Do you have to use their mounts and rotors? Any other experiences of them, do they work well with braided hoses, do they need them, can you get them etc?

Cheers!

They take 160 180 200 so easy to use other rotors and mounts no issue. Their rotors have been infallible for us on different bikes.

However, they’ve been a pest when you have to change the pads – normally demand a bleed. I have a shop so I don’t care. I swear by them – they’re the best brakes I’ve ever used. They’re so powerful I don’t know if you’ll need to make any changes out of the box.

Thanks for the reply!

Just to echo the Flyingfox’s comments, they are simply the best brakes I’ve ever used. They are the only brakes I’ve had that didn’t give me heat problems on long extended DH runs in Chamonix (where a DH run will last easily 15 minute) and I am pretty heavy also, so I’m working my brakes materially harder than a lot of people.

I’ve never tried to bleed them myself as the instructions say you need to have the lever pointing vertically upwards (at least on my versions as I think the newer ones may have solved that issue?) and you need a clamping system to do it that I don’t have (something like a seat post held in a work stand or vice etc.

I’ve used mine with Avid rotors in the past but they do work better with Formula’s own rotors. I think Formula rotors are slightly thinner than the Avid ones I had and The Ones have very little travel at the piston so with a thicker rotor there was much less clearance so unless your rotor is dead straight, they can rub incessantly.

I currently run the front with a non Formula 203mm postmount bracket and they work fine also.

One thing to be aware of. The metal on the post mount of the bracket is quite soft so make sure you use washers between it and the mounting bolts. I didn’t and I’ve work grooves in the metal which make it hard to set the brakes up without rubbing. I can get the caliper aligned but then when I torque the bolt up it pulls the caliper out of alignment.

They don’t really need braided hoses, and I would advocate trying different pads.

For what it’s worth, I had a set of the ’09 brakes, and they were cack. They seemed a real hit or miss brake, and there are numerous reports of the problems with them.

However, I took a gamble on the ’10 brakes with the new levers & they appear to have addressed all the problems of the earlier brakes, so fingers crossed.

Best brakes i’ve ever owened (and had Hope, Avid, Formula, Hayes) of varying types over 6 years

geetee1972, thats really intresting on the Rotor thickness, I’m running an Avid rotor on the front and have exactly the issue you describe, thanks for highlighting that. I can solve it now as its been bugging me for a while.

O, actually there not the BEST i’ve ever owned as I’ve just fitted R1’s and they are every bit as good as the Ones but lighter.

Just fitted a set of the 09s…I’m a heavy rider and these things can stop me on a dime….bolted them up straight out of the box no probs. Caliper alignment was a bit of a faff but now have them spot on after using 2 feeler guages….awesome brakes…worlds apart from my old hayes strokers… 8)

Thanks for the feedback folks. I think I need to start saving.

Any experiences with XT rotors? I’ve got two sets of wheels that I swap out depending on what I’m doing so don’t really want to have to replace 4 rotors as well.

running a set of Oros 24ks on other bike with XT C-lock rotors.. All works fine, not got the noise I have with the Avid rotors on R1s on T’other bike.