Magura MT7 Raceline Disc 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. 

One of the biggest confidence boosters on the bike can stem from the brakes. The more powerful your brakes are, the more confidence you can put into the bike. The Magura MT7s are known for having great power and modulation. Our friend, Tom, has been running the brakes. See what they think! 

Overview

I have had the Magura MT7 Racelines now for about a month. I previously had Sram G2 RS brakes, for comparison. I Installed them on an Evil Offering v2 that I have been riding for 1.5 years.

Pros: Lever design – the bend on the levers is very user-friendly, especially for using 1 or 2 fingers on the lever.

Lever pull feel – extremely smooth pull all the way through engagement, never sticky or stiff.

Bleed/Installation – I have bled Avid/Sram brakes before and it was a nightmare compared to these. If you follow the installation videos and the guide they provide with the brakes, it was a breeze. Make sure you have a Magura bleed kit and rubbing alcohol for clean up. Helps if you have a bike stand and a second person.

Color – stands out against most bike frames and adds some life to any build, especially a black one (biased, I know).

Cons

· Stock pads – If you’re buying 4 piston brakes at $300 a piece that is marketed to have award-winning braking performance, they HAVE to come with sintered/race pads. Not being able to achieve maximum stopping power without ordering a new set of pads (front and rear retail at $108.36 total) was very disappointing.

· Spacer Guide - Might just be me but I found this spacer guide provided by Magura to be very difficult to understand. It should be easier to find the most common spacers (ie. 180-203, 180-220).

· Handlebar clamp – I really like the current design with the yellow front piece and Magura logo, but I think an opportunity exists to make the handlebar clamp separate from the entire lever. This could give you a chance if you smash your brake, you could only break the handlebar clamp and not the entire brake assembly (more like Sram does with the Matchmaker).

Performance – When I installed the Magura MT7 Racelines, I rode with the stock Performance pads for 8-10 rides. It is important to follow Magura’s instructions that you need to bed in the brakes/pads. Magura suggests you go on a flat surface or downhill and get up to 30kpm (18.6mph), then pull the brakes easily to come to a stop, 30 TIMES (not kidding). I actually found this was not enough, it took about 2 rides for them to not feel like they weren’t still improving in bite force. Even once they were fully bedded in, the braking performance, especially on steep sections, left a lot to be desired. Once I installed the Race pads, this improved drastically, and could actually get the tires to lock on steep sections downhill, which was not the case with the Performance pads, and is necessary for good riders.

Final Thoughts

Overall, these brakes are awesome, but come with a crazy high price tag. If you’re not set on the yellow, you should definitely check out the Magura MT7 Pros that are the exact same brake in black and come with customizable caliper disc colors. They can be found for $240. Loving these brakes more and more as the pads get bed in and I get used to their bite point and modulation.