It's so awesome this video took off the way it did! I got a lot of great questions and points out of the comment section. So, let me address them:

"Did you bed in the brakes?" Yes. As I noted on screen at 1:23, I did it off camera to keep the video shorter. I did three laps down the hill off camera to bed things in. Some may feel this isn't enough, some may feel it's plenty. I felt this was enough to get the pads bedded in without having the testing take a week to complete.

"Did you use fresh rotors each time you changed the pads/brakes?" No. Due to COVID cleaning out supply of bike parts, and just the cost of having to buy three (or more) sets of rotors, I decided to reuse the same SLX rotors. Could this have affected the outcome? Maybe. Would it have been a meaningful change? Likely not. I couldn't find anything on the web that said it would matter after the pads bedded in. If someone wants to make a video testing this out, I'd encourage them to do so! It would be way more educational to everyone than a speculative comment thread.

"Hey! Higher-end rotors cool better!" Yes! Very much so! But that's difficult to test in a quantitative way in the real world. I would have had to find a massive hill and used the same braking force the whole way without locking the tires, hard to do reliably and would have greatly increased the time to do all the tests. I just decided to focus on what I could measure with the resources and time I had available. Also, this was aimed at people on a budget so $90-$120 (USD) for a set of rotors is pricey compared to the MT201 brake system. Unless you commute in a very hilly area or are really pushing the limits of what your bike can take on, you won't really see the benefits of more expensive rotors. If someone wants to make a video testing this out, I'd encourage them to do so!

"Why didn't you do more runs?" I would have loved to do more runs, but there is only so much time in the day after working a full-time job. Three runs were enough to get a good idea of if there was any noticeable change. As I said in the video, there's a ton of variables that go into this and it's impossible to control for them all. Human error doubly so.

"You used the wrong tires!" Yes, I would have gotten better traction with road tires. However, we weren't testing the grip of the tires. This test was only to test the brake system.

"I would have done the tests differently..." I fully encourage people to make their own videos doing similar brake tests! I'd be very interested to see what results other people get, and it would also help people appreciate how much work went into this video behind the scenes.

At the end of the day, this was mostly some fun backyard science just to get a good guess on what would be the best bang for buck. I leave the real science to the people with lab coats and a Phd.

I just cut my brakes off, all they do is slow you down.

I stop by putting my face on the ground. Never had a problem.

The amount of effort put into this video is just amazing.

hidraulic brakes also just feel very good to use, you only really need one finger on the brake levers to use its 100% capability, allowing for the rest of the fingers to be holding on the bar, something very useful for mountain biking.

What an awesome video. My girlfriend started mountain biking and I was battling to convince her to use more front brake on the descents. She would chow the rear pads and descend really slow and dangerously. After showing her how safe it is to use your front brake from this video when you only using front brake and the results of you not locking up or going over the bars really helped convince her to try out the correct way of using her brakes. She’s finally starting to improve and her confidence is gaining to too. Thanks for this.

I never had problems with stopping power with mechanical brakes, the main issue is they tire your hands way faster than good hydros.

That big oak tree at the bottom of the trail stopped me faster than any break setup I ever used.

Better rotors dissipate heat much better. They end up being able to withstand longer periods of stopping without the brakes “fading”.

Not going to question Davie504's face at 10:22 where you say "but a baseline is a bassline"

my MT200 upgrade has been the best upgrade, by far, on my ‘cheap’ bike. Totally changes the feel of the bike and my confidence going into turns or down unfamiliar terrain.

"But the baseline is baseline" then showed Davie504's face 🤣 hilarious 😂

Tip for colder climate cyclists: Mechanical brake lines can get water in them, which can freeze in the winter. my commuter CX bike has mechanical discs, and the rear brake line curves upwards to the caliper, meaning water travels down into the cable housing whenever it rains, and it never fully gets out. I tried greasing up the cable before putting it into the housing, and dropping oil based lube at the end of the brake housing, to try and dissuade water ingress, to no avail. if the line freezes, i usually have front brake only, but lock up your front wheel on a patch of ice and you're gonna have a bad time. if you need the stopping power, you can usually clamp hard enough to engage the rear brake, despite the ice, but then your back brake is frozen AND engaged. 30 seconds and some sore fingers, and you can sometimes yank the caliper open enough to carry on, or step into a building and it'll melt in a few mins, but it'll be frozen again after a few km. and Both shimano mineral oil and sram DOT fluid in hydraulic systems i believe are good down to -20, so if you have winter commuting on your list of to-dos, give mechanical groupsets a pass.

Best line ever "Just because you think you have enough reaction time, doesn't mean you do"

True words never spoken!

“That’s why it’s important to keep your head up”. -  cue that footage of that cyclist slamming into the back of a parked DeLorean.

I can't speak good enough about bigger rotors in my experience. I've upgraded from 180-160mm to 203-180mm when I bought a set of Magura MT5. I've had to RMA the lever from the front brake so I was left with using the old 2 piston budget Shimanos that came with the bike (M315). The bump from 180mm to 203mm rotors was extremely noticeable, the older Shimano brakes were obviously not as powerful as the MT5 but I was able to lift my back wheel without shifting my weight, something I couldn't do with the older 180mm rotor.

Changed from a budget chinese cable disc brake to entry level shimano mt200 hydraulics feels like a day and night difference

That moment when you look down and the front QR is open. :-O

I’m just happy my brakes aren’t rim ones

"Just because you think you have enough reaction time to avoid an accident doesn't mean you do." Words of wisdom :')