Every year I like to take some upgrade parts for my mountain bike in the Philippines. It is a high-end very light Marin Race team Carbon hardtail and over the last few years, I have been upgrading everything to Shimano XTR nothing but the best for my Baby.
This year it was the turn of brakes and gears and a little departure from the Shimano XTR I plan to fit a set of Hope Racing X2 brakes
With the latest Shimano XTR 11 speed shifters and rear derailleur.
Which is where the problems start.
While the Hope brakes are new they have been discontinued for a couple of years so old stock, but they are the lightest Hope brakes ever everything is designed around lightness including milled leavers all-titanium pistons, and fittings so they are amazingly light. The issue is because they are a couple of years old Hope doesn't make an adaptor plate to fit the latest XTR shifters.
So no biggy I thought, there is an American company called Problem Solvers that makes all sorts of adaptors for brakes, gears, and different manufacturers. So to keep things neat, I ordered the brakes with an SRAM match Matchmeaker fitting and the Problem Solver adaptor for SRAM brakes to Shimano XTR M9000 shifters.
Over the last few weeks, everything has finally arrived and disaster strikes. The Problem Solver adaptor is designed to fit the SRAM brake handlebar clamp, not the Matchmaker boss.
OK time to put the thinking cap on and get out the Dremel. Fortunately, I did have an old Hope brake handlebar clamp spare off one of my bikes here in the UK so it wasn't too hard to mill out the back of that to fit the Problem Solver adaptor and give some adjustment.
And I have ended up with an elegant solution that fits exactly the way it should. I can't wait to get back to the Philippines now to fit everything. BLOODY COVID!!!!
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Well, that's all for no Hivers I hope you enjoyed one mans small workaround against companies that keep changing the mounting standards.
Very cool, enjoy the new mods! Hive on!
It's going to be a while before I get back to the Philippines but I did a test run by swapping the brakes and rear mech on my Whyte 129. They are amazing, I really can't wait to get back and fit them where they belong.