I’ve run some Formula Oro K24s on the bike for for at least the last five years and they have been the dogs bollocks.

Little maintenance, powerful, really progressive and although the pads are a little small and wear out a bit quick, I can’t fault them.

My head had been turned a bit by the new Shimano range, SLX in particular. I’m wondering if any of you have jumped ship from any older models of brakes to the new ones and have noticed big performance gains. If there’s minimal gains to be had, I’ll, probably just keep em.

What you think?

Any old Avid (except maybe Code) at all to the new Trail / Guide. Massive difference.

Everyone who has a dig at Avid (and that’s most keyboard warriors on forums 😉 ), would be very surprised by the Trail / Guide brakes. They are not Elixirs (or god forbid Juicys). They are basically updated Code brakes in a lighter format for trail use, so 4 pot vs 2 (loads of power), and the internals have been updated supposedly to address the age old bleeding issues. I fitted my X0 Trails, shortened the hose and committed the sin of not bleeding them, and they are perfect. Gone is the spongy feel also, though there is still a little flex in the lever which I’ve always preferred to the sharp slam on that some brakes have. They are powerful enough that it caught me out and got me an OTB with broken fingers 😀

My 05 Deores are as good as any mid range brakes I’ve test ridden at (lbs) work.

Any old Avid (except maybe Code) at all to the new Trail / Guide. Massive difference.

Yeah, but he’s not talking about any old Avid, he’s talking about a very nice set of Formulas. Personally I “upgraded” from B4s to R1s, mainly because the B4s were starting to get a bit worn and needing maintenance. To be honest there’s little real performance benefit (I’ve also now resurrected one of the B4s for use on the uni, and it works just fine on that). Those Oros of yours probably get most of the marginal gain of the R1 over the B4. Formula make great (and very underrated) brakes.

I’ve had the K24s in the past and the latest SLX/XT are better IMO.

What’s better about them Reggiegasket?

Having had Oro 24sin the past I would recommend staying with them until they start to cause problems or become high maintenance as they’re great brakes. Shimano brakes are good. They’re reliable, easy to bleed and have good performance but I preferred the levers on the Oros

I have a four year old set of Formula The Ones on my HT, and a new set of XT’s on the FS. The Formulas are every bit as good. I was expecting the XT to blow me away, with the reviews they get, but hey ho.

i love my shimano brakes. xt on the bandit and zee on the bottlerocket. awesome brakes

I went from K24s to slx and noticed a bit more power, better pad life but less modulation.

The seals all went on my k24s and I fancied a change, otherwise I’d still be happily running K24s now

Just got some new shimano brakes, xt and deore, power wise they piss all over previous brakes (older shimano and hope) modulation not sure yet, certainly feel nice and squidgy, haven’t ridden them on steep slow speed nadgery stuff, where modulation is more important than outright power.

I upgraded my Deore brakes when I changed fork on my bike – the mount was different and it was that or play around with adapters etc. Despite over 5 years of development I can’t really tell the difference. I wouldn’t bother upgrading TBH.

I had Hope C2 originally and went through Elixir R (iirc) to Oro K24 and now XT 785.

The Oro was a good brake when new but was forever rubbing and sqealing on my bike. Modulation was good but ultimate power always felt a bit lacking.

Maybe I was tainted by the original on/off nature of the C2, but for me the latest Shimano offerings are much better than K24. A fair bit more powerful and never rub or put a foot wrong.

I had a similar question a few weeks back and ended up getting some Hope Tech 3 X2 with 183mm floating saw rotors. I thought my formulas had good modulation but the Hopes take this up another notch. Very progressive, powerful and ooze engineering quality.

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/which-new-disc-brakes-shimano-xt-vs-hope-tech-3

I have a four year old set of Formula The Ones on my HT, and a new set of XT’s on the FS. The Formulas are every bit as good.

They’re better if memory serves (my Ones from that vintage were nicked, sadly).

New Shimano SLX, XT etc have way more power than the OPs k24s though.

I thought my new SLX lacked modulation on my 26in bike, just put them on a 29er and they seem much better. So maybe smaller rotors on 26 would have felt nicer.

Brakes are components and only need to be replaced when they don’t work any more.

FWIW The new SLX’s are great, I replaced a pair of Hope’s where I’d split both calipers. Within a month I’d had to buy a new master cylinder for the rear as I ran into a tree and snapped the clamp.

Personally I think you would notice a big difference. The current Shimano (I’ve just got a second set of Deore’s) are ace and far better then any comparable set from 5+ years ago that I’ve had/tried. At the price you can get them for they blow everything else out of the water. I’d like Hope but can’t justify the extra cost.

I went fom Oros to new Hopes. Bit more power, slightly more ‘solid’ feeling, but really I couldn’t say they were ‘worth’ it.

Oros are still good brakes- ancient design but they got it very right. As long as they’re working, the only reason to change them is if they’re doing something you don’t like- ie feel or wear, but not performance. I just retired my last set to the commuter bike but they were in a downhill bike and an xc bike before that and good for all of it (flappy levers aside! and pad clearance was relatively tight so made them a little noisy in winter, but nothing that really mattered) Upgraded to The Ones which are better, but then they’re also better than everything else I’ve ever used 😉

Modern SLX do feel pretty different to the Oros… Depending on whether you like it or not, you might call it more powerful feeling or you might call it lacking in modulation compared to the Oros. They have the same useable power really as do all decent brakes but it comes in much stronger and with less lever travel. I dislike that myself, I like the gradual feeling of Formula and some Hopes etc, where the big power needs a bit more lever movement, to me it’s much better for fine control and traction. Was the same on my notorbike. But it’s entirely personal taste.

aracer – Member
Yeah, but he’s not talking about any old Avid, he’s talking about a very nice set of Formulas

True there’s a difference, though I’d argue old X0 to new X0 Trail or Guide is a similar example, but OP’s question was “I’m wondering if any of you have jumped ship from any older models of brakes to the new ones and have noticed big performance gains” 😉

In short, yes, I went from X0 to X0 Trail… huge difference.

OP’s question was “I’m wondering if any of you have jumped ship from any older models of brakes to the new ones and have noticed big performance gains”

So he asked the wrong question. Should have specified from a decent brake like an Oro, or specifically excluded Avids 😉