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Anybody running these? £150 at Merlin looks like a bargain to me. What's the bleeding procedure like?
Any advice much appreciated
Alex
Yes! I've used them from new for about a year and a half, front and rear, and honestly have no complaints. They're progressive, with impressive stopping power, and the pads aren't too tricky to fit. I'll be honest, though - I haven't bled them yet, but as I understand it they're very similar to Avid Juicys in the bleeding procedure.
Great, great, great....
Bleed a little fiddly as they use a microscopic o-ring that is easy to lose, but as long as you are watching for it the procedure isn't too bad.
First real fit and forget brakes I have had in a while.....
Not many people will have bad things to say about the current Formula brakes.
Brilliant brake.
I have 3 sets (3 bikes)
Doddle to bleed with the right bleed kit.
get em bought!!!!
I've got a problem with mine
Last day of my Wales end to end (Sarn Helen) I was working like a dog with a massively high heart rate but not getting far.
The front brake was sticking on again, It was a problem I thought I'd fixed the week before. Some trail side bodging resulted in one piston popping out completely and some brake fluid spillage.
I ended up doing the last 30 miles without a front brake (loads of air in the sytem now). The bike is in the shop waiting for a bleed to be performed.
The piston on the front brake jamming in the out position has been a bit of a reoccuring nightmare.
Mine have been seriously reliable. Lever feel is spongy, but there is oodles of power and bucket loads of modulation. Terrific little brakes for the money. I've only hasd to bleed mine in trimming/routing hoses, and they are significantly more of a faff to bleed than my hopes, where you basically just scrunch the lever wile topping the reservoir up. But its easy enough once you've got the knack.
Mine have been relaible enough not to need touching, no problems with sticky or errant pistons with mine. Some people have had problems with an o ring in the lever piston causing a sticky lever, but that seems to have been sorted for the newer production models and was sorted by the importer promptly.
Never had any problems with mine. Bled them as a precautionary measure before a big trip, and it was easy enough with the Formula bleed kit.
Good brakes, and I prefer them to the Avid Ultimates I have on the other bike.
d@mmit - it's taken me 6 hours to remember what I meant to say, which is that for the Merlin deal, check what length the hoses are. There has been an issue in the past that they're OEM or grey import, and so come with 10cm less hose length than 'official' (full-price) ones. I think.
Aye, my front hose was too short to run unmodified on long travel forks, but I was bumping them up to a 180mm front rotor anyway, so a hose change was only a small additional hassle. For the money its still blinding value.
Changed from juicy 5's to Formula ORO K18's recently on a new bike, no discernable differnece in performance etc, which is a good thing because I thought the Juicy's were ace.