I have had these on now for about 200 km so definitely not a long term review by any stretch but have to say that they really do feel a lot better than the Hope X2's. Not in actual stopping power but in the modulation and the ease that the lever engages. True 2 finger braking. Reminds me of my old Grafton levers.
The brakes themselves have a few bells & whistles like improved lever ergonomics, oversized ceramic pistons and cooling fins etc. The brakes themselves are also very light even with the trail version that I ended up with. ( the race version loses the reach adjustment dial )
I originally picked up the Hope X2's 3 years ago for a summer trip to the Colorado high country and thought they would make a safe bet for the kind of braking / descents I would need. They worked well but what bugged me about them is the constant fiddling you needed to do to either keep them from rubbing or the way the brake felt under long extended braking. Did I mention set up aggro ? I don't understand for this kind of money why you would need to bleed right out of the box to get rolling. They will end up on the Niner when I get them back from the sticking piston issue that had me remove them and replace them.
