Shimano Deore BR-MT520/BL-MT501 4-Piston Brake

Dales Cannon

Dales Cannon

lightbrain about 4pm
Staff member
That was quiet! Would have expected a bit more glitz on launch. I love my Saint and XT four pots.
 
Litenbror

Litenbror

Eats Squid
I wwonder how much better they would be than regular XT? With torpido7 regularly having XTs for $160ish would they be worth almost double? Honest question for anyone with experience of shamanic 4 pot brakes.
 
Dales Cannon

Dales Cannon

lightbrain about 4pm
Staff member
I dont ride hard enough to give you a proper answer. There was an improvement in feel going 2 to 4 and better braking but outright performance and fade resistance On the limit? No idea. I never ran out of brake with the 2pots but I prefer the 4.
 
M

mas2

Likes Bikes and Dirt
I'd be interested in just buying the calipers.
The XT 4 pots are just rebadged Zee's I thought.
 
Oddjob

Oddjob

Merry fucking Xmas to you assholes
mas2 said:
I'd be interested in just buying the calipers.
The XT 4 pots are just rebadged Zee's I thought.
Click to expand...
The calipers are available from Bike24 but they use the deore srew in attachment rather than the banjo.

They use the Saint pads so should perform similarly. My guess is that the main difference would be the pistons are metal not ceramic so wouldn't resist fade as well but would still be significantly better than 2 pot XTs.

Sent from my SM-G900I using Tapatalk
 
M

mas2

Likes Bikes and Dirt
Oddjob said:
The calipers are available from Bike24 but they use the deore srew in attachment rather than the banjo.

They use the Saint pads so should perform similarly. My guess is that the main difference would be the pistons are metal not ceramic so wouldn't resist fade as well but would still be significantly better than 2 pot XTs.

Sent from my SM-G900I using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
I only have deore M6000's anyway so that shoudl work fine shouldnt it? Just checked and can get them on ebay for about $75 each caliper
 
beeb

beeb

Dr. Beebenson, PhD HA, ST, Offset (hons)
mas2 said:
I'd be interested in just buying the calipers.
The XT 4 pots are just rebadged Zee's I thought.
Click to expand...
[Caution] Incorrect information (refer post #12) [Caution]

Did a bit of reading on this yesterday by chance - the XT 4-piston calipers appear externally similar to Zees and use the same pads, but actually have smaller pistons. So Saints/Zee would be more powerful in theory. I suspect it's a budget version of the XTs without lever adjustment screws and possibly some minor caliper variations aimed at having a little less aggresive an application/more modulation from the servo wave Shimano levers on entry-mid level bikes.
 
Last edited:
The Duckmeister

The Duckmeister

Has a juicy midrange
beeb said:
Did a bit of reading on this yesterday by chance - the XT 4-piston calipers appear externally similar to Zees and use the same pads, but actually have smaller pistons. So Saints/Zee would be more powerful in theory.
Click to expand...
That's actually not correct. All Shimano 4-pot brakes use the same size pistons. As per the above post, Saint, Zee & M8020 XT are the same caliper, just with different printing & different factory-fit pad types.

The MT501 (and MT500 2-pot) lever is essentially a relabelled M6000, which shares its basic design with M9000/M8000/M7000, but minor detail differences; no contact stroke adjust and no onboard knob for the reach adjust; it needs an allen key to tweak. The 520 caliper, like the M6000 takes its basic design from the better models, but uses a straight hose connection rather than the banjo of the others. Probably the biggest difference, and the one that will most (but still only slightly) affect power is that the M6000/MT520/MT500 use the standard BH59 hose, where SLX/Zee & above use the BH90 "high-power" hose. The thinner-walled standard hose can be slightly more prone to deformation under heavy braking, so will take a little bit of power out of the fluid displacement. The olives are the same for both hose types, so you can upgrade the hose to BH90 and achieve the same brake performance as the better spec levels.
 
beeb

beeb

Dr. Beebenson, PhD HA, ST, Offset (hons)
The Duckmeister said:
That's actually not correct. All Shimano 4-pot brakes use the same size pistons. As per the above post, Saint, Zee & M8020 XT are the same caliper, just with different printing & different factory-fit pad types.

The MT501 (and MT500 2-pot) lever is essentially a relabelled M6000, which shares its basic design with M9000/M8000/M7000, but minor detail differences; no contact stroke adjust and no onboard knob for the reach adjust; it needs an allen key to tweak. The 520 caliper, like the M6000 takes its basic design from the better models, but uses a straight hose connection rather than the banjo of the others. Probably the biggest difference, and the one that will most (but still only slightly) affect power is that the M6000/MT520/MT500 use the standard BH59 hose, where SLX/Zee & above use the BH90 "high-power" hose. The thinner-walled standard hose can be slightly more prone to deformation under heavy braking, so will take a little bit of power out of the fluid displacement. The olives are the same for both hose types, so you can upgrade the hose to BH90 and achieve the same brake performance as the better spec levels.
Click to expand...
Dammit I was sure I read it - so searched over the articles I'd read and I'd somehow found an old version of this:
https://singletrackworld.com/2018/0...ke-is-here-plus-confirmed-weights-uk-pricing/

...which has now been updated to include the following:
Update: The original information we received about the difference in piston diameter between the Saint/Zee brake callipers and the new XT 4-pot callipers was incorrect. We can now confirm that the piston diameter is the same between all Shimano 4-pot brake callipers.
Click to expand...
Bugger it - one day I'll get something techy right on this site! One day... Sigh. :oops:

Cheers for the correction. :)
 
M

mas2

Likes Bikes and Dirt
The Duckmeister said:
That's actually not correct. All Shimano 4-pot brakes use the same size pistons. As per the above post, Saint, Zee & M8020 XT are the same caliper, just with different printing & different factory-fit pad types.

The MT501 (and MT500 2-pot) lever is essentially a relabelled M6000, which shares its basic design with M9000/M8000/M7000, but minor detail differences; no contact stroke adjust and no onboard knob for the reach adjust; it needs an allen key to tweak. The 520 caliper, like the M6000 takes its basic design from the better models, but uses a straight hose connection rather than the banjo of the others. Probably the biggest difference, and the one that will most (but still only slightly) affect power is that the M6000/MT520/MT500 use the standard BH59 hose, where SLX/Zee & above use the BH90 "high-power" hose. The thinner-walled standard hose can be slightly more prone to deformation under heavy braking, so will take a little bit of power out of the fluid displacement. The olives are the same for both hose types, so you can upgrade the hose to BH90 and achieve the same brake performance as the better spec levels.
Click to expand...
Thanks for putting the time and effort into that, really appreciate it.
 
C

ChrisJC

Likes Bikes and Dirt
beeb said:
Dammit I was sure I read it - so searched over the articles I'd read and I'd somehow found an old version of this:
https://singletrackworld.com/2018/0...ke-is-here-plus-confirmed-weights-uk-pricing/

...which has now been updated to include the following:


Bugger it - one day I'll get something techy right on this site! One day... Sigh. :oops:

Cheers for the correction. :)
Click to expand...
beeb said:
Dammit I was sure I read it - so searched over the articles I'd read and I'd somehow found an old version of this:
https://singletrackworld.com/2018/0...ke-is-here-plus-confirmed-weights-uk-pricing/

...which has now been updated to include the following:


Bugger it - one day I'll get something techy right on this site! One day... Sigh. :oops:

Cheers for the correction. :)
Click to expand...
Ahh fug it; that’s how you learn!
 
E

evad

Likes Bikes
beeb said:
Dammit I was sure I read it - so searched over the articles I'd read and I'd somehow found an old version of this:
https://singletrackworld.com/2018/0...ke-is-here-plus-confirmed-weights-uk-pricing/

...which has now been updated to include the following:


Bugger it - one day I'll get something techy right on this site! One day... Sigh. :oops:

Cheers for the correction. :)
Click to expand...
I was backing you mate, I’d read the same article before I got some zee’s... because they had bigger pistons. Still nicer feel than my xt 2 pots.
 
The Duckmeister

The Duckmeister

Has a juicy midrange
I found that when digging up info on the new XTR a few months back; someone on another forum had discovered conflicting reports of piston sizes between M8020 & other 4-pots, and queried what was likely to be in M9120. It took some digging, but eventually the correction was found. :)
 
Haakon

Haakon

has an accommodating arse
Have a pair ordered for my roadie. Because a 9kg bike needs 4 pots :)

Has the right hose connection style and orientation for road bike use, will see how they play with Ultegra levers...
 
M

mas2

Likes Bikes and Dirt
Haakon said:
Have a pair ordered for my roadie. Because a 9kg bike needs 4 pots :)

Has the right hose connection style and orientation for road bike use, will see how they play with Ultegra levers...
Click to expand...
Who did you get them through?
 
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