Magura's New MT Trail Brake - Sea Otter 2016
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Magura has a new brake in the works that they’re showing off for the first time here at Sea Otter. It’s called the MT Trail and, well, the name kind of says it all: It’s a brake aimed at pretty much anyone who isn’t obsessed with the weight of their carbon hardtail or the spring rate on their downhill sled….basically, the bulk of riders out there.
But what actually makes a brake ideal for the average trail rider? Magura’s take—a lightweight brake that’s powerful, but not too grabby. Sorta the holy grail of disc brakes, really. To that end, they’ve put together a brake that’s a combination of their existing four and two-piston brakes, with a few tweaks at the lever and caliper. Or to put a finer point on it: The MT Trail is not a ground-up redesign of the basic Magura architecture, but according to Magura, there’s no need to have started over from scratch since they heavily tweaked their line for 2016.
“The little idiosyncrasies of our first-generation MT brakes are gone,” says Magura’s Tony Ballantine. “The new brakes are dialed.”
The idiosnycracies that we're talking about were, mainly, a lack of pucker power and finicky bleeds.
“Some shop mechanics had a hard time bleeding the brakes, which had to do with the configuration of the bladder and the bleed port,” says Ballantine. “That’s all been worked out. We made the brake a lot easier to bleed. We were also criticized with our first generation MT brakes. Those first gen models were super, super lightweight brakes and didn’t have the power that some people wanted. We fixed that.”
The MT Trail, then, is essentially an amalgamation of the latest MT7 and MT8 models.
“This is something a lot of us have been doing for years,” says Ballantine. “The whole idea is pretty standard in motorcycle and automotive circles. You need more heat management up front. You need more power up front. The four-piston caliper achieves that. And then in the rear you want a brake that modulates exceptionally well because you don’t want your rear wheel locked up as your going through a switchback or cornering in the gravel.”
The MT Trail features a carbon lever blade, paired with Magura’s lightweight carbon-reinforced master cylinder and carbon back-clamp. For those of you who like shiny objects, the new model also features polished calipers.
It’s worth noting that you can build a less expensive version of the MT Trail by simply pairing their existing MT4 and MT5 brakes. They have the same basic master cylinders and you get that four-piston/two-piston caliper set up. Why, you might ask, even bother with the new MT Trail?
The MT Trail features a carbon lever blade, paired with Magura’s lightweight carbon-reinforced master cylinder and carbon back-clamp. For those of you who like shiny objects, the new model also features polished calipers.
It’s worth noting that you can build a less expensive version of the MT Trail by simply pairing their existing MT4 and MT5 brakes. They have the same basic master cylinders and you get that four-piston/two-piston caliper set up. Why, you might ask, even bother with the new MT Trail?
“The MT Trail is a lighter and more powerful set up,” says Ballantine. “That’s true because you have more mechanical advantage at the lever blade. The MT4 and MT5 use our Carbotecture master, which is a little bit heavier than the SL material we use. So, you spend a bit more money with the MT Trail, but you also get a lighter, blingier and more power. But having said that, yeah, if you want a really affordable set of trail brakes, it’s hard to beat the MT4s and MT5 combination.”
The MT Trail will be offered with and without tool-less reach adjust. There’s no official word yet on pricing for the MT Trail, but it will likely sell for between the MT7 and MT8. The brakes will begin hitting the street by the time summer rolls around.
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Real classy guys.
Super unique to blame bike mechanics for your SHIT.
How about blaming your shit ideas for your shit being shit?!
I've never had any Magura parts on my bikes so can't comment on quality but attacking them for something you think they said because you didn't bother to read the rest of the sentence is a shit move IMO.
check this:
www.youtube.com/user/MAGURAPassionPeople
And by the way you can define your brakepower from aggessive to very smooth by the different brake pads and discs available.
Aggressive: Storm SL disc with Performance 8.1 pads (sintered)
Smooth: Storm disc with Performance 9.1 pads (organic)
That said, I really, really love the Magura HS33 Quicksilvers on my Trek 970 ZX commuter.
I,would also say it is a subjective matter, as everyone has had bad experience with each brand. My most trusted brake is somehow a Juicy 7 2006 with a kinked hose, that thing never dies and is always on point!
The downside was that they were great only 1/10 of the time, being total crap the other 9/10 of the time. The bitepoint would wander so much sometimes that even by pulling the lever all the way to the bar the brakes would simply not engage, and no amount of bleeds fixed that.
Luckily, it all ended the second time I flew with the bike and the front brake had a huge leak between the carbotecture cilinder and the metal bar clamp, forcing me to finally buy a set of trustworthy XT's.
BTW-I do not agree with the idea that you only need heat mgmt. on front brake justifying the MC design idea of 4 pot/2 pot
. On a moto you have engine braking doing the lion's share of the work. The caliper is under much less stress in that arrangement. The only engine brake MTB's have is some freewheel drag. You need almost the same brake front and rear IMO.
P.S. I live close by Magura