Shimano Saint Brakes

In the interests of saving my hands this season, I have opted to use the M810 Shimano Saint disc brakes on my Transition TR450 downhill bike. Last year my Avid Elixir’s just lacked the power that I needed out of brakes when riding the Whistler Bike Park all day long. Saint brakes are commonly accepted as some of the best brakes on the market – I hope this review will give you a little bit of an insight into why that is.

Strong – Weighing in at around 670 grams including brake hoses, the Shimano Saint brakes certainly aren’t as light as the near 500 gram set of Avid Elixir CR’s that are on my wife’s Transition Syren, but the Saints were never built with weight in mind. Aimed at the freeride and downhill mountain biking market, Saint brakes are built to last.

Powerful – Using a “Dual Diameter” 4-piston caliper, the Shimano Saints are super powerful, and even allow for even pad wear. Shimano claims that the M810 Saint brakes provide 50% more stopping power than the previous M800 model. Despite the huge amounts of power though, the Saint brakes still offer loads of modulation, which is a good thing considering how easily they could throw you over the bars. The two part caliper is said to be a more rigid design, again helping with overall power. Shimano’s Servo Wave technology allows the Saint levers to provide a “minimal effort, maximum result” feel.

Easily Maintained – Thanks to the M810 caliper’s high volume, the oil flows with ease through the system. Combined with the Saint Servo Wave levers, bleeding Shimano Saint brakes is as simple as it gets. Huge pad clearance means no annoying rotor rub and even pad wear means no wasted brake pads. The Saint M810 brake levers offer simple tool free reach adjustment allowing these brakes to be suitable for all hand sizes.

The Shimano Saint’s shortcomings seem to be with spare parts. A friend of mine just had to purchase a replacement caliper after he found out that Shimano consider the calipers an “unserviceable” part, and therefore make no replacement seal kits available. If you can overlook this point however, Shimano Saint brakes sure seem to be as good as it gets before you start spending race team money.

Certainly so far, I haven’t been this happy with a set of brakes since I ran Shimano XT’s a few years ago on my cross country bike. I’ll take the weight penalty any day for the power and modulation of the Shimano Saint brakes!

For more information on Shimano Cycling products, take a look at their website at http://bike.shimano.com.