Hope XCR Pro X2 and E4 Brakes

Stated Weight:

XCR Pro X2: 199 grams
XCR Pro E4: n/a

MSRP:

XCR Pro X2: $253 / £200.00 / €250.00
XCR Pro E4: $285 / £225 / €285

Review Navigation: Specs // Intro // Design & Features // What We're Curious About // Bottom Line (For Now)

Intro

Hope has historically offered a bunch of options for mixing and matching their various brake calipers and levers in order to give folks options for dialing in the amount of power they need, the features they want, and saving weight when it makes sense. Now there’s a new option in the lineup — the XCR Pro lever with an E4 caliper — as well as an expanded list of color options for the whole XCR Pro lineup.

Design

Hope’s Tech 4 line of brakes — the X2, E4, and V4 — have been out for a couple of years now. They use the same fully-featured lever assembly, with tool-free reach and contact point adjusters, paired with your choice of an XC-oriented two-piston caliper (X2), a four-piston Trail / Enduro one (E4), or a bigger, more powerful Enduro / DH four-piston caliper (V4). We’ve been big fans of the Tech 4 V4 in particular; check out our Full Review and our conversation with Hope brake engineer Sam Gibbs for a whole lot more on those.

David Golay reviews the Hope XCR Pro Brakes for Blister — Hope XCR Pro Lever

For the more gram-conscious XC-oriented folks, Hope has the XCR Pro X2, which pairs the same two-piston X2 caliper as the Tech 4 X2 (again in both flat-mount and post-mount versions) with a lighter, more slimmed-down lever assembly. It’s a very different design from that of the Tech 4 lever. The XCR Pro X2 uses a radial master cylinder orientation (in contrast to the Tech 4’s orientation parallel to the bar), and the XCR lever forgoes the contact point adjuster entirely and makes the reach adjuster a tooled affair in the name of weight savings. A carbon fiber lever blade, bushing lever pivot (instead of bearings in the Tech 4), and titanium hardware help the cause there, too.

None of that is actually new — the current XCR Pro brakes have been around for a couple of years now, too. But Hope is now offering the XCR Pro lever paired with the four-piston E4 caliper, aimed at folks on Trail bikes who would rather save some weight and forgo all the bells and whistles of the Tech 4 lever. To go along with that, the whole XCR Pro brake line — both the X2 and E4 versions — is now available in Hope’s full array of color options (black, silver, red, blue, orange, and purple), instead of just black and silver as had previously been on offer.

So with those updates, Hope’s full mountain bike brake range is as follows:

XCR Pro X2: XCR Pro Lever + X2 Caliper
Tech 4 X2: Tech 4 Lever + X2 Caliper
XCR Pro E4: XCR Pro Lever + E4 Caliper
Tech 4 E4: Tech 4 Lever + E4 Caliper
Tech 4 V4: Tech 4 Lever + V4 Caliper

Hope says that the XCR Pro lever provides a bit less power than the Tech 4 one, given the same caliper at the other end, so it’ll be interesting to see how the XCR Pro E4 comes together on the trail. The E4 caliper has about 6% more piston area (and therefore hydraulic leverage) than the X2 one, and presumably somewhat improved heat management due to its added bulk, larger pads, etc. We’ll just need to start testing a set to find out — and will be doing just that very soon.

Some Questions / Things We’re Curious About

(1) Given the apparent overlap between the Tech 4 X2, XCR Pro E4, and Tech 4 E4, how should folks think about the tradeoffs between them, and who’s going to be best suited by which version?

(2) How does the feel of the XCR Pro lever compare to that of the Tech 4 one, and how much does the power differ between the XCR Pro E4 and the Tech 4 E4?

(3) And how does the XCR Pro E4 compare to the rest of the Trail-bike brakes out there?

Bottom Line (For Now)

Hope’s new color options on the XCR brakes are a nice touch for folks who want to add a splash of color to their XC / Trail bikes, but we’re most intrigued by the new XCR Pro E4 combo as an all-round Trail brake. We’ve got a set on the way for testing, so stay tuned for a full review later in the year.

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