Finally got my calipers on and went for a test ride today. I will say the braking performance is much improved over the Sram Force brake calipers.
My replacement purple bore caps came in the wrong size so I opted to install the calipers as is. I also had an issue with the rear caliper being shipped with only 1 set of brake pads. The blue ones, while the front caliper came with both red and blue backed pads. Anyone know the difference between the 2? The included paperwork doesn't mention anything and neither does the Hope website.
I installed both calipers with the blue colored pads and Shimano RT-MT900 XTR ice tech rotors. The bleeding process was straightforward and went quickly.
My initial impressions were very positive. Once the pads were bedded in and I got them hot they began to squeal and howl very loudly. Braking starts with the usual pad contact noise, followed by a high pitch squeal and the loud howling starts. I plan on swapping in the red pads on the front as it seems to be the worst noise offender. I am also looking into some organic swiss stop pads as I read they are extremely quiet. But, aside from the noise, the calipers do deliver the extra braking power I was looking for.
In the very last pic you can see by the wear marks the Hope pads are wider than the Shimano braking surface. I wonder if the Hope rotors would be a better match with a wider brake surface? I opted for the Shimano rotors mostly because of the lack of centerlock rotors from Hope. I may just bite the bullet and get the hope rotors and the centerlock to 6 bolt adapters once I get the pad noise issue resolved.
