2014 Shimano XT brakes not compatible with 2013 XT Shifter!

Not so long ago, I encountered a newbie question on one of the buy and sell group pages on facebook and I thought it was silly and I just ignored it and let others answer it (and it looked like everyone’s ignoring it.) The question was “compatible ba ang Shimano xt i-spec shifter sa new XT brakes?”

This morning I got a call from my brother who was frustrated because he just ordered from King’s a 2014 Shimano XT brake set and it won’t work with his Saint i-spec shifter! I was going to argue with him but he told me to go on-line and visit mtbr.com. Here’s the link to the thread http://forums.mtbr.com/shimano/xt-br...l#post10144132

My brother called up King’s and they don’t even know that the new brake levers won’t work with the previous i-spec shifters which gets me wondering as most had, what the hell was Shimano thinking?

Old XT Brakes - BL-M785
Old XT i-spec shifter - SL-M780-I
New XT Brakes - BL-M785-B
New XT i-spec shifter - SL-M780-B-I

If you’re going to upgrade to new brakes or i-spec shifter, watch out for the “B”! I’m not sure if bike shops are aware of this change that shimano made…

Back to my brother, I’m not sure yet what’s his planning on doing with his shifters, probably grind off the hook daw….