Hope Mini Disk Brake Fix

[Dirt]

Oy folks.

I don't know how many of you are riding with Hope Minis. I had 4 wonderful months on mine before I had problems that in my eyes is a design flaw.

There are only 2 bolts holding the caliper halves together. This leaves the whole upper part of the caliper unsupported. After 4 months of hard riding, I was doing a steep chute at Avalon when the back brake went totally mushy. I found out later that the top of the caliper had separated under the stress enough to allow a little oil to escape. The problem is that the oil squirted directly on to the pads and rotor.

Though my brakes didn't totally go away (like the catestrophic failures I had with Hayes brakes) I didn't have much in the way of braking power for the rest of the ride.

Rather than having to buy other brakes to tide me over while I waited for the warantee replacement from Hope, I decided to fix it myself. Here's a link to the fix that I made.

Hope Mini Fix (http://www.peterbeers.net/interests/mtb_rt/hope_fix/hope_mini_fix.htm)

I went for a long ride this weekend and it worked like a dream! They feel better than new.

If you've got any questions, please drop me an e-mail at pedrogringo@yahoo.com

Peter

[vonEck]

Thanks Peter. I've had my mini's for a few months now and haven't noticed any problems. I replaced the stock pads with some EBC's which increased the stopping power, but otherwise I've been very happy with them. Extremely light, and great modulation. I'll definitely take a clost look at the upper caliper housing now to see if there's any of the deflection you mention. I do get some squeeling on occasion, so maybe that's where it's coming from.

Thanks for sharing your fix and for the great pics. Hope I don't need it, but it looks pretty effective in any case.

Eric

[Dirt]

Hey Eric.

Most of the people I've encountered with Minis don't have this problem. I've found a bunch that do though. I'm glad yours are working well. Part of my problem is that I'm a pretty huge guy and that's a lot of stress on the brakes.

This problem is a lot less drastic than the Hayes failures I have had.

Best of luck.

Peter