Hi all,

I know there are lots of reviews of these brakes on the net but I wondered if the STW community could help me out with a few things…?

Basically I’m looking for more power than my Hope Mono Minis. All reviews of the R1 say they are ‘very powerful’… some add ‘considering their weight’. What can I realistically expect power-wise from a 180mm R1? Are they genuinely powerful, or powerful considering they weigh next to nothing? Where would they rank along side other brakes in people’s experience?

I have had a feel of the R1 brakes in my LBS and love the lever shape- there other things that are much harder to gauge however…

Other things I am expecting/ hoping for:
– Reasonably small lever travel (i.e. don’t pull too close to the bars as I like to run them close to the bars to start off with- dislike my Avid Juicy 5 for this)
– Very little dead level travel (i.e. when you pull the lever braking starts to happen- dislike my Hayes for their dead lever travel)
– Solid lever feel, no sponginess
– Consistent on long, steep, twisty descents in the wilds of South Wales (my Minis get so hot that the pads glaze over and lose all braking power)

Will I be happy with the R1’s with these expectations?

If power is a concern should I be looking at ‘The One’ brakes or are they overkill for mere mortals… are R1’s more than powerful for South Wales XC?

Finally, would I be a fool for buying R1’s instead of RX just for the sake of weight?

Sorry for the long post and many thanks in advance, DanW

What can I realistically expect power-wise from a 180mm R1?

About 12.

Whilst I haven’t tried the R1s, I have RXs and they are *soooo* much more powerful than any avid brakes i’ve used.
The levers rattle around a bit though 🙂

Where are you based? If you’re close to southampton, you’re welcome to try them out.

Thanks for the offer chojin, unfortunately I’m a bit far away in Cardiff. Brakes can be very much personal preference but I havn’t heard a bad word about them power-wise… I keep thinking there must be a catch (besides price of course!)

Not quite sure what you mean tree-magnet… very powerful… or just an off the wall comment?

Phew… that’s was long, I’ll keep mine short(ish). I’ve had R1’s for over a year and no major complaints, very light and responsive, the levers are super comfty, and even with one finger and lightest of touch the reaction is spot on. On the downside I did loose some lever bolts which wasn’t funny when I lost my back break flying down the south downs, I tried to get replacements but no response from the UK dist, which I believe as changed now so might be a different story. Not cheap though. I tested Avids but couldn’t get on the the levers. My mate swears by XT’s.

Lapierre put R1’s on the Zesty AM bike so perfect for Wales.

Got a Nomad that came with R1’s, I’m a lump at 18 stone & have been very suprised by there performance after M4’s on my last ride. Levers rattle though which gets on your tits a bit…………

Loving my The Ones. Pads are lasting well, feel is excellent, stopping power is superb, comfort of the lever is excellent. Weight is also good. They needed bleeding which was a faff but easy enough. Also, buy from here. Excellent service and cheaper than anywhere else I have seen.

+1 for R1s no issues in 18months worked perfectly

Seems like the positives keep on rolling in 😀

So my desires should be satisified then?
– Reasonably small lever travel
– Very little dead level travel
– Solid lever feel, no sponginess
– Consistent on long, steep, twisty descents
– More than enough power for Welsh XC adventures

Thanks to everyone for their input so far!

Also, anyone else bought from the link given by dans160 (NFcycling on ebay)? Again I can’t help thinking there must be a catch… 2 year guarantee honoured?

9 months on R1s, good power, no real problems so far other than the rear brake lever has recently started not returning very smoothly. Going to have take it to bits and have a look. Not a big issue though, just a little annoying. Haven’t bled them yet, just new pads and that’s it!

Had R1s on my race bike (160mm both ends) for 2 years. No problems at all, highly recomended. Power wise, much better than Marta SLs, Juicy Ultimates and XTRs which I’ve also tried.
Much nicer feel than the Avids and Maguras too, not quite as good as XTR. I’ve been using EBC Redstuff pads and these too are excellent, although I did wreck one set in an hour and half in the 24 hr at Newcastleton, but it was a horrible day, lots of wet mud.
My floating rotors are now floating a bit more than they did, so when I bought a set for the spare bike (price had dropped £100ish in the two years) I got some Hope rotors for them.

I’ve got RXs on my Mondraker. Original pads made of cheese and wore out in 6 rides but other than that mostly good. There’s a REALLY annoying rattle on road or smooth fireroads from the levers though.

Got R1’s and The Ones – prefer the feel of The Ones, and they are slightly easier to set up (although it’s a relative thing – neither are easy). The Ones are also more powerful by a reasonable margin. That said, I’m running the old style of The One levers whilst the current versions have the same levers as R1’s so maybe makes the difference less. The Ones weigh about the same as new XTR btw.

Got a set of R1X’s which are standard fayre on a few Lapierres, mix of the R1 lever and RX callipers.

Across the families three bikes we have a set of Formula K24’s, Avid Elixer CR’s and the Formulas R1X. All have Goodrich hoses so no unfair advantage.

In order of popularity

The R1’s have the most solid lever feel, very very little pull required. Have run with a 140 / 160 mix and been perfectly adequate on a 1×9, now on a heavier FSR so 160 / 160 combo. Downside the pads run very tight so can be a PITA to set up correctly. Bleeding very straight forward although its a tight fit with the Avid kit I have as the “knuckle” is tight against the lever body. Also the torque bolts are very VERY soft. Shortening kits are ridiculously expensive, hence the Goodrich hoses. Elegant design and Bling factor. Fit well with XT and LX changers. Warning they HATE avid rotors. Mine sang like a strangled cat until I swapped to formula rotors.

Next would be the avids, still solid enough but when you use them after the Formulas they do feel Spongier, but have less of an on / off approach. I tend to lock up less with them in a panic. So simple to set up, never had a drag issue with them. Weight penalty but never ever worried about them being damaged. Easy to adjust on the fly but to be honest … once any brake is set its a bit of a novelty from that point on. Bleeding can be a pain, lever needs to be bled separately to get best results. Few issues with fitting around LX shifters, but XT’s are fine. Defo the most comfortable lever of the three.

Third but only just is the K24’s Been dependable for 3 years now and kind of a mix of the best and worst of both brakes. Easy to set up, simple to bleed. Not the strongest brake and do get tired on longer rides if theres a lot of grabbing to be done. Easier to set up than the R1’s but beaten by the Avids.

Summarize, R1’s are very good, but I picked mine up new for £240’ish without rotors so that did make them more palatable. I’ve never ridden with the Avids and thought “the formulas are SOOOOO much better” so the price factor if an issue can help balance out the argument.

But then Im a whore for anodising, and figure if you’re going to buy something buy whats on top of the list for whatever reason else you’re always going to hanker after it until you do eventually cave in. And if it doesn’t live up to expectations at least you’ll lose little downgrading to option “B”.

I have the older style ‘Ones’. As mentioned above, they do take a while to set up perfectly. They also have more lever travel than most and pull a little closer to the bars. This could take a while for you to get used to (although it’s not actually ‘dead’ travel as it were). The levers rattle too and spares are a small fortune. However, the modulation and power is incredible for such a light brake – one inch piston and single piece caliper helps 🙂 I ain’t getting rid of them for anything.

If I had choice, don’t think would ever go back to Avids. I have formula RX’s, and preffer them over Elixir’s and Juicy’s. 1 year of use on my bike and no reliability issues at all, just change pads’n’go. The set up of those finally enabled me to 1-finger brake, so my world is changed.

I have RX’s and love them. They took a bit of time to bed in and it made me wonder what I hade done moving from Hope V2’s… but no regrets now and I am a Formula believer. I think the RX is better than my V2’s were!

I bought the RX’s as a possible stepping stone towards THE ONE or F1’s – I would have little doubt that F1’s with 180 discs are good enough for almost anything, and then you have the 205 discs and THE One’s.

If I can scrape together the funds I’ll be buying The Ones with 180 discs for my AM and F1’s with 160/180 for my hardtail.

dan i ride machen,wyllie,caerphilly etc and my RX’s are the best iv had. im a big lad and stop me fine, the rx’s have the same size caliper as the r1 at 22mm and the one’s have a 24 caliper. as for the pads they last really well considering the area we ride.

rx’s here too – upgraded from xt’s and what a difference!

if i could have afforded id have gone for r1’s, that said the lever feel on the rx’s is the best ive had, its completely solid without feeling on/off, its so smooth in its travel towards the bars, there is not an ounce of sponginess to them, the power is more powerful than xts and tech x2’s and they are just all round brilliant!

touch wood i have no problems with them, but they are definitely the brakes for me, and to boot they are by far the nicest looking ones too…

if only id saved a bit longer and gone for the r1’s, god knows what the power must be like on them!

buy them, get them bled and fitted by a shop if your not an expert and have them running great from day one, you wont be disappointed!

Well spotted cubemeup – same size calipers on the RX as to the R1 😮 R1 probably is all the brake mere mortals will ever need unless doing daft things in the Alps.

I’ve given my RX (203/180) a severe beasting in the two months they have been on. I had expected to be taking them off before racing the Macavalanche but saw no need to go back to the V2’s (203/203)… I’ve just sold the V2’s.

Summary – I’ve found my RX’s to be better than the Hope tech V2’s I ran before… and over 150g lighter at each end… considering F1’s are the same design and yet lighter again… I’d love some.

Time will tell if the Formula’s are as robust as the Hope’s, or if I miss the tech support I have enjoyed over the years… but I never found the Hope levers that comfy and struggled to get them in a position I was happy with… constanty fiddling with the adjustments but never being happy (my RX’s levers are spot on comfy)… and then I made the mistake of weighing the V2’s 🙄

I’m sounding like a “fan” or “salesman”… I’ll go and take a shower… I feel dirty 😐

I’ll be selling my “The ones” soon if anyone’s interested.

Er, why not look at the Hope Tech X2’s for a bit more power, or the M4’s if you want a lot more power. The lever shape is so much better than the Mono’s, and with the drilling is also much grippier. You’ve also got bite point adjust so can set that to zero for instant bite, and reach adjust to run them where you want.

I am very picky about how my levers feel and love the adjustability compared to my old Mono’s. The levers now have proper bushes so don’t rattle like the old ones. I regularly do 600-700m vertical descents in Scotland and use just one finger. If you want a bit of bling, you can get coloured levers, resevoir caps, piston caps and floating rotor centres

Another one here for RX’s which came stock with a Lapierre Spicy. Have since put them on a Fuel EX.

I’m a bigger rider nearing the 100kg end of the scale and with 180mm rotors front and rear they are definately more than powerful enough. Very happy with single finger braking (Avids in the past made me want to use all my fingers and possibly buy an additional anchor just in case!) They are certainly more powerful than the Oro K24’s I had in the past.

Haven’t gone anything harder than Welsh trail centress graded red so couldn’t vouch for proper downhill stuff.

I have never tried Hope brakes to compare.

Anyone know who distributes Formula in the UK now?

I’m pretty sure its Silverfish

Had 2010 RXs and 2009 Ones, the latter are considerably more powerful and better modulated.

Stunning brakes actually. Sometimes I laugh with giddiness at how powerful they are. But they’re controlled enough to get you out of trouble too.

Been reliable enough so far, touch wood. Relatively early days though.

Silverfish distribute them now.

I had ‘The ones’ on my Cube Stereo and all way through a muddy winter they were exemplary, when I sold it and bought a Rumblefish 29er I bought Hope M4’s to replace the elixir’s and they don’t hold a candle to the “the ones’, they’re good but the Formula are awesome, loads of stopping power, feel and easy to work with. SOme after market pads don’t work too well, I had some superstars pads that didn’t fit, too thick but a few strokes of a file and they’re in.

After 18 months I was thinking of getting mine serviced. Anyone any on line service centres like Mojo etc that do a complete service TLC?

Backhander I’m interested in your the one brakes.