rub the paint of your chainstay which was pretty annoying.
Otherwise both brakes use the BH-90 hose, the banjo connector is the same, aside from the color,
and they do use indeed a different connecting bolt.
But that connecting bolt is included if you were just to buy the caliper by itself.
Which makes this a very interesting update or upgrade for your M8000 brakes
over the off-season.
What do you guys think?
And if you're interested in weight, the rear brake with the 1.7 meter hose,
comes up to 279 grams.
The front brake with the 1 m hose will come up to 263 g.
In comparison, this M8000 brake with the same pads and the extra hose that I cut out
is 262 grams, so weight wouldn't be a good reason to upgrade.
My lovely Yeti SB100 bike came with the XT M8000 brakes.
They performed very well for me in the last year and a bit.
But since I'm so used to their performance, I'm gonna install the new XTs on this bike,
and see if I notice any difference.
By the way, if you're using bar clamps for both shifter and brake lever, take a look
and make sure that the brake does not crush the face of your shifter
like it happened here on my X01.
Caliper installed, look at that hose coming on the inside!
Won't touch the frame anymore in any way, won't touch the logo, most importantly!
At the end of the hose you have this plug which is solid,
so you won't spill oil as you're running the cable through the frame.
At the lever end, if I remove this yellow cap, you can see oil spilling out.
You're going to need and 8 mm hex wrench, and remove the nut.
And just follow the video that I mentioned earlier to install this.
The olive you're going to need to complete the install is right inside here.
Shimano's attention to detail, look at the o-ring holding the screw in place.
However, this screw does not have any Loctite on it.
I highly recommend that you use some before you install them.
Almost done with the install.
When I decided on how long my hoses are going to be,
I had to decide on the position of the lever.
So what I did I pushed in the grips, and then my lever, is with that plastic tab is right against it.
That way, it should have a half-decent position for one finger braking.
And if you look for installing something like a bar clamp shifter,
I guess you would use this space between the two contact points of your brake lever.
With the beautiful winter in full swing over here,
I could only do a little bit of street testing of the new brakes.
And right off the bat I can tell you that the new XTs are not night and day
different compared to the old ones.
However, the Servowave implemented in the new brakes is supposed to be changed
to give us better modulation.
And in the little testing that I've done, I can tell you that the transition between
the lever free play here, and the moment when the pads touch the disc or bite on the disc.
That transition seems to be a bit smoother,
and that should translate into better modulation overall
But again, it won't be night-and-day different compared to the M8000s of the previous generation.
i-Spec EV and the extra stiffness of the lever.
I didn't feel any of that to be honest with you.
It just made my life a bit more complicated
because I had to buy a new set of adapters
for my third party shifter and ReMote,
in case of my dropper post.
But if I am to pick my favorites on the new brakes that would be
the design of the new caliper which allows you to bleed them easier,
and also hides away that hose on the inside of the frame.
And the fact that they haven't changed the feel, which for me I would consider that a plus
because I liked their brakes in the past
and this generation is no different.
And that's pretty much all I have folks!
Do you plan to buy any of the new brakes from Shimano?
If you do, do you have your plan
on how to attach all the other controls to the i-Spec EV?
Let me know what you think in the comments below.
As usual, if you have any questions let me know as well.
Don't forget to like, subscribe,
keep an eye on social media.
And until next time,
hope to see you folks riding some new Shimano brakes.
Cheers folks, cheers!