BRIT BITS: Hope Race Evo M4 Brakes
These little beauties were sent to me from the guys at Hope with a 183mm front rotor and 160mm rear. I have been running the GT with the Formula The One set-up. The Formulas work great, but I have had issues every time I’v had to change the pads, as even with the adjusters wound right off, I had to take fluid out to fit the pads, then once pads were worn, they then needed bleeding! I always used to run Hopes in the old days of 90’s DH races, in the days when Hope really seemed to have the niche market tied up. Nowadays lots of other manufacturers have stepped up their game and competition is vast, so I wanted to test the latest Hope to see if this Great British firm can still cut the mustard in the world of stopping bike momentum!
Fresh out of the box I was really impressed by the workmanship gone into these trick looking breaks, they really do look like a work of art, and so simple to fit, gone are the old days of fannying around with loads of thin washers to get the spacing right! when fitted to the bike and the reach adjusted to suite me, it was time to give them a good hammering!
I found the performance and feel to be magnificent, the lever feel and performance being so positive and rewarding when I hammered the bike down the many scary descents of Penmachno (North Wales). With me coming from a 180mm rear to 160mm I found the back more trustable, as it wasn’t too easy to lock the rear wheel, whereas the front (when doing one finger breaking like the rear) had bags of controllable power, giving a real feeling of confidence. I definitely highly rate these breaks!
Black lever and caliper, ti bolts, black hose £175
Floating rotors £38
Words: Jim Buchanan Photos: Doc Ward (http://www.doc-photography.com/)
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