JJ Leigh Posted March 4, 2016 Report Share Posted March 4, 2016 (edited) As the title sais, I'm thinking about getting a pair (since they are uber cheap through work yay!) but after snapping a couple of the newer 2014 HS33 levers I'm not too sure on the MT7 or any MT levers.... Anybody know if anyone has had problems with them so far? with regards to snapping or cracking etc? Saints and hopes are obviously strong enough, but the MT7 just looks a bit too focused on saving weight not so much strength. Magura problems in general are a problem so the last thing I want is that thought in the back of my mind!! cheers! Edited March 4, 2016 by JJ Leigh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ali C Posted March 4, 2016 Report Share Posted March 4, 2016 the lever blade isn't the strongest in the world but you'd be doing pretty well to snap one in a situation that wouldn't snap other brands blades. The lever Body is tough as hell though! I think they are the best brakes available for feel and power but Shimano are fairly close, just a bit under powered in comparison 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark W Posted March 4, 2016 Report Share Posted March 4, 2016 As with all the latest Magura levers, it pays to tighten the bar clamp up correctly. On the back of the clamp you've got a little arrow - just make sure that that's pointing upwards, then tighten the top bolt up fully before adjusting the tension of the clamp with the lower bolt. It's specially shaped to do it that way, so if you try and do it evenly like a 'normal' clamp you're much more likely to snap the clamp. It also means you can dial in the tension on the lever a lot more gradually, so you can make it so it's tight enough it's not moving around easily, but still have that slight loose-ness that means if you hit your lever hard in a crash it'll shift a little rather than just breaking. I've only ever used my MT7s with Trialtech pads and 203mm Shimano IceTech rotors and I've had no complaints so far. Bite point adjustment is kind of weird, but works OK. More effective than the BPC on the Saints, less so than the one on the Tech 3 levers. Power wise though the MT7s smash the shit out of everything else. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJ Leigh Posted March 4, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 4, 2016 (edited) Yeah my friend found out the hard way with the clamp/arrow thing haha, that shouldn't be an issue I'll be running 203mm rotors and since the callipers are 4 pot, power wont be a worry anyway. I've used them before (Ali's actually) and they seem very nice, it's simply the lever snapping fear. Other than that they seem, and feel great. Edited March 4, 2016 by JJ Leigh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greetings Posted March 7, 2016 Report Share Posted March 7, 2016 Sorry to hijack the thread but does anyone know why the MT7 uses a different pad configuration to the MT5? The caliper is bang on identical. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark W Posted March 7, 2016 Report Share Posted March 7, 2016 I imagine the MT7 pads would give a little better cooling than the MT5 setup? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ali C Posted March 8, 2016 Report Share Posted March 8, 2016 it's possible the MT5 pads are cheaper to produce or they've made the MT7 pads easier to change possibly to entice people to spend a bit more? There's the heat thing too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greetings Posted March 8, 2016 Report Share Posted March 8, 2016 Ditto, my only guess would have been heat. The MT7 pads are indeed way easier to chage, I don't think you have to remove the wheel to pop them out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MadManMike Posted March 21, 2016 Report Share Posted March 21, 2016 Not a huge selling point though, considering a wheel takes sub 10 seconds to remove...? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ali C Posted March 21, 2016 Report Share Posted March 21, 2016 they are a total pain in the ass to remove though, they barely fit past each other. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
artishouk Posted July 19, 2016 Report Share Posted July 19, 2016 Hi everyone! I am new on this forum... I just wanted to give my 5 cents regarding MT7 brakes. I bought them 5 months ago, best brakes I´ve ever had! Until... Until it was time to change pads. It was hard to do it, but "doable". Then the disc was always rubbing, so we aligned again, and bled the brakes with mineral oil. Something must have moved inside the lever as it does not create any pressure. There is no info on the manuals online, or replacement list to order them. Contacted them through their webpage, and no answer. There is no authorized dealer in my country (Chile), so I am left with the best brakes that don´t work. Had to return to Shimano´s XTR... Hope this helps you if you are in doubt. AS it still happens, some great products get ruined by terrible costumer service. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
niconj Posted July 19, 2016 Report Share Posted July 19, 2016 (edited) 28 minutes ago, artishouk said: Hope this helps you if you are in doubt. AS it still happens, some great products get ruined by terrible costumer service. Or terrible customers. By only changing the pads there shouldn't occur any problems inside the lever. If the brake works before changing the pads, it works after it as well, without bleeding the brake; you just have to gently push the pistons back (which you have done, haven't you?). Where did you buy them from? After 5 months you might be able to get them replaced under warranty, if there's really something wrong with the brake. Edited July 19, 2016 by niconj Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
artishouk Posted July 20, 2016 Report Share Posted July 20, 2016 18 hours ago, niconj said: Or terrible customers. By only changing the pads there shouldn't occur any problems inside the lever. If the brake works before changing the pads, it works after it as well, without bleeding the brake; you just have to gently push the pistons back (which you have done, haven't you?). Where did you buy them from? After 5 months you might be able to get them replaced under warranty, if there's really something wrong with the brake. Hi Niconj, thanks for the warm welcome! As for bad costumer service I mean they have not answered my question through their "contact us" section, also as there is no hard data online for servicing them. And until now I have not been able to find where to buy spare parts for fixing a broken seal or other that might be the problem. I bought them from new takeoff from a Cannondale seller. One of the top spec´ed Jekyll came with them, but as the store was also an exclusive dealer for Sram they sold the brakes and fitted Guide´s instead. If you have worn the brake pads to the max, you can´t fit fresh pads without pushing back the pistons: they just won't fit. So yes, we did that. And we also bled them afterwards (pretty common when changing pads) as it´s shown on one of the procedures online. I am not asking for them to change my brakes, but rather give me an answer or instructions on how to fix them. I don´t know about you, but I think that´s basic costumer service expected for a brand like Magura. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
niconj Posted July 20, 2016 Report Share Posted July 20, 2016 (edited) 14 minutes ago, artishouk said: Hi Niconj, thanks for the warm welcome! I've never bled a brake after changing the pads. If there's no air in the system, I don't see the reason to do so even though the pads have been worn down. For some downhill riders this would mean bleeding the brake after every other week or so. As far as I know there aren't any spare parts to fix Magura brakes. HOPE has an (the only?) exceptional customer service and Magura, well, being German, I've never had any problems contacting them. If the shop sold them to you, you should give it to the shop and see whether they can fix the problem or give you new brakes. También sé que en Chile cosas funcionan diferente. Edited July 20, 2016 by niconj Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark W Posted July 20, 2016 Report Share Posted July 20, 2016 Most brakes you'll need to do that even if your pads aren't particularly worn. With Shimano brakes with ServoWave the pads naturally sit pretty far out so it's not a problem, but with brakes where the pads typically sit nearer the rotor (in particular Magura MT-series brakes - my MT7 pads are a really, really tight fit) it's more of an issue. After a few pulls they always sit further out of the caliper as you can see in this video: As for the brake in question, it'd probably be worth stripping the lever down and making sure everything's fine (it's relatively easy to do), then re-assemble and re-bleed it. If you bleed it following Magura's guide it should be straight forward. As an alternative, you can 'top up' the brake - if you remove the EBT plug from the lever and attach a syringe with some fluid in to the bleed port, once you pull the lever a few times if there's any air in the system you'll see it rise up through the fluid and out of the brake. If nothing comes out after doing that you can give it a proper bleed, and again if you don't get much out from that then it could be that something's now damaged somewhere. I'd be surprised if it was, but you never know. If it was all fine before and the only difference is that it's been bled then it would suggest it's a bleed related issue rather than anything else. I don't suppose you've hit the lever recently? I've seen a case before where someone managed to hit the lever, and even though it didn't really mark the body it seemed to fracture something on the inside of the reservoir in the lever and it meant that there was no brake pressure at all despite a perfect bleed. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MadManMike Posted July 22, 2016 Report Share Posted July 22, 2016 I have the Jekyll in question and have those brakes. Changing pads was easy and doing a quick 'top up' as Mark described was also easy. The top up procedure sorted out the lack of feel in the lever too, because it's fair to say the brakes were pretty crap from factory. Doing the top up allowed me to move the position of the levers in a bit too, so there's less travel on them. Set up properly, these brakes are nice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
artishouk Posted August 30, 2016 Report Share Posted August 30, 2016 Hi guys! I was contacted by Magura Germany AND USA. They took a while, but once in contact with them their costumer service was awesome! We started from the basic (bleed all again according to procedure). And even though I knew the problem was not there, I did it again with same results. So I took a video of what was wrong and send it to the people form Magura USA (Kent King was the person I spoke with). So he asked for my address and sent an spare directly to my home (in Chile). I received the "spare" yesterday: a complete lever and caliper kit with minor bleeding kit included!!! What can I say?! That kind of costumer service is the one that gets loyal costumers for ever! I was expecting to buy the spare and get some instructions on how to change it, and instead of that I got, not only the spare for free, but the whole kit! As I stated earlier, this are the best brakes I´ve ever had, and thanks for costumer support I´ll still be able to use them and not change to Guide´s, which seems to still have some reliability issues as I have been asking around. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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