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Project XC Race Rocket: Coming to a stop with Magura MT8 Next disc brakes

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Other than a new short-reach brake lever option for Magura’s updated MT-series brakes, they are mostly unchanged from their launch last year. Zach offered up first impressions from the camp and has since complemented the quad-piston MT7 brakes’ power in his review. Meanwhile, I’ve been testing the two-piston MT8 brakes, which are a decidedly more cross country oriented set of stoppers.

At first, these brakes were on my Niner JET9 full suspension bike, where they received their first six months of testing. Then, I moved them to Project XC Race Rocket, which was a much better fit…

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The calipers came with the hoses precut to length for a Niner JET9, which I originally had them on, so they’re just a bit long for the AIR9 but not too bad. Actual weights were 196g (front) and 211g (rear).

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160mm rotors came in at 97g, 180mm rotors were 114g. The Lauf fork on this project bike require a 180mm front, otherwise I’d have run 160mm all around. The included spacer hardware and bolts are 38g if you need them.

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Rotor bolts are 12g, lever mounting bolts are 11g, the stock carbon fiber lever mounting clamp is just 2g, and the optional SRAM shifter adapter clamp is 18g. The latter is all but required to get good spacing on the bar with a SRAM shifter, otherwise, the levers tend to be pushed too far inboard, meaning you’re left to do pointer finger braking only, and not really in an ideal position on the lever. Or, your shift levers are pushed well into your hands’ personal space, which can cause the thumb shift lever to constantly bang into your thumb. So, my recommendation is to use the SRAM adapter if you’re running SRAM shifters.

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The brakes ship with a bag full of hardware to ease installation. It includes the small bits necessary to re-tap the ends of the hoses if you need to shorten them.

DETAILS & FEATURES

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The entire lever and master cylinder unit is composite, which saves considerable weight seemingly without affecting durability or braking power thanks to a long-strand carbon fiber reinforced thermoplastic blend. Before installing these, I ran the prior generation MT8 brakes and have had the usual assortment of small wipeouts. No glorious yard sales down a mountain, but enough to test the brakes’ ability to take a hit or three. Both generations have held up just fine to normal wear and tear.

The MT8 levers get tool free adjustments for reach and pad contact. The reach does what you’d suspect, dialing the lever closer to or further from the bar to fit the size of your fingers. The other knob is for their “Bite Contact”, which adjusts how much free stroke there is in the lever before the pads make contact with the rotor. Call me old fashioned, but I like things to happen when I pull the lever, so I left it alone and minimized any free stroke.

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As mentioned above, the SRAM adapter makes for a much more ergonomically friendly cockpit. Without it, the shifter’s clamp forces one or the other to sit very far inboard, resulting in less-than-ideal placement for either your brake lever or your shifter lever. I’ve only run Magura’s brakes with SRAM shifters, though, so can’t comment on how well they fit with Shimano parts.

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My bike’s set up with a single front chainring, so I got to use the ultralight full carbon clamp on the left. It’s beautiful and simple, but you don’t want to over tighten it:

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This is what happens when you don’t use a torque wrench. So far it’s held just fine – I stopped the instant I heard and felt any cracking. It hasn’t propagated or worsened, but still…use a torque wrench.

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The dual piston calipers are sleek, with a glossy dark gray that matches well with current generation SRAM and Shimano parts, particularly the high end stuff. The bright circles stand out in a good way, and you’ll get a fluorescent yellow ring (two of ’em!) if you opt for the quad piston MT5/7 brakes.

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The bleed port is conveniently located on the outside of the caliper, pointing straight out. The banjo that connects the brake hose to the caliper can be rotated, and that slight tilt should help the hose line up well regardless of whether your frame runs it on top of or on the inside of the chainstay.

Brake pads are secured by a small bolt and magnets on the pistons. Pad wear is up to snuff, with plenty of material remaining after a year of use (keep in mind, I’m riding numerous bikes at any given point, so you may wear them out quicker).

LONG TERM PERFORMANCE REVIEW

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Having ridden the older MT8s and being very happy with them, these actually took a bit of time to get used to. It’s not that they’re so different, it’s just that between riding the older ones and these, I’ve spent a lot of time on SRAM’s Trail and Guide brakes on my other bikes and plenty of Shimano brakes on demo bikes.

And those brakes are very different, in different ways. SRAM’s new stoppers are world class – they’re light and very strong, which is to be expected with a quad-piston caliper. They also have excellent modulation. Shimano’s brakes are also quite powerful, but they come on much stronger (ServoWave!)

Normally, I try not to make direct comparisons to competing products in my reviews, but in this case I believe it’s going to be helpful in explaining why these brakes are good when they’re competing against other top performers.

The SRAM Guide RSC brakes hit the scales at 241g & 259g (as measured in our office), which are a good bit heavier than the MT8s but also more powerful. Shimano’s XTR M9000 Race brakes have a claimed weight of just 197g and 211g, which is virtually identical to the MT8s, but the first generation of these new models have suffered from irregular brake pump (I experienced this on my own rides with sustained descents and heard it from other editors. Unofficially, we’ve heard from a very good source there will be running changes to piston and/or caliper materials to address this, but it is very unlikely to be a formal announcement from Shimano).

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Where the MT8 brakes win in this equation is that they’re as light as XTR but (in my opinion) have better modulation and more consistent performance. Compared to the Guide brakes, they’re much lighter and have adequate stopping power. And I use the word “adequate” on purpose. On bigger bikes or fast descents, I’d choose the Guides or perhaps the MT7s that Zach reviewed. But for an XC bike like this, they’re perfect. The rear end doesn’t easily lock into a skid, which means more controlled deceleration around the curves. That also generally means I maintained a higher overall speed, which is always good in an XC race.

Watts also gave them a test ride and had this to say:

I thought they were pretty good, actually. Good stopping. No turkey gobbling. Good modulation. Pretty close to my XT’s.

Which reminded me that yes, indeed, these brakes have been quiet the whole time.

Taking the past model’s performance into consideration and my 17 months on these, I’d recommend Magura highly for both reliability and consistency. Their performance now is as good as the day they came outta the box, and they’ve required zero maintenance. If you’re a weight weenie racer, go for these. If you go bigger, take the MT7 for a spin.

Check out the rest of the Project XC Race Rocket build here: Frame/ForkWheels/TiresCockpit – Drivetrain (coming soon)

Magura.com

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Mark
Mark
8 years ago

That’s interesting you describe Magura disc brakes as consistent and reliable. The number of returns we had to the shop when they were spec on 2013/2014 Specialized bikes, was second only to the absolutely dreadful Formula C and R1’s. Sadly their discs are no HS33’s.

brattercakes
brattercakes
8 years ago

Hawt.

I’m afraid they couldn’t take an impact if the rider crashes though…

Roy
Roy
8 years ago

Great review and thank you for directly relating to the dominant brands on the market, that will be the only way many of us could get our minds around buying outside the S brakes. I have no doubt that the thermoplastic is tough, I know a couple riders with the long reach MT8 and they are fine and anything can be broken if hit hard enough. What I can’t get over is the cheezy ass bolts and that gray metal thing in the lever and an overall look of low budget.
The caliper is well thought and pretty though? Maybe different teams….

marcus
marcus
8 years ago

I have had the older MT8s on my Specialized Epic WC for the last year. I was expecting them to suck compared to my XTRs I have on another bike but they work great, don’t suffer from heat issues on long descents (I am not a maniac on the downhills so that helps) and they are shockingly light. I had planned to swap for XTRs after buying the bike but left them on and am delighted with them.

Adam2
Adam2
8 years ago

Informative! Thank you.

Seraph
Seraph
8 years ago

Ah Magura. There’s nothing stopping you now!

Heffe
Heffe
8 years ago

I want to like these, but I don’t like the look of them and fear that they are fragile.

Ripnshread
Ripnshread
8 years ago

Great review. Happy to see you go the “long strand” thing right. Automobile manufactures have been using it for years, the applications in bicycle technology have not been fully explored.

Liasara
Liasara
8 years ago

Shimano xtr the best overall. Formula the best if you ride fast and know how to work on a bike.
I really doubt the xtr 9000 brakes have any problems.
hope, magura etc etc are second tier
Avid, I do not consider them al all.

craigsj
craigsj
8 years ago

“Both generations have held up just fine to normal wear and tear.”

But not to normal installation and maintenance!

Face it, Magura now makes junk and needs to be put out of its misery. It uses inferior materials and its designs have inferior ergonomics. The original MT8 was awful with its terrible lever and plastic bleed plug whose Torx head stripped when you used it. This one is the same turd with more polish.

Now that Shimano makes such a superior product there simply isn’t room for companies like Magura (and Formula, Hope, Hayes). Buying Magura is wasting money and time, there are better products that you can count on.

Colin
Colin
8 years ago

Mark,

Specialized uses an OEM only version of the Magura brake. If you look at the MTs brakes that come on the Specialeds, (about a $120 brake) compared to an MT8 (a near $400 brake), they have different construction methods and different materials. The only parts they CAN share in common are the pistons and pads. The MTs’s also came with a “7.3” pad which even magura admits is a terrible pad, but it was a cost cutting measure for specialized oem.

sd8489tsdhf4
sd8489tsdhf4
8 years ago

@Liasara – XTR BR-M9000 isn’t all that great. They all have the same problem, but they’re light and it’s manageable if you wrench.

I call BS on the author because you don’t maintain higher overall speed with wimpy brakes. You have to brake earlier and longer. You want to go into a corner as fast as you can, brake as late as you can to get to the only correct speed to take the corner (1 mph too fast and you’re off the trail, 1 mph too slow is too slow), trail off the brakes through the corner and accelerate when you have available trail conditions to do so.

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