Hope Technology V2 Brakes 2010
Reviews / Brakes
161,076
Weight: 615g (full brake with 180mm rotor, braided hose and all bolts and fittings)
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At a Glance
The new Tech V2 is the strongest and most powerful brake Hope have in their line up at the moment. While it might not be the lightest bit of aluminium on the market, it is certainly one of the beefiest. We opted for the braided hose and the floating rotors to ensure maximum cooling and power. A trip to the Mega was going to test these brakes beyond their limits and we wanted to give them every chance we could. We were running a 203mm rotor up front and a 183mm rotor out the back. The tech lever is one of our favourite features of the brake, it allows optimum set up with no tools required, set the lever reach and the bite point exactly how you want it. Job done. We also like the simple bleed procedure with these brakes, no messing about with syringes or pressurising fluids. Just top up and pump the air out of the system and you are away.
At the Mega
Braking no over a 16km DH course with a drop of 4500 feet is a big ask, some of the guys we went out with were really struggling with their set ups and on the first two days the Hope’s were running a dream. Come day three though we needed to bleed the rear, it seemed to be fading a little and the lever reach was out. The front was fine and we had no issues with it, perhaps the 203mm rotor was fairing better than the 183mm one on the back in coping with the immense heat build up. Bleeding over with we cracked on with day 4 and had no problems with power or lever feel on either brake. Come the Qualifier though we lost a bit of lever feel towards the end of the course, the brake still worked, it never lost power just needed a few pumps on the lever to get it to fire properly. We went back to the workshop for some more bleeding that evening and a tightening of all the connection points where the system could be getting air inside. Come race day we seemed to have fixed the issue and for the entire run of the Mega both brakes provided us with ample power and stopped the bike dead whenever we needed too. Since we have been back in the UK both brakes have been running perfectly. Any amount of air in your braking system will get exaggerated at high altitudes due to air expansion. So it is really important to ensure you bleed your brakes if you need to before you go. Our front brake never missed a beat, but we feel it was more user error than the rear brake itself in terms of not tightening everything up when we did the first bleed.
Overall
When set up correctly the Tech V2’s offer immense stopping power and yet plenty of adjustability in terms of modulation and how the brake feels.
RRP £323.98 (Full set up front and rear with floating V2 rotors)
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This review was in Issue 7 of IMB.
For more information visit Hope TechnologyRelated
By Rou Chater
Rou Chater is the Publishing Editor of IMB Magazine; he’s a jack-of-all-trades and master of none, but his passion for bikes knows no bounds. His first mountain bike was a Trek 820, which he bought in 1990. It didn’t take him long to earn himself a trip to the hospital on it, and he’s never looked back since. These days he’s keeping it rubber side down, riding locally and overseas as much as possible.
