Hope Tech 4 V4 brakes review

Hope ups the power

This competition is now closed

By Tom Marvin

Published: December 2, 2022 at 9:00 am

Hope’s new Tech 4 V4 is billed as its most powerful brake to date.

It features new lever internals and externals, boosting the potential braking force over previous generations.

The new Tech 4 lever is the main story, with a complete revision over the older Tech 3 lever. It boasts new lever geometry and improved internals, which are claimed to reduce friction and aid feel.

The most notable aspect is the longer lever, which Hope claims adds 30 per cent braking pressure to the system. The lever is pretty flat in profile along its length, with a small nubbin at the end to keep your fingers connected, and some dimpling to aid grip.

The lever’s reach is adjustable with a small external dial, as is bite point, via a similar dial. This makes it easy to get the lever position and feel just as you like it.

The lever pivots on smooth roller bearings, and internally, seals have been redesigned to reduce internal friction. Combined with a weaker lever return spring, Hope says the lever feel should be lighter.

The lever body attaches to the bar with a simple and effective hinged clamp. MatchMaker clamps for Shimano and SRAM shifters, as well as dropper levers, are available. These have also been updated to give a wider range of adjustment.

However, thanks to the long lever, I had no issues getting a decent shifter position by positioning the clamp inboard of the brake lever clamp.

Hoses on Hope’s brakes are long, so there shouldn’t be any issue fitting these to big DH bikes. The majority of riders will want to cut the hose, though.

Fortunately, bleeding the brakes is a fairly simple process. There’s a dedicated reservoir top cap and bleed pot, but I’ve had success just topping the reservoir up as I bleed, without the pot. It’s a messier process, though.

The one-piece CNC’d caliper holds four pistons and a pair of long pads. Green ‘Racing Compound’ pads are supplied from new.

Six piston cap colours are offered, while the lever and caliper come in black or silver. The hose leaves the caliper via an adjustable banjo to aid with hose routing.

I found regular +20mm Post Mount adaptors for using the brakes with bigger rotors interfered with the piston architecture of the calipers, so would recommend using Hope’s own adaptors to circumnavigate this issue.

I found it necessary to bleed the brakes upon fitting, because the two brakes had a different feel from each other, with a lot of lever travel between the bite and eventual maximum pull.

This also contributed towards a bit of difficulty getting both levers’ bite point and lever reach set equally to my preference. As such, once hoses have been cut I would recommend a full bleed.

I also feel that the finish on some aspects of the lever build could be improved. The lever reach and bite point adjust dials are both fairly sharp, and a colleague of mine found similar with the edges of the lever blade dimples.

Once fitted and bled, the brakes deliver Hope’s customary feel with noticeably more power than the Tech 3 V4 brake.

The green Racing Compound pads bed in quickly, and offer a moderately powerful early bite. It’s not unpleasantly grabby, but is more immediate than previous Hope brakes in my experience.

The lever pull is smooth, and lighter in feel than previously, too. This makes scrubbing speed nice and easy on the trail.

After the initial power is applied, there’s quite a bit of lever travel required to get to the upper echelons of the brake’s output.

I found the power delivery progressive and predictable, however a colleague noted the set he was riding didn’t display quite as much modulation as I encountered.

His set required the levers to be pulled quite hard before all the power was delivered, which he found tiring.

When you do pull all the way, there is plenty of stopping force on offer, though. This makes the brakes suitable for any gravity or electrically assisted riding in my view.

The new brakes are a marked improvement over the previous-generation Tech 3, with additional power largely thanks to the longer brake lever.

The feel won’t suit all riders (no brakes do), but I’d suggest if you’re a fan of Hope or Magura brakes’ feel, then you’ll get on well with these new stoppers.

Though beautifully finished, I have questions over the finer details, such as the sharp edges. In addition, to get the best out of the brakes, I recommend a full bleed.

This year, our expert reviewers have tested a selection of the best mountain bike brakes, split into two broad genres.

First, there’s a selection of the most powerful stoppers, aimed at downhill, enduro and electric mountain bike riders. We’ve kitted these brakes out with 200mm rotors front and rear to get the most out of their four-piston calipers and tested them on an e-MTB and our enduro bikes.

The second cohort is targeted at cross-country and downcountry riders, who still need plenty of stopping power without upsetting the scales. These two- and four-piston brakes grab onto 180mm and 160mm rotors in our testing, fitted to our downcountry test rig.

Before hitting the trail, we gave each brake a full going over in our workshop. Hoses were cut to get the brakes fitting neatly and to check out how easily they’re bled at home. We weighed and measured them, making sure no detail was missed.

We lined our levers up against SRAM and Shimano shifters to see which play nicely and weighed up the balance of cost and spec in order to reach our conclusions.

Senior technical editor

Tom Marvin is a technical editor at BikeRadar.com and MBUK magazine. He has a particular focus on mountain bikes, but spends plenty of time on gravel bikes, too. Tom has written for BikeRadar, MBUK and Cycling Plus, and was previously technical editor of What Mountain Bike magazine. He is also a regular presenter on BikeRadar’s YouTube channel and the BikeRadar podcast. With more than twenty years of mountain biking experience, and nearly a decade of testing mountain and gravel bikes, Tom has ridden and tested thousands of bikes and products, from super-light XC race bikes through to the most powerful brakes on the market. Outside of testing bikes, Tom competes in a wide range of mountain bike races, from multi-day enduros through to 24-hour races in the depths of the Scottish winter – pushing bikes, components and his legs to their limits. He’s also worked out that shaving your legs saves 8 watts, while testing aerodynamics in a wind tunnel. When not riding he can be found at the climbing wall, in his garden or cooking up culinary delights.