The Quadiem SL brakes may look good, but price wise they are at the premium end of the market at just shy of £200 each end including rotors. With this in mind, we thought we’d first take a look at the TRP SlateT4, a more realistic option for the bulk of riders and designed (they say) for most riding from trail through to full on DH.

The Slate is a good looking brake, a touch sleeker in the lever design than the heavier duty Quadiem brake. A short, well shaped lever blade has a textured surface for grip and is reach adjustable as with most modern brakes. The lever clamp is a single bolt and hinged, making fitting and removal easy and is compatible with ‘I-Spec’ Shimano gear shifters. This single clamp for gears and brakes cleans up the bars without the need to buy additional brackets and drops the weight by a fraction. A nice touch.

The caliper is a four pot design (there is a two piston Slate X2 brake available) and runs on mineral oil as with Shimano hydraulic discs. The pads are semi-metallic and load from the top, making those last minute maintenance jobs a whole lot easier. TRP have made space in the caliper body for finned pads if additional cooling is needed. The hoses have ‘banjo’ fittings, allowing these calipers to be mounted in awkward positions or when routing is from an unusual angle.