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Just wanted to share some first impression thoughts about my recent birthday present :)

I’ve got fed up with my previous Hope brakes Mono M4 (8). Four pots, two piece callipers and decided to make myself a birthday present - new brakes – instead of investing

Hope Mono 6

Door bell... And here they are. Wicked! Ripped the parcel apart with banana smile on my face and a spark in the eye, like kids on Boxing Day :) Wow dude... Hot suff. Not very well packed with thick terrible plastic bags, but who cares :)

First - the rotor came out. Saw like shaped 203mm with aluminium inner part. Perfectly cut with laser plotter. Bolt flanges to centre the rotor on the hub. HQ Torx (star) bolts. Mmm smells like factory :)

Second - the brake itself. Moto lever, one piece six pots calliper and Hope braided hose (as standard) joining all together into the powerful braking device. If you look at it, it’s easy to say that Hope got themselves a new machines and improved their CNC machining technology and also design. One concern – brake liquid in the plastic bag ???? What the hell is that ??? Sticker on the bag calmed me down saying it is normal, probably due to the airless filling process.

Moto lever - Love the design and features . Split bar clamp allows hassle free fitting, Integrated reservoir and master cylinder. Adjustable lever reach. New to Hope Moto lever is ability to adjust capacity of the master cylinder by the red adjuster. That allows you to control how far the brake pads are from the rotor. I’ve got it rather tight to shorten the bed in period. Cool thing is that Hope programs CNC machining heads not only for machining process but also for a surface design, creating eye catching patterns. What’s different and surprising? I think this is the only lever to be fit after the gear shifter not between the grip and the shifter. If you use i.e. rapid fire shifters like Deore you gonna need to get the display demounted. Hope provides black vinyl stickers to cover shifter’s display socket to protect from dust, water etc. To be honest gear display is just a fancy gadget. Useless for an advanced biker and you not gonna miss it.

Six pot calliper – Again huge progress from in comparison with old models. Machined of one solid billet of aluminium; lighter (no steel joining bolts); stronger; stiffer; prettier. Now it has pistons made of phenolic to improve calliper temperature isolation and reduce weight. Three black bore caps for servicing (looks like it is not going to be the easiest task – I mean to pull out the pistons); two large brake pads covering around 10% of the rotor rather than on for each piston on my old ones (should be cheaper). All this sounds like good catapult J

Fitting the brakes. They come with adapters of your choice. I use Boxxer mount (front) and traditional IS (rear). Terrifyingly easy to fit not like old ones where I use to mess round for hours with spacing washers. Easy to adjust.

The first ride. I wasn’t expecting much and definitely not to see sharp fangs biting my disks. So, wiped the rotors with acetone (to degrease it) and went for a short ride. Well I was right. I could feel huge power coming out of the master cylinder but not being transferred onto the rotor. As you know, every new brake or brake pad, need some mileage to bed in. The brake will gradually gain braking power until it gets to its top performance. After a few rides the front one is just perfect. I like it to have a short stroke with early bite point and so it is. Lever has a perfect modulation. Still waiting for the rear one as it takes much longer for it to bed in, as it’s used for only 20 to 30% of braking.

Pros: design; feeling; finish; adjustment; braking power; modulation; HOT! Love it so far.

Cons: I’ve got them from chain reaction, unfortunately on one Hope Moto lever the master cylinder’s shaft (adjuster screw) - that allows you to adjust the lever reach – came with faulty allen key socket. I did manage to adjust it and didn’t bother to send it back and wait for the new one. Give a kid a toy and then try to take it away J no chance. I rather buy one of those shafts for £2.99 if I need to.

Gear shifter display has to come off – Down side if you cannot live without it.

Haven’t tried them wet or muddy yet. I couldn’t get them smoking yet (matter of time and terrain) I will let you know if I do :)

WARNING – DO NOT GIVE IT TO YOUR GF OR WIFE FOR A RIDE – THREAD OF FACEPLANT IN MOST CASES

Ps sorry for my English – working on it :)

Article Update: 01/03/2008 

I’ve got my brakes smoking at last. As I have promised, I’m dropping a few lines about my experience. 

They so much better than my old Hopes. Much more temperature resistant. Mono 6 is much better performer and you can trust them (so far). I was expecting large drop in braking power after getting them really hot and I was nicely surprised. There was a slight sponginess on the levers especially front – as expected – but no problem to stop immediately, when you need it. The discs itself seemed to handle high temp quiet well – they didn’t dress up in colours of rainbow, not even bluish. Brake pads and whole rest was smoking as a steam engine all because they are new. Second ride much less smoke and even better braking and they reached 100% of performance. Good stuff   :)

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Comments (7)

stumpy_dan said:

	... Hey Weelk that is one fine post and clearly some bike love going on. Just made the pic a bit smaller to fit on the page. I'll also be copying this article in to the kit section under brakes. Sweet.
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February 19, 2008
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weelk said:

	... Great! Thanks for the pics and a good word Dan. What is the best res to post here. I is hard to say for me becouse the website is sized dynamicly and I'm working on 1920x1200
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February 19, 2008
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stumpy_dan said:

	... Site is optimized for 1024 x 768 and anything bigger but I wouldn't worry too much as it only take me a sec to resize. As a simple rule If a pictures width is within 560px it is generally cool.
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February 19, 2008
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weelk said:

	... Right. Next time I'll keep it 560
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February 20, 2008
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tomtomks said:

	... hey top blog mr weelk.. iam runing m4 with braided hoses at the moment, 200 front 180 rear, standard discs, not got the doe to upgrade to the 6 ! do you think that i would benefit from geting floating discs ? are they any better than what i have ?....... tom
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February 21, 2008
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weelk said:

... yo tomtomks - thanks. I can't tell the difference between standard ones and floating, so far. The idea of floating discs is to reduce weight by having central carriers made of aluminium, but to be honest I would rather say it?s more marketing than truth. Aluminium carriers need to be thicker than normal disc anyway (to carry stress form the braking surface down to the hub). Another advantage of floating ones suppose to be riveted connection between two parts (carrier and braking surface, allowing breaking surface to expand independently from inner part. According to that it should significantly reduce stress and prevent overheated disc from falling apart. I don't know how much truth is in those claims. I shall find out soon. I need to get them smoking for some time to find out. There is a good chance this weekend on Box hill At the moment there is no difference between floating and normal ones. Probably the differences are going to show under very heavy conditions and long, steep, technical down hills requiring nearly constant braking. I'll give them a descent warm-up and let you know about the results.

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February 22, 2008
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BigfootMark said:

	... Nice one. Bill, our other mechanic's just got these, and I got the mono minis for one of my bikes. Upgraded them with a carbon lever and Ti bolt kit recently, very impressed with them so far
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February 26, 2008
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