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Your cart is empty.Updated, refined, and ready to dominate smooth ribbons of singletrack, Shimano's XT BR-M8100 Disc Brakes hit the trail once again with their lightweight, sleek aesthetics, and unbeatable stopping power. While a lot of the composition of the brake stays true to its predecessor, the 8000-series brake, like its two-piston design, integrated master cylinder, and clean black aesthetic, features a redesigned brake lever based on the XTR 9100 series that's optimized for refined ergonomics, allowing you to test the limits with confidence and control. And along with this improved bracing angle, its new mounting design pairs up with I-Spec EV to save you space in the cockpit, so you've got plenty of room for dropper posts, remote lockouts, and accessories. The new XT 8100 brake lever packs in 10% more stiffness than the 8000-series, even under high temperature, this translates to quicker brake engagement, while the new mounting position makes for shorter free stroke. Its new mounting position moves the clamp more inboard, which ads an extra contact point between the bar and lever. What this translates to is a drastic increase in efficiency and control over the bike, without limiting brake engagement. Additionally, the lever stays the same over all of the 8100-series brakes, so you can maintain identical cockpit comfort from your rowdy enduro whip to your cross-country race machine.
Kindle Kustomer
Reviewed in the United States on March 16, 2025
Excellent brakes for refreshing an older mtb frame. Very easy to install and the Shimano quality speaks for itself. Brakes modulate easily and are very predictable. Great bang for your buck, you can spend a lot more, but for the 90% of riders out there these XT brakes are excellent.
T. Chardis
Reviewed in the United States on April 2, 2023
Shimano has been making hydraulic disc brake calipers and levers for twenty years now, and you would think that by now, all flaws would have been ironed out, ... but you'd be wrong. The latest Shimano XT BR-M8100 hydraulic levers are certainly decent but still fail to correct a major flaw, ... bite point adjustment.Most middle to higher-end levers offer some means to dial in the pads of the caliper closer or further from the rotor. This is called bite point adjustment, ... and it is something that Shimano hydraulic levers do not actually offer (but buyers often mistakenly believe they do). Let me explain, ... Shimano offers a gimmick called Servo-wave, which is actually a method for increasing the leverage ratio of a short stubby lever to be equal to the power and leverage of a longer lever. Buyers mistakenly believe that Servo-wave is a method for adjusting the pads closer or further from the rotor which it is not. Servo-wave is also adjusted by use of a small Phillips screw that many multi-tools don't even have, and even when adjusted correctly, Servo-wave does very little. It is a gimmicky feature that is poorly implemented.As a result, the Shimano XT BR-M8100 lever cannot be used to set the caliper pads closer or further from the rotor. The levers do feature reach adjust though, which is nice and works well. This makes it easy if you are setting up the brakes for a person with smaller hands (say, someone like Trump).Another thing I dislike about the Shimano M8100 lever is that it is impossible for you to ever get a tight engagement feel like one could with V-brakes twenty years ago. The reason behind this is that the mineral oil that Shimano uses (or the DOT fluid used by SRAM) is compressible. That means when you pull the lever, the first 30 to 40% of lever travel is simply compressing the oil before contact is even made between the pads and the rotor. This results in a lever (that in comparison to a nice V-brake lever) always feels mushy. That said, the problem is not isolated to the M8100 lever but to pretty much all hydraulic brake levers (Shimano or SRAM).I'm also not a big fan of every single component being anodized black all over. In response, I removed some parts from my levers and subjected them to a NaOH bath (sodium hydroxide) to remove the anodizing. I added in some custom titanium bolts and repainted a few parts to achieve the higher-end appearance I was looking for.Negatives aside, I can say that the levers are fairly tough and have worked well for me for over three years on my first bike. The levers are also reasonable in weight, coming in at 106.8 grams on my scale (for the lever only). And if you should break only the lever itself, you can order a new one for about $30 from Shimano (and spares are available).Also a tip for those at home doing their own bleeds, I recommend the (Daniel) Bernoulli suction/pressure method of using the syringe to first pull mineral oil into the syringe, and then push mineral oil through the entire system to pull/push any trapped air bubbles. In this respect, M8100 levers are about par for the course, ... not more difficult or easier than most other name brand levers.Overall, how good is the lever? In comparison to their price point, they are 4 out of 5 stars, but in comparison to other top levers (like Hope and TrickStuff) they are about 3 out of 5. YMMV.
Phoenix Munden
Reviewed in the United States on May 29, 2022
Had the deal that holds the mineral oil (the one that doesn’t unscrew) come off mid ride and make me lose complete power on steep DH. Almost died. Never buying a shimano brake set again. Terrible quality control, second time this has happened.
Engineer
Reviewed in the United States on September 4, 2020
Excellent feel & modulation. Like power breaks -- 1-finger brakes. Even better than the XT M8000 I replaced with this M8100.
Martin g.
Reviewed in the United States on September 23, 2020
Great stopping power with out locking out the wheels.
4life
Reviewed in the United States on June 7, 2020
4 stars due to Shimano packaging the olive into the brake. You have to dig it out and get brake fluid on your hands and it lets air into the brake. I'll never understand why they've done something so stupid. The brakes themselves are what you would expect from Shimano. I'm a fan of the new ispec ev.
Ontario Mom
Reviewed in the United States on May 19, 2020
Works like it says.
Joseph Scalia
Reviewed in the United States on October 14, 2019
These brakes are tops! Use the on all my bikes
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