Thinking of a possible brake upgrade from my Hayes Stroker Ryde, and have been looking at both shimano's new XT and Formula's Oro K18 - does anyone have any plus or minus either way? The bike's a Cube hardtail BTW.
I'm a fan of the Oros... But if the price is reasonably equivalent then the XT's a much newer brake. The old M775 wasn't as good as an Oro K18 IMO but the new one should be a step up (the new SLX is on a pretty even footing with the Oro)
The only big non-performance difference is that with Formula you can buy the parts seperately, with Shimano you can't. my own experience of Shimano was that they weren't quite as reliable as they need to be, considering that servicing is awkward, but that was just one set.
not used shimano, but love my K18s. Had them 3+ years now a never needed a bleed and only 2 sets of pads
I've gone from K24's, ostensibly the same brake as the K18, to M785's and they are more powerful, have equally good modulation, and the levers don't rattle.
I had XTs went to K18s but switched to SLXs because the K18s were fairly unreliable and wanted fettling all too often e.g. back brake seized in the middle of nowhere in Northumberland. I had to unbolt it, knock it off and finish the ride on the front brake. Formulas work very well but too fragile for me.
The rose bikes xt brake thread is probably worth a look....
No experience of oros but i love my xt 785's.. super powerful but pads are 'tough' to find.. still rare enough to be talking point too