Been thinking of getting some new brakes and, after trying the R1’s on my mates new bike, I decided on a nice pair of RO’s from Merlin at a great price.
I did think my Tech M4’s were pretty good but, oh my, the ROs are something else entirely.
I didn’t think mtb brakes could be that good..

Cue lots of people telling you that they’ll die in winter/parts are expensive/how much better a set of SLX are for 1/10th of the price 🙂

(i’ve got The Ones after back-to-back comparing them against a few sets of brakes on my bike, including Tech M4s which i’d used for years – I’m now a formula convert after avoiding them for years)

If they’re better than my The Ones then they are very good indeed.

got formula rx on 3 bikes best brakes ive ever used proper powerfull, feel is not as good as hope but overall power is incredable
never had a problem with them
ulitmate brakes for me would be formula power with hope feel

The RO do seem to have better modulation than my mate R1’s..not quite as good as the M4s but I can live with that for the power they have 🙂

I swapped my M4’s for The Ones and am very happy with the increased performance. So much so I want Formula on all my bikes.

Total formula convert here after trying ‘the ones’ I now have them on both bikes.

However just had my first issue after 3 years faultless use, when bleeding them (after shortening hoses on a new bike) brake fluid started leaking out of the piston. They are back at Silverfish for a service and repair – will see how that goes…

Anyone else used Silverfish repair / service?

I’ve been running Formula brakes for about 10 years. Upgraded the B4SLs on the bike to R1 (with blingy carbon levers) as I had the idea the B4s needed lots of work, but I did a fluid change on one and it’s now working fine on the uni. Very happy with the performance – much better than the Hopes I had before (though obviously those were very old tech), and the R1s don’t seem to have the maintenance issues (small flimsy parts) which the B4s suffered with – though to be honest I’ve not touched the R1s apart from changing the pads.

I guess they’re not more widely used because they’re a bit more expensive and harder to get hold of than the obvious alternatives? Suits us niche fans on here though 😉

😳 a delayed double post

R0’s are truly awesome. Used a pair on my 29er in Whistler and Alps using just 180mm and 160mm rotors with no fade whatsoever.

I’m a recent convert to the ones. They are fantastic! So much power and no fade on a recent uplift day. So good in fact that i have saved weight on my bike by dropping rotor size to 160 🙂

A mate rode my bike fitted with RX when his bike was getting fixed. He’s got Hope Tech X2s with the same size rotors.

He said he kept giving himself a fright as the RX had so much more power than the Hopes.

after almost three years with the Formula R1’s i finally changed, to Magura MT8.

Two things which annoyed me about the R1’s on my bike. Firstly the rather ‘on off’ feel, with little modulation and secondly the constant rubbing which was made worse by the slightest bit of dirt / mud or water.

So far, the MT8’s have none of these traits. Admittedly they are not as powerful, but power is nothing without control!