The MT7 Next boasts serious stop with its beefy, four-piston caliper, featuring four independent pads. Most four-piston calipers use two long pads to cover both pistons, but Magura claims that four pads increase modulation and heat management. A lightweight, fip-fop composite lever body and long, two-fnger blade tie it all together.
Once the pads are bedded in–which took roughly 40 hard stops–the power is phenomenal, and power management is tip-top despite those massive calipers. It’s a bit deceiving because even though these brakes pack a ton of muscle, it requires a touch more fnger strength to squeeze the stops out of them. This is called modulation, and it’s awesome. For ft, the reach on the levers is quite long. Even when moved all the way in, they were barely close enough to the bar for my stumpy digits. Overall, they seem to be suited to riders with larger hands. I did like the length of the lever blade, though, because it allowed me to space the lever inboard on the bar far enough to position the shifter and dropper lever.
If you’re a mechanic, the fnicky setup makes these brakes diffcult to love off the bat. The mounting hardware supplied with the adapters allowed the caliper to migrate when tightening, making it nearly impossible to adjust out rotor rub. Switching to Shimano mounting brackets and hardware easily solved this problem. In addition, the hose had a tendency to want to rotate when compressing the olive after trimming lines to length.
Once setup is out of the way, you’ll be rewarded with a solid stopper, though it can’t claim the same level of adjustment as other systems.
PRICE 310$ (per side, without rotor)
