I've only ever really used Shimano XT 2 pot brakes.

Any mainstream hydraulic brake with 200-220mm rotors and metallic pads is 95% as good as this. Its sort of wrong to refer to brakes as having stopping power - they don't generate stopping power, they transfer the force from you finger to the pistons. After that its in the pad material and rotors. Efficiency is the better term. Higher end brakes are stiffer everywhere, which means more of your finger force goes into the braking force rather than deformation of the caliper/master cylinder, or expansion of the brake line, so they feel more powerful. But, if your brake can lock a wheel completely (which most brakes can do with big rotors and metallic pads) there is really no more stopping power to be had. Personally, I am a fan of TRPs, but will be getting Formula brakes since they offer extended support with parts, so you can completely rebuild them.

I would strongly argue your 95% claim, haha. At best I'd say 70%. I agree that "power" is not everything, which is why I focused on more important qualities like consistency, versatility, adjustability, etc in this video. Increasing rotor size is a convenient bandage for poor designs though. 🙂

TRP Trail EVOs are my favorites so far. I would probably prefer the DH over the Trail but I'm cheap lol

Magura MT7 with HC3 levers on all my mountain bikes! They save my life often. Excellent ergonomics and very adjustable. Can be tough to bleed right on install but good for 10 years after. Congrats on new brakes. Look great!

Exactly what I was thinking! New sub acquired.

even the black screen in the beginning with his info on it is a doug classic

THIS is the...

Why not copy from the best?

It's partly for the joke, but also Doug no longer does detailed Doug Score breakdowns so it's time to evolve the format into a different niche! 🙂

LOL.. FOR SURE

Haha, I couldn't have talked much faster if I tried! 😆 Canada!

Their customer service is truly one of the best. Speedy, concise and knowledgeable. 🧠

better get that buy bot script ready then scalpers are after them as well these have been resold for ~$10k ...

@christopherstaples6758 these really weren't that difficult to get lol

This is the only one like this haha, for now! 🫡

Thank you! I hope to do more like this soon.

Definitely heavily inspired by Doug, haha.

Thanks for the positivity Brandon! 🙌🏻

A bit of luck and a bit of money required! 😅

They do look somewhat like the Piccola!

Tge designer of these brakes used to work at Trickstuff, so no mistery there

Thanks Nick! You never know, I wasn't either! 😆

Haha thanks Jeff, their performance certainly matches their looks!

These Intends are to most brakes like the Claymore is to most frames. You get it; and I'll do my best!

@@DaleStone Damn, now I want them desperately hahahaha

The TRP DH EVOs with Freedomcoast levers are astonishingly amazing brakes! Maybe I'm just saying that because I converted from Code RSCs and the difference I'm experiencing is astronomical. Would I feel the same difference if I upgraded the TRPs to the Intends?? It's possible of course, but I remain skeptical. They're more than double the price of the TRPs! (I know at the end of the vid, you did address the whole, "double the price" issue, lol! Great video BTW)

Thanks David!

The OG!

Thanks for the confirmation! 🤘🏻

why ? :D 1 Finger all the way :)

That makes sense, though I have to review the Trinities with the options that are provided with them and not any third party adapters that could be included. Good tip though!

Thanks Steve! 🥳

Do you get wandering bite point with the BL-M9020 levers?

How much difference did you notice going to a 2.3mm thick rotor over the Shimano ones?

@@tippy35075 the difference is incredible - everything has changed. There is so much power and nice modulation. I bought ztto rotors from ali-exress after watching a youtube review and he wasnt wrong in any way - 36 bucks CAD (for 2) well spent!

@@viperrules24 I don't, but I burp them often due to the issue with the wiper seal on the servowave piston.

I've tried the Maximas a few times in parking lots. The feel is similar, though the Trickstuffs I've tried have been slightly more on/off feeling. The biggest thing these Intends have above them are the painless bleed and a number of small details. IMBY is likely getting a set of Maximas this year, so I hope to do a detailed head to head comparison...

It’s hard to explain how they feel but they are amazing and to be honest you just get used to them. I have the Maximas on 3 bikes now as anything else just doesn’t compare. Plus despite what you may here getting them and a complete set of spares is pretty easy. Which is now made better now they sell spare levers.Had my first set when they were on kickstarter about 5 years ago. Had to do nothing to. them in all that time. Got a set for my new Atherton Am 170 a few months ago and bought some more for my AthertonDH bike which is due anytime now. Nice to see you riding real brakes rather than the Chinese fakes(Lewisbrakes). Love what you do man . Keep it real.👍🏻👊

Cornelius Kapfinger*, like a bond villian! 🥷🏻

Ya I should’ve put the disclaimer on my spelling 😂

That's definitely a nice feature, more adjustability is usually a very good thing if it's reliably designed!

Opposite experience of me then. I have tech 3 e4s that I bought because of the adjustability (and spare parts availability). After playing around with them, I came to the conclusion that the only place where I want the bite point adjustment to be is all the way in. And I can't imagine that I'd ever want anything else than as little empty lever travel as possible, so that feature has been dropped of the requirement list.

@@Finnspin_unicycles Yes you are right, but once you have more than one wheel set it’s got a use case. Even with identical rotors and hubs the geometry is not identical and so I use it all the time to account for the small changes on a wheel swap.

I secretly filmed this with two layered t-shirts.

Good point with the rotor size constraint. Hopefully it's not relevant for most of my audience, but I missed that in this video!

I think there's a key point missing there. My understanding is that Intend actually has a pretty good stock of spare parts available if you need them, they just aren't commonly available in shops or for purchase without reaching out. Service requiring a spare is thankfully the exception and not the rule, but where you live relative to Germany will certainly influence how fast you'll be back up and running. I trust Intend will continue to supply spares as necessary based on the sustainability of their packaging alone! haha

@@DaleStone ahhh good , I may have misinterpreted that part ! Thanks for clearing that up 👍

@@rab.. I also could have been clearer in the video. 🙂

And the Code RSCs are the best brakes that SRAM offers!! 🥲

@@DaleStone Sounds like it's possible that SRAM has an actually good brake coming down the pipe....and they're mineral oil.

Time to undo years of slandering mineral oil then... haha.

Hayes Dominion are amazing, found a fr + rr set for $250 CAN last winter - hard to imagine much better!

@@DaleStoneKeep in mind that this is a classic case of “new and fresh vs old, worn and could probably do with a rebuild”. That said, A4s are likely a bit better overall than Codes.

Thanks for the clarification Phil, it's a small world in the bike industry haha.

I just finished a script for the 520s quite literally 12 hours ago. 🤐😉

And I always thought he was an antilope. Damn...

Get those 3am alarms set! 😆 I think Intend calls that "dead stroke", and these have an incredibly short one, probably industry leading. I like running my brakes quite far away and having them bite immediately, but I'd assume you could dial in the reach adjustment screw and have them bite much closer to the bar. I'll give it a shot sometime.

@@DaleStone Thanks for the reply, I like the term "dead stroke" a lot more, it's good to know it's short. I really dislike how far out some brakes have to be run because there is so much useless stroke in them, it's one of the main things driving me to certain brakes over others. Now just to wait for their next drop :) Thanks again.

😂

These brakes (and their forks, I believe) are very easy to service, much better than average, and don't need to be shipped anywhere to perform it. My understanding is that Intend's in house stock of spares is pretty good, but a failure requiring a spare is definitely the exception and not the rule. I hear you, it would be an inconvenience living here for sure, but it's a risk I think is justifiable given their performance! An early adopter fee. 🙂

Sounds like a great option!

😂😂

There's a bit of misinformation to unpack here. Firstly a post mount spacer won't give you any better alignment, if anything it could make it worse as it introduces another source of error in the tolerance stack. A larger rotor will indeed give you more powerful brakes and better thermal efficiency, but if you don't need the extra power (because you weigh 62kg) then it's just additional weight and complexity that isn't needed. 🙂

@@DaleStone but you’re using a shimano +40mm postmount adapter from what i can see in the video? Intend makes their own blackline adapter which is made to much nicer tolerances and a nicer placement of the caliper, requiring less offset on top of the fork’s postmount interface.

I follow now haha, thanks. On the front I'm using a 180-203 (+23) Shimano adapter. I have no doubt the Intend adapter is better quality, more accurate, and a lower "offset" distance, but I've never had any alignment or performance issues with this one I found in my closet. If I needed to purchase an adapter I would definitely consider a nicer Intend one for just about any bike, especially once you start getting into the +40 range.

Haha, yep! He definitely deserves all of his success so far, and a fair bit more. 🙂

Do ur v4s squeak ?

@@TheGman420 No. I run the green race compound on both ebike and enduro paired with sram 200mm HS2 discs. Works perfectly. On the e4 I use trickstuff discs with the green compound. They tend to squeak a little bit when not fully pressed, but barely noticeable

​@@TheGman420all brakes squeak when wet but that's the only time my v4 brakes squeak is when wet mine are perfect other wise

@@stevesracingbitsever tried Galfer Pads and Discs? Even wet, they are amazingly quiet

Definitely a lot closer to the Shimano side, maybe even slightly off the scale depending on how you set them up! 💪🏻

Sounds like it's time to move away from the big-ish 3, haha.

I have an MT520 review baking in the oven as we speak, haha. As I review more components, I'll be able to draw parallels and comparisons to a library of components I've already reviewed. But you're probably right, I should compare forwards and not only backwards. 🙂

@@DaleStone Haha I figured you had something in the mix. You did well, garner the interest, rattle peoples cages with the higher priced brakes then draw them in for the more affordable ones 😄.

@@DaleStone with the mt420s One thing that happened a few times on really long descents at brohm, my back brake lever pumped up pretty bad to the point it was unusable. It might be because whoever filled the brake when I bought it might of overfilled it or could be air in the line. So I've decided to learn how to bleed my own brakes finally lol. I had slx before and that never happened and they were only 2 piston so I couldn't of been dragging them much.

I've parking lot tested the Maximas a handful of times, and they are a bit more on-off than these. Where Intend really shines is in the details, specifically their painless bleed. Would be fun to try the Piccola's someday!

I don't have enough time on the TRPs to draw an accurate comparison, but I'd say probably 70% of the way towards Shimano. But with a light initial lever feel the modulation is good without destroying your hands at the top end like SRAM.

Personal preference is definitely a factor, but saying that "all DH brakes are more than powerful for any type of riding" is not true. A good set of brakes can make the difference between riding a feature clean and crashing on it, or making it to the end of a stage/run and having to stop to rest your hands/arms.

A mix of trails around Vancouver. I'm running a DHX2, which works just fine although Fox is not a fan haha.

I have a degree in Mech Eng. 🙂

If this video ends up performing well, then absolutely!

The good news is that you can almost literally only go up! 😆

@@DaleStone this is true 🤣

Hayes Dominion A4's are amazing brakes!

@@tedgore5365 so I have heard!

I was with you all the way until the last sentence. There is just no way to copy the exact feel of these brakes from a completely unrelated design through tuning. And regardless of how good you are at bleeding other brands, with practice these will always be faster. 🙂

Love it!

It seems to all be a very deliberate business decision to avoid getting too big too fast. From that perspective I get it, but I also think that Intend is too conservative in that thinking!

They use the most popular brake pad standard in the world, SRAM Code. Intend claims they are compatible with all rotor thicknesses between 1.7 and 2.3mm, no specific recommendation. Both are awesome compatibility details.

@@DaleStone That's good to hear, they're officially on my list of luxury upgrades now. It just leaves me wondering if it would be easier to find and hire the A-Team and get them to track a set down for me 😜

OA3 on full face chin

@@DaleStone I'm blown away by some of the perspective in your video. It definitely conveys the steepness which I've had trouble with GoPros doing in the past. And I ride steep trails too, 40-50% grade at sections.

Arguably even better! 😉

Two things: 1. This bike has a very modern 78° ESTA, which is far better than the average these days and not exactly slack haha. 2. The saddle position is a reflection of how steep the roads are around here. If the grades on my average ride were shallower then I'd move it back to the middle for sure.

copy, @@DaleStone

I don't remember exactly which models I've tried, but I've usually been left feeling underwhelmed by Hopes. This could easily be down to inconsistent bleeds.

It would be pretty great if the calipers had the same wow factor as the levers do, haha.

Recently enough that I still haven't made a cliche thank you video. 😆

@@DaleStone well congrats! You obviously did something right to reach 100k then explode to nearly 300k!

It seems to be more popular in Europe than North America haha. Topeak and crank brothers have came up a few times, but my reference points are One Up, Specialized and Bontrager (as they're probably the majority of the marketshare around here). Definitely not impossible to find, thankfully. 🙂

also TIL Lezyne is in Nevada. 🤯

What really matters is intuition, consistency, durability, etc.

To be fair, this is my first video (of many in the future) like this haha. Stay tuned! 😁

@@DaleStone Honestly it's not the content (which is great don't get me wrong). It's your attitude and the way you communicate. I'm a big believer that bikes are supposed to be fun.

Haha, I'd argue they are actually decently good value for the level of performance you get! Consistency of RSCs with the power of Trickstuff and a light lever feel for minimal rider fatigue. Hard to go back now! 🙂

I believe that's what the second half of the video is! 🙂

i guess i was curious about how these are technically different from the 150 dollar brakes you mentioned, from an engineering standpoint

Intend has a fantastic website outlining all of the nerdy engineering and technical details you could imagine, I'd highly recommend giving it a read. Since this channel is not a paid press release platform, I chose not to cover details that are readily available elsewhere.