Magura HC LO C BRUNI Brake Lever Blade [Rider Review]

Our "Rider Review" article series features the honest reviews from verified purchasers of Worldwide Cyclery. They contain the photos, thoughts, feedback & overall review you are looking for. 

If you are looking to take your Magura brakes to the next level, adding a custom lever blade is a great place to start. In this review, our customer was looking to get the perfect blade feel and went with the Magura HC LO Bruni brake lever set. Check out what he had to say!

Overview

I had a set of Magura MT8 XC brakes that have worked really well for the past several years. They were sort of a gift, and came with the standard, aka 2-finger carbon, levers. Changing from a SRAM gripshift style shifter to a more standard trigger-style shifter introduced the age-old conundrum; to put the brake clamp on the inboard or outboard side of the shifter clamp. What should be a pretty standard spec in bike builds, turns out to be more of a preference for where you want your fingers to contact the lever blade.

I never felt like I was contacting the lever blade in the sweet spot, as dorky as that may sound. I see many builds out there where the standard brake has defaulted to a 1-finger lever blade. I’ve used Magura for many years, starting with the Marta SL, and I don’t even remember at what point they even introduced a 1-finger option. Currently, it seems to be a ubiquitous in the Magura line. Racking my bike next to my wife’s rig in garage, reminded me of this fact, as she runs the workhorse Shimano XT brakes, that simply came with the 1-finger lever without asking.

A little trip to the Magura site, demonstrated that this could be an option for me, as a retrofit for several of their 1-finger options. Being a certified weight weenie, my first inclination was to go for the 1-finger carbon lever that would be the most like the levers that I currently ran in the 2-finger set-up. The economic reality slapped some sense into me though, especially since Magura seemed to have an option that was nicely centered in the middle of their range. Enter the HC Loic Bruni lever.

First Impressions

A little research into this product sealed the deal for me. I liked what I read. They had done many iterations of this lever blade, in many different locales to hone in on what Bruni was trying to get at. In the end, they made the final product out of a metal matrix on a 3-D printer; another nod to some forward thinking, and ease of manufacturing. Think, what CNC did for product design/evolution in the 90’s.
Now I’m no downhill pro by any stretch of the imagination, but you don’t have to be to simply enjoy the same feedback that Bruni has in this signature lever blade. I’m a XC racer through and through, which loosely translates to me hiking up my skirt on anything too sketchy, and just picking my way down. That said, what we’re mostly talking about here is how the lever feels in action.

The lever blade has a nice, positive feel to it, and the blade width is just a tad wider that what I had swapped out.

The length is perfect for me, and I am now easily finding that sweet spot for finger contact. And as it turns out, each lever is only ~5gms heavier than the stock, carbon 2-finger levers, even as a metal matrix, which in turn gives the lever a rock-solid feel in the hand, with no discernable flex.

Final Thoughts

This was hands down, one of the nicer upgrades I’ve made to my contact points in years, and installation was very straightforward. Magura seems to have two different 1-finger lever blade profiles to choose from; their own profile design, and this Loic Bruni model. I can firmly recommend this version, if it happens to match your riding style or preferences.