Magura MT7 Brakes [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.

When talking about brakes, it can get very personal. There are a lot of different preferences and each company offers different brake feel and power. Magura is a name that comes up when someone is looking for power, modulation and weight savings. Our customer Aaron has been running them. See what they think! 

 

Overview

While the MT6100's are very strong brakes and more than capable to stop me and my full fat EMTB quick enough to toss me like a salad over the bars, (and that happened a couple times) I bought these beauties and had my local bike shop install them, and they told me it would take a bit of time to get used to the difference between the MT7's and the Shimano's, but that I would love them once I got used to them. Wow, that was a sick run-on sentence!

So I of course did the 'right thing' and made sure my first ride was on some brand new steep & loose trails that I'd never ridden before! I was a little nervous but just expected that I would have to take it a little easy and keep my speeds down so I wouldnt get into trouble. What I was amazed by is that during my 2 hour ride, I didn't think about these being "new brakes" more than twice! The Shimano's have a definite "On/Off" feel to them without a lot of modulation, while the MT7's have a wonderfully sized modulation zone followed by a solid bite zone for when you want to lock them up! The braking feel is so natural that I had no problem conquering some steep loose trails that were steep enough for me to buzz my @$$ on the rear tire, where with the old Shimano's I prolly would have bailed from locking up too easy!

On top of that, the HC3 levers are head over heels better than the Shimano levers! Even after 300 miles on the Shimano's, I still didn't feel confident with 1 finger braking, whereas the MT7's felt comfortable with 1 finger on the first day! And the ability to fine tune the lever position and power ratio, is in part, responsible for that.

What you don't want to do is say "Meh, I'm fine, I can manage with what I got", and then have a brake related wipe out where you get injured. Chances are the injury will cost you more money than the new brakes would have, and keep you off the bike for longer than you want. And don't buy them from Amazon! Buy 'em here from the guys who answer your emails in 1 business day or less! After all, would you rather ride with, Jeff Bezos or Jarred? I'll take Jarred every day and six times on Sunday baby!

Final Thoughts

I really cannot say enough good about these brakes. Seriously, I'm more confident with the MT7's after 5 miles than 300 miles on the Shimano's. But hey, Magura did invent the first hydraulic bike brakes after all! The only negative would be that for some, the $300 per brake price is a bit steep. Sure I get it, but to that I would say, if you need or want a better more natural braking feel, these are worth it! If you've been OTB more than you'd like, due to braking issues, these are your new best friend! These brakes are worth saving up for. They're worth spending your tax return on. Or you can do what I did, snag 'em when Jeff puts 'em on sale!