Hope Mini > Reviews > Mini brake Big performance

Author's product rating:   

Value for money	Good
Durability	Excellent
How does it compare to similar products?	Average

Advantages:	Stops well, works in mud, doesn't fade
Disadvantages:	Can be a little trying to get fitted correctly, can be noisy at times

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

[Minor edits. It's around 18 months since I got my first Mini and a month ago, I purchased one for the rear, so I decided it was time for a few updates on the review]

When discs first came out, they were designed with your hardcore downhill riders in mind and largely ignored by the cross country whippets out there, who prefered to spend their money on trying to shave more and more weight off their bikes with titanium this, and carbon fibre that. Anyway, I digress. The fact is that brake manufacturers have been trying to get XC riders to use the things for years, and right now, they're in vogue.

The caliper sticks out less than two inches from the fork leg, perfect for those clumsy fools who keep "bonding with nature" (read: "crashing into trees"), so there's little chance of it being ripped off in an accident. The disc itself is somewhat bigger, with options of 165 and 185mm at the front, and 145 and 165mm at the back. Hope have also chosen this brake to be the first to benefit from their new bubble rotor design, the disc itself being a strange lumpy shape instead of round, for no apparent reason.

The brake is supplied assembled by the factory, so you don't need to worry about getting brake fluid everywhere, unless you need to shorten the hose. The brake comes with a hose designed for big monster downhill bikes, so my tiny XC bike need some modifications to be carried out. Simple enough, spanner to take the hose off with, knife to cut it, and some DOT 5.1 brake fluid from your nearest Halfords (in the car section, not bikes!). As anyone who has ever bled the braking system on a car will tell you, getting the air out is a pain, although as later found out, it goes a lot better if you read the manual first. My front disc took ages to get bled correctly, my rear brake which I bought some time after was bled in minutes with the benefit of hindsight.

Firtting the brake is a little tricky as you'll need to fit spacers to the caliper mounting bolts to make sure that the disc runs central. For the forks that I originally had it fitted to, the spacers supplied with the brake weren't enough and more had to be purchased from that unlikely bike accessory shop, B&Q. Apart from that, unless you need to change the hose length, you can just bolt the disc, caliper and lever to the bike. With the earlier batches of the Mini, Hope were supplying a manual written for their other brakes with only a passing mention of the Mini, which was new for 2001. The newer batches (thankfully) come with a more complete manual, complete with photos and exploded diagrams which goes into more detail on the Mini.

With the brake happily sitting on the front of my bike, time for a ride. At first, braking is a bit dodgy, and you wonder why you spent all this money on something that doesn't really work. At this point it's worth remembering that both rotor and pads are brand new and haven't done a day's work in their lives. Get them both worn in a bit, and the power is where you need it. The lever feels a little strange at first. It turned out this was due to the reach that I had setup on it. Whip out the allen keys, quick tweak and we're sorted. Easy to control and it feels good and positive.

Speaking of controllability, the brake is an open system design. I don't understand all the technical details of this (although if you're that interested, Hope's website will tell you all you could ever want to know about open and closed system braking), but what it means in practice is that the pads will always be a constant distance from the disc. That is, the brake manages to compensate for pad wear, and also for "pump-up", where the fluid expands as the brake gets hotter. And my word, it gets hot.

Having run Minis on the front of my bike for 18 months, and a month or so on the rear, I must say that I'm hooked on these little wonders. During that time, it's been caked in the somewhat gritty mud that troubles us around here, it's hit trees and it's been swimming several times.

My only real criticism of this brake is that it howls. This ranges from a high pitched squeal to a strange mooing sound that I can't really describe. Such is the popularity of these brakes now that many a Welsh Forest can be filled with the mating call of the Hope Mini at the weekend. This has improved dramatically from the earlier models with the introduction of different brake pads, although it's not gone altogether. Several ways have been suggested to fix the problem, the best one involving smearing the back of the pad with copper grease. This can shut the brake up completely if you're lucky, or the alternative is to just get used to it. Personally, I hardly notice. Judging from the way they yell at me, my friends haven't yet.

All in all, apart from the squeeling, an excellent little disc brake which at the end of the day does what it's supposed to, with the minimum of fuss. Many manufacturers are fitting them as original equipment or an option to their bikes now, or the Mini is a worthwhile upgrade to any cross country or trail riding bike.