I have been contemplating putting some stronger brakes on my Mach 6 for a while now. I am a 200+ pound rider and I didn't feel like the power I was getting from my XT brakes was cutting it.
I have ridden with XT brakes on my last two bikes and they were great most of the time. What I started to notice though was they got a little soft after long/fast decents. I don't think this was as much the brakes fault as is the fact that I am an aggressive heavier than average rider. Another thing that I noticed about the XT brakes that some people love but I don't is the quick "grab". When I hit my brakes the initial bite was immediate and strong, but I noticed I had to squeeze harder and harder until I was getting forearm fatigue to get additional power out of them.
So I decided it was time to upgrade, I did some research, talked to friends, looked at pictures, you know how it is, really got myself all worked up with "new brake envy"...I looked into a few different option. On the high end of things were the Magura M7's and Shimano Saints, middle ground were the Shimano Zee's and SRAM RSC's as well as some Hopes and Formulas.
After deciding there was now way in hell I was going to spend $700 plus the M7's and Saints were quickly eliminated. So I started looking a little deeper into Zee's and RSC's. The Zee's from what I can tell and feel are identical to the Saints with the exceptions of the gold accents and tool-less adjusting reach. But lets be honest, how often are you adjusting reach?? In most cases I have adjusted my reach once and then never messed with it again so the tool-less "feature" was useless to me. As for the gold accents....well the color honestly isn't what the "upgrade" is. The hose fittings are a little longer, because when bombing downhill some hardcore riders were getting this to pinch on the first Saints so Shimano made it longer and made it anodized gold. Again, a great feature for pro downhill riders but not so much me.
I have ridden bikes with Saint brakes and they were amazing, but let me be honest, the Zee's feel the exact same and are half the price. As for the RSC's I have heard great things but my local bike shop showed me that more R, RS and RSC brakes get turned in for warranty than any other brand in the area, that was enough for me to take them off the list.
So onto my Zee's, I had them installed on my bike and the next day went out and bombed some fire roads to get them set in. After my 3rd or 4th decent a switch was flipped and these brakes came to LIFE! Chip your teach on the stem type of power. What I love about them is that I feel more in control of the power, I can start slow and get more aggressive and thats what the brakes do, unlike the XT's with that hard initial hit. It took me a few close calls to remember that I didnt have to slam into these brakes. The four ceramic pistons really do a great job here.
So for around $300 I feel that I got the most bang for my buck. I highly recommend these brakes for anyone looking for more power, riding downhill on a budget or who weighs more than the average rider.
