Product Review: Hope EVO GR4

Mountain bike media loves to trot out the “aerospace grade’ claim, so there is perhaps a certain amount of irony in the fact that Hope technology, a company who don’t really do much regular marketing of any kind actually started out their life not as a bicycle company at all but rather as a machining business supplying fixtures and tooling to the aerospace industry. Their first ventures into mountain bike parts back came in 1989, when the founders, dissatisfied with performance of the mountain bike cantilever brakes at the time launched their own caliper based disc brake system inspired by the brakes of the motorcycle trials world. That put them right at the very cutting edge of design back then and in many ways they have stayed there ever since with some of the best and certainly most distinctive brakes and components out there.

Fi riding our previous benchmark brake, the Hope Tech 4

If you had asked most of our staff to name their all time favourite brake a few months ago, you’d have had an almost unanimous vote for the Hope Tech 4, with a mix of E4 and V4’s being ridden across our various bikes. With that legacy to live up to, the launch of the new EVO brakes this year was both an interesting prospect, as the bar had already been set very high indeed by the previous generation. Coming from those well established Tech 4 versions, the new EVO brakes are more of evolution than drastic overhaul. Visually they are quite similar, with individual left / right master cylinders and what looks at a glance like an unchanged caliper. There are three brakes on offer, all sharing the same lever but using different calipers to generate varying power levels, depending on whether you are looking to minimise weight, maximise control or generate brutal stopping power. 

As with the old brakes (and as we’d expect from Hope) the quality of construction on the EVO looks top notch, with everything perfectly finished, tight and solid. Many of our old Hope brakes have rotated through multiple bikes; they've been so durable, and these look set to maintain that standard.

What's new?

The most instantly obvious visual difference with the new EVO is the change in lever shape, with the standard lever supplied with the new EVO being shorter, more curved and more hooked than the very long and straight levers on the Tech 4 brakes. That curve and hook, along with some new dimples, is there to help keep the finger more securely in place and locked into the lever. Extra curving on the top and bottom of the blade also aims to improve comfort (not that we had a problem with the older brakes!) getting rid of any sharper edges. 

New Hope EVO lever on the left, Tech 4 on the right

The new stock lever is based around a neutral mid position with a wide range of reach adjustment but uniquely to Hope, there are also two more lever blades available to choose from if the supplied standard lever turns out not to suit your hand size or preferred position. The optional ‘power’ blade is longer, develops more leverage and allows an extra 7.5mm of adjustment away from the bar for big hands, while the smaller ‘control’ blade can bring the bite point 5mm closer, for those who like to run their brake lever very near the grip. 

Inside the lever a revised cam aims to reduce free throw (how much the lever moves before the pads hit the disc) and to give a firmer bite when they do and on top of the brake sits a new bleed port, allowing you to bleed the brakes without the overflow of DOT oil caused previously when removing and replacing the reservoir top caps and seals. At the caliper the largest and most powerful GR4 caliper has a slightly larger set of pistons than the older V4, generating a smidge (6%) more power on paper. Meanwhile the more easily modulated TR4 caliper still produces almost as much power as the old V4, which as anyone who has ridden the previous generation will know, is a whole lot of force at maximum pull. 

Riding the EVO GR4

Our time on the new EVO system has only extended to the GR4 so far, with a couple of pairs of the new brakes installed on both shop demo and staff bikes. Despite that, we already have a few hundred kilometres of riding behind us, enough to get a good idea how they ride.

In the overall world of brakes, there are a number of ways to measure performance and maybe the most obvious one is simply absolute stopping power. The top our old league table for perceived power on trail would have been made up of the SRAM Maven, Hope V4 and Hayes Dominion A4 brakes, roughly in that order, although all three are pretty closely matched. Add the GR4 into that list, and it probably ties with the Maven for the top spot.

There’s not leagues more power than the V4 (Hope only claim 6%) but then the V4 was already very potent and the GR4 if anything adds a little more again. Our staff Santa Cruz Bullit currently pairs a set of GR4 brakes with 220mm rotors and when they wear out, we’ll likely drop down a size which should tell you something! For some smaller people it’s easy to imagine the GR4 actually being almost too strong and the TR4 (or just a smaller rotor than normal) giving a better result, but for bigger riders and / or E-Bikes it’s ideal and being able to lock up wheels and scrub speed with minimal force at the lever makes a noticeable difference to fatigue. 

There is much more to a brake than just raw power however, with brake and lever feel contributing almost as much to control and fatigue as the simple stopping power. Here, there is a wide range of variety in how on / off or modulated a brake feels as the power comes on between the various competing systems. Some riders like a really instant brake with a solid feeling bite point and very little difference in pressure between a gentle drag and full on lock up, whereas others much prefer a more gradual and linear application of the power allowing for more control at the expense of a less snappy feel. There’s no hard right and wrong here, and both kinds of brakes can work well, so it’s a case of matching the feel you prefer to the brake you are buying. 

Previously Hope were far towards the gradual and modulated end of that spectrum, with the Tech 4 brakes feeling decidedly spongy if you sat on a stationary bike in a car park and squeezed at the levers. Out on trail, that feeling largely went away, but there was still quite a bit of movement at the lever between the initial pad contact and full power being applied. Ride a set of V4s back to back with a Maven Silver and the contrast couldn’t have been more extreme. The SRAM brake would supply a wall of power, but make fine control more challenging while the Hope would allow for effortless feathering, but lack the instant bite. We were always fans of the super well modulated feel of the old brakes, but the lever feel of the Tech 4 did definitely put some riders off. 

The good news (or bad depending on your point of view) is that the new EVO brakes do have a significantly different feel to the Tech 4, with Hope's claim of a firmer bite point absolutely playing out on trail. The lever feel is now much more solid, with a definite bite as the pads contact the disc and the lever then using very little further travel as the power builds; apply a little more pressure at the finger and the brake quickly ramps up its output. For most people on most bikes, the change is going to be a major positive but for those looking for the super modulated and softer feel of the old brakes, there is an adjustment required to get used to the new action. Consistency has also been bang on for us, with no wandering bite point or softness developing, and the brake delivering a reliable action on every ride regardless of how steep or long the descents are. 

Hope also have one of the most (and most easily) adjustable levers in existence, with both Reach and Bite point easily and heavily moveable via two tool free dials. That combination creates the option to put the lever and bite pretty much anywhere you like it, which for anyone with a specific preference or unusual hand size is a huge bonus. 

One other (often overlooked) factors to brake feel is how firmly sprung the lever is; that is how much effort it takes to simply pull the lever blade through the dead stroke before the pads bite against the disc. Some riders put more importance on this than others, but those who care about it mostly seem to think that a lighter lever is both less fatiguing to hold and makes gentle braking easier to measure compared to a heavily sprung lever. Tech 4 brakes were right there up as some of the lightest brakes on the market (along with Hayes Dominions) and compared to them, the EVO’s have a slightly heavier and firmer feel. It’s not a massive change, but it now puts Hope into the middle ground for their lever feel rather than the super light outlier position they occupied before. 

Overall, the EVO is hard to fault in use. There's as much power as anyone could possibly wish for, the ergonomics are comfortable, modulation remains among the very best on the market and the levers are super adjustable. Gone is the super light and floaty feel of the Tech 4, but what replaces it is a more solid and 'normal' brake, easy to ride and super  consistent. 

Working on and living with the EVO

As well as riding the EVO we’ve also fitted a lot of sets of the brake since launch, so we’ve been able to get very familiar with working on them. Out of the box, caliper pistons are exceptionally smooth, able to be pushed back with just finger pressure and requiring minimal work or massaging to get everything moving and balanced.

Bleeding has also been straightforward using the new lever port and funnel if keeping the DOT 5.1 oil contained is a priority. Old style gravity bleeds also work extremely well if you have a workshop space for fluid overflow, so whichever way you prefer to work on your brake you should be able to get a reliable bleed quite easily. 

Brake pads top load into the caliper which helps when checking rotor to calliper alignment and the EVO’s are compatible with either Hope’s excellent 2.3mm Universal Disc or their own blingy 1.9mm Floating Discs. No vented rotors with the new EVO however. As with all Hope brakes, it’s tricky not to have a tiny amount of audible scuff when setting up the brake with brand new pads and rotors, but a single ride is normally enough to get to silent running. 

The pads themselves are all made by Galfer, are reasonably priced and there are plenty to choose from. Most of our team like the Greens (fast break in, good bite, dry conditions) and Reds (All conditions, quiet, modulated) for general use, but we all also make use of the Purple and Gold metallic pads when conditions get really foul.

Hope have a wide range of matchmakers available, so whichever dropper and drivetrain you ride you’ll be able to integrate it into the brake if you want to when it comes to longer term support every part of the system can be bought separately allowing for crash damage or long term wear to be dealt with without having to just buy whole new levers or calipers. 

It’s still a little early to comment on longer term durability, but we’ve yet to see any brake that has passed through the shop needing any love and and we’ve no reason to think that Hope's excellent track record  for durability won’t continue on in the new EVO. All in all then, it seems like the EVO is just that, a positive evolution to an already brilliant brake and one that should be on the short list for anyone considering replacing the set on their bike.