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Hydraulic Disc Road brakes not strong enough? Now there’s Hope, in colors

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Given Hope Tech’s position as a leader in terms of mountain bike hydraulic disc brakes, hubs, wheels, and more, it may be a bit odd to see them as a road/gravel company as well. But as co-founder Ian Weatherill puts it, Hope was originally more of a road and track company to begin with. Not really by choice, but because they made incredible disc brakes that didn’t fit any of the current mountain bike frames. As they waited for the industry to catch up, Hope ended up producing more road and track hubs than any other product at the time.

Hope Tech road components RX4 road brake hydraulic disc caliper RS4 hubs 20five RDforty wheels
Even if you’re already familiar with Hope – if you sit down and have a chat with Ian, you’ll have a whole new appreciation for the brand.

Obviously, as disc brakes gained acceptance and standards were mostly agreed upon, Hope became the mountain bike powerhouse they are today. But with that Ian is quick to point out that Hope is really the product of their own needs and wants as riders. Proudly independent and making almost everything in house in Barnoldswick, England, if there is a product that the Hope team wants to ride, well, they’ll just make it for themselves. That self sufficient attitude has led to Hope branching out across almost every category including those that involve drop bars.

Hope Tech road components RX4 road brake hydraulic disc caliper RS4 hubs 20five RDforty wheels

RX4 hydraulic disc brake calipers

First introduced in 2016, Hope’s RX4 hydraulic disc brake calipers are an attractive upgrade for SRAM or Shimano/Campagnolo disc brake systems. While the original company may frown on you running another company’s calipers with their levers, for Hope it was a matter of improving the performance of existing brake systems without having to engineer their own shifter or complete drivetrain. Where the original OEM calipers use two pistons each, Hope uses a four piston caliper design with pistons of different size – which Hope says was crucial to get the ratios and feel correct.

Hope Tech road components RX4 road brake hydraulic disc caliper RS4 hubs 20five RDforty wheels Hope Tech road components RX4 road brake hydraulic disc caliper RS4 hubs 20five RDforty wheels

Hope also claims that their brake calipers have better piston retention which comes down to the design of the seal, the seal groove, and the combination of spring tension between the pads. This ends up being a very delicate balance to get it right as too much piston retention will delay the pad contact every time you go to grab the brakes. But too little, and you end up with annoying noises as the pad surface brushes against the rotor while you’re off the brakes.

Hope Tech road components RX4 road brake hydraulic disc caliper RS4 hubs 20five RDforty wheels

Hope Tech road components RX4 road brake hydraulic disc caliper RS4 hubs 20five RDforty wheels

Out on the road, it seems like Hope has indeed gotten it right with a brake that offers incredible power and modulation but is completely silent when it should be. Over the course of a road ride through the hills of Girona, Spain on a Cannondale CAAD 12, the flat mount RX4s set up on a Shimano hydraulic/mechanical Dual Control lever performed admirably. The power comes on smoothly in a predictable manner, but if you need gobs of power, it’s there – presuming you have the traction to use it. Compared to some brake systems it felt like the lever stroke was shorter with a more positive engagement when you hit the braking point. More time on the system would be required for a more thorough review, but my initial impressions were quite good.

Hope Tech road components RX4 road brake hydraulic disc caliper RS4 hubs 20five RDforty wheels Hope Tech road components RX4 road brake hydraulic disc caliper RS4 hubs 20five RDforty wheels

The RX4 calipers are available in either post mount or flat mount configurations, and you can purchase individual calipers which is handy if you have say a flat mount frame and post mount fork – or vice versa. The only thing you can’d do is purchase a complete brake set – you have to buy the calipers and supply your own levers.

Hope Tech road components RX4 road brake hydraulic disc caliper RS4 hubs 20five RDforty wheels Hope Tech road components RX4 road brake hydraulic disc caliper RS4 hubs 20five RDforty wheels

The RX4-SH caliper is designed for use with mineral oil and therefor Shimano and Campagnolo levers, while the RX4-SR is designed to work with DOT fluid and SRAM lever systems. Weights are listed at 102g for the RX4-SH including pads and 92g for the RX4-SR including pads. Perfect for use with the Hope Road Rotor, these rotors use a floating 2 piece design and include a beveled edge on the braking surface to keep the “danger” to a minimum.

Hope Tech road components RX4 road brake hydraulic disc caliper RS4 hubs 20five RDforty wheels

Hope Tech road components RX4 road brake hydraulic disc caliper RS4 hubs 20five RDforty wheels

RS4 Road, Cross, & Gravel hubs

Obviously, Hope is no stranger to hub production and it’s something they do exceptionally well. So it should come as no surprise that their RS4 road hubs are built to the same exacting standard. Starting with one of the only processes not done in house, the hubs begin life as an Italian forging that comes from the same factory responsible for Ducati motorcycle frames. From there the forging is shipped to England to machine it into the recognizable hub shell before heading off to polishing. Hope proudly does their anodizing in house, but they’re also quite fond of their polishing system which results in better anodized finishes. The process uses walnut shells as an abrasive which cuts down on the environmental impact and yields an incredibly shiny hub shell that takes well to anodizing.

Hope Tech road components RX4 road brake hydraulic disc caliper RS4 hubs 20five RDforty wheels

Using the same freehub design as their mountain bike hubs, their road hubs lose two of the four pawls, running just two pawls for 44 point engagement. Inside, Swiss sealed bearings keep the hubs spinning smoothly through ugly British winters.

Hope Tech road components RX4 road brake hydraulic disc caliper RS4 hubs 20five RDforty wheels

Available in Centerlock or 6 Bolt configurations, the hubs are also available in straight pull or traditional J-bend spoke options. End caps are available to fit most frame configurations, and currently Shimano and Campagnolo freehubs are available – though Hope tells us they are simply waiting on approval from SRAM to release XDR freehubs into the wild.

Hope Tech road components RX4 road brake hydraulic disc caliper RS4 hubs 20five RDforty wheels Hope Tech road components RX4 road brake hydraulic disc caliper RS4 hubs 20five RDforty wheels

The hubs are perfect center pieces for Hope’s road rims with complete builds offered in the 20FIVE aluminum or RD40 carbon wheel sets.

The 20FIVE is a 25mm deep rim with a 20mm internal width that’s tubeless compatible and comes in at 425g. Available in a few build options, these are shown above with a 24h straight pull RS4 hub which results in a 762/908g complete wheelset (Centerlock) that’s hand built in Barnoldswick as with all of their wheels – though the rims are not made in house.

Hope Tech road components RX4 road brake hydraulic disc caliper RS4 hubs 20five RDforty wheels Hope Tech road components RX4 road brake hydraulic disc caliper RS4 hubs 20five RDforty wheels Hope Tech road components RX4 road brake hydraulic disc caliper RS4 hubs 20five RDforty wheels

The RD40 uses a 40mm deep carbon rim with a 19mm internal width that is also tubeless compatible. Available with RS4 straight pull hubs in 6 bolt or Centerlock, the Centerlock version checks in at 1495g per set. Both wheelsets are available with Shimano or Campy freehub bodies (XDR coming soon), 6 hub color choices, and Sapim CX-Ray Spokes and QR/TA end caps in the box.

Hope Tech road components RX4 road brake hydraulic disc caliper RS4 hubs 20five RDforty wheels Hope Tech road components RX4 road brake hydraulic disc caliper RS4 hubs 20five RDforty wheels Hope Tech road components RX4 road brake hydraulic disc caliper RS4 hubs 20five RDforty wheels

UK made carbon seatposts

Finally, Hope has been increasing their in house carbon production because, well, because they can. And they think they can do it better thanks to their ability to create their own molds in house which can be quickly changed. When they’re not building race bikes for the British Cycling team, Hope is working on their line of carbon products which now includes a seat post among others (we’re told a gravel or cross bike might not be far off).

Mainly constructed from T700 unidirectional carbon fiber combined with a 3K twill woven and 1K 2×2 twill woven fabric for the outer layer, the post has a typically robust Hope build quality and a weight of 185g for a 27.2mm post. It’s also available in 30.9 and 31.6mm diameters – all of which feature a single bolt adjustment with aluminum seat rail clamps and a 15mm setback.

hopetech.com

 

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24 Comments
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Owen Arman
Owen Arman
4 years ago

4 pot calipers, 180mm rotors next?
Should be able to leave some nice long black lines down the road.
Seems like overkill to me.

Trybo Bike Tech
Trybo Bike Tech
4 years ago
Reply to  Owen Arman

Its actually very useful on the front. I have, at one point, used 6pot hope brake with a 203mm rotor on the front of a bike with 28mm tyres. It was great.

typevertigo
typevertigo
4 years ago

Yeap. That’s one upside to early disc brake road bikes with post-mount hardpoints: you can run a front rotor larger than the arbitrary 160 mm size limit. I’ve seen it done on a Cinelli Zydeco frameset from 2014; it ran a 180 mm saucer up front.

Rodrigo Diaz
Rodrigo Diaz
4 years ago
Reply to  Owen Arman

I love my hope brakes – RX4, shimano compatible. A bit better clearance than the older non-group hydraulic shimano brakes or the current Ultegra ones. 160 mm rotors throughout. As for overkill… people said that about disc brakes in general, no?

William Robinson
William Robinson
4 years ago
Reply to  Owen Arman

For a rider that is 6’4” 215 lbs, the extra power is welcome. I switched to magura 4 piston on my mt bike and will switch to these, now that i know they exist, for my gravel/town bike

Glen
Glen
4 years ago

Hi William. Try Swissstop disc rotors for increased power and mod. Better than both the Icetech and hope rotors I was using. Intend.bc sell amazing rotors that are a bit more expensive than swissstop

Bernard
Bernard
4 years ago

Overkill for a crit racer yes, but quite interesting for a dropbar bikepacking rig. Now only to decide which color…

jasonmiles31
4 years ago

Seems like a funny combo to run a 4 piston brake and a seatpost with one clamp bolt on the same bike.

Ish27
Ish27
4 years ago

Looking forward to getting my orange flat mount set for the cross/gravel bike. However, colors and flat mount are hard to come by in the U.S. I had to order mine from Germany, and they are not in stock there either. Looking at May for avail. and probably June by the time the actually get here. I have always used and loved Hopes on my Mountain bikes, Superior modulation and super easy to bleed. We will see!

Klaster_1
Klaster_1
4 years ago

I wish Hope made aluminium backed RX-4 pads for those with special weight needs.

Rodrigo Diaz
Rodrigo Diaz
4 years ago
Reply to  Klaster_1

I couldn’t find proper Hope (really Galfer, the manufacturer) brake pads at a reasonable price in my location. I looked around, there are a few options. I got fully sintered pads for my very messy CX needs. No issues, other than noise when wet.

Alex Borysenko
4 years ago

On my Di2 hydro setup I replaced a front R8070 with a flat mount RX4 caliper and found that it definitely worked better. Worth the $$$ to get easier one-finger braking and shave 10g in the process. That said, it was easily the worst bleeding experience I’ve ever had. I’ve bleed several Shimano calipers (R785, R8070, M396) and SRAM eTap HRD, none of which gave me such a headache.

JBikes
JBikes
4 years ago
Reply to  Alex Borysenko

FYI – Campy bleeding is the best I’ve experienced. The brakes that is as the company effectively bleeds my wallet with equal efficiency

Pat Patterson
Pat Patterson
4 years ago

I’ve been using the RX4’s for several months. The bleed procedure is unique, but if you’ve bled any Hope’s or motorcycle brakes, it should be familiar. The easiest way to get a good bleed is to remove the caliper and let it hang down to allow gravity to do its thing (sorry if you’ve got internal routing!)

I’ve been using them on a Salsa Fargo with 29×2.6 tires, so I definitely needed more power than the Sram Force calipers. I have been stoked on how well they handle even on super steep singletrack. By far one of the best upgrades to that bike.

Involuntary Soul
Involuntary Soul
4 years ago

(deleted)

JBikes
JBikes
4 years ago

The floating rotor is nice. Be interested to see how it performs and if it justifies what I’m assuming is a higher cost.

John Hunt
John Hunt
4 years ago

This is a game changer. Now I might actually consider a SRAM AXS hydraulic group- Now I can do it without SRAM calipers.

blahblahblah
blahblahblah
4 years ago

sweet looking bits of kit

Mike
Mike
4 years ago

I’ve got their hubs across all my bikes, best bang for your buck out I reckon.

Sean
Sean
4 years ago

I’ve been trying this brake system on new Ultegra levers for about 8 months now. I had to bleed once after a flight. This was done by a mechanic who never tried this, and said it was the same as any shimano bleed. This brake system has been run on the Torino Nice Rally with tremendous success. It’s reassuring to have a great break for alpine descending. It has an extra bite than a regular ultegra caliper.

Mike
Mike
4 years ago

These would be welcome on our tandem with 180 or 203 rotos. Team weight around 330 pounds plus a 35 pound bike and you can understand the need for additional stopping power.

Peter
Peter
3 years ago
Reply to  Mike

think the only brake hope factory warrants for use on a tandem is there tech 3 V4

bimjeam
bimjeam
4 years ago

Does the RX4 caliper work with shimano SLX/XT/XTR lever? It could be a cool upgrade if it will work together

Klaster_1
Klaster_1
4 years ago
Reply to  bimjeam

All Shimano calipers/levers are compatible.

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