Pretty much decided between these 2 sets of brakes for my Prophet. But how does each of them feel in use – spongy, good modulation, hard bite, etc.? Any issues with fade (like in the Alps and ting)?

shite 😡

Well, I was told that there is only the bite adjustment between K18s and K24s.

I am just about to swap out my K18s for Elixir CRs.

HTH

get the excaliburs

Hopes

Good reply Chunky… ?

Used k18s for nearly 2 years. Can be a bit fiddly to bleed but never had an issue with heat build up. The feel superb and theres plenty of power even with a 160mm rotor up front. There is bite adjustment on the k24's but you can buy that and retrofit it to the k18s if you so wish. I find the lever VERY confortable to use too.

No experience with Elixirs but woudln't think twice about buying Formula if I was upgrading.

formula r1 or rx, or shimano xt 🙂

Hmm, your experience is different to mine. Had mine for just over a year and have never felt totally confident with them. The biting point seems to be all over the place, handles go into the bars and then are ok. Had many bleeds but still the problems persist. They are going onto my singlespeed in favour of the elixirs on the other bike.

Struggle to find bad reviews of the Elixirs.

Chunky – sorry to offend your Hope sensibilities! 🙂

Scott, you didn't lose the TINY O ring from the caliper end when you bled them?

They are fiddly to do, but once you have the knack they're not too bad.

8)

neither, shimano hope or magura are the best

Yawn.

That's not the question. But thanks for your input.

Formulas are OK. Had bad experiences with "Aviod". So I do.

I have just changed from K24 to Hope M4 on my DH bike. Just felt like a change had no problems with the K24's, they were great,no fading issues to really speak of, but then that depends on how much you use your brakes.

Using Elixir CR's – not in alpine conditions though….
Now that I have sorted my cack-handed bleeding out (after shortening hoses), I think they are great (running SSC pads as well 😉 – even better stopperage than the originals, which died on one wet, gritty ride..)

This comes from me – a man who swore off avid after persistent issues with J7's and sticking pistons.
Only to go for the CR's on a previous Wiggle OE offer – after lots of checking reviews and balancing the fact i'd already go bought the avid bleed kit for the J7's…

Having just made the change from K24s to Elixers I wouldn't go back. I've not had them long enough to judge servicing etc but the most noticeable improvement is in lever feel. K24s always felt slightly flexy throughout the lever & body to me whereas the Elixers feel much stiffer for little, if any weight increase.

Neither are a patch on my X2s on my other bike though…

ok well avoids work grat untill they stop working. then they are a heap of work to get back to mint working order. the master cylinders tend to scratch internally and the seal on the calipers dry up pretty quick. i have seen some ammount of buggered ones. and unless you like rebuilding breaks i would avoid. also once they get hot the modulation is poor.

the oros sure break well. but they suffer from other problems. after a while they will need a bleed. when you open them up the first think to shoot out is something that looks like mans milk! then the old dot comes out and i have never seen so much crud and crap come out of a break. i spoke to formula and the white stuff is the lube they use on the seals and the bits in the dot are from the wearing internals! the ones i was working on were only 6 months old. the seals looked like they were going on the calipers and even with new ones the pistons wouldnt sit right and would make the pads taper in at the top of the disk. so they wouldnt stop rubbing!

so in response to the yawn i got. neither bowled me over they both have heaps of power but if i was going to invest in a break at the moment i would look at the shimano saint or the hope m4.

I've been really impressed by my K24s, they don't quite have the feel of my XTs but they ace them on power, and it's not like the XTs have any lack there. Superb match for a big trail bike IMO. Finish isn't great though.

I had K24s and couldn't get on with them. The bite point was all wrong, the lever feel was wrong and they never did have all the power I wanted from them. That may not mean that they are bad brakes, just not the brake I wanted!

Got Elixir 5s on my hardtail and I think they are wonderful! Good lever feel, plenty of power and lok good too!

I've had K24's for about 3 years now. Prior to that I ran original Shimano Saints and a variety of hope M4's and mini's going back to Hope C2's.

The k24's were one of the lighter trail brakes on the market at the time and I had found the Saints wanting in the heat and power department (being 14.5st). With a 200mm rotor the k24s are powerful enough, acceptably light and are very good with heat. They're quite finicky on the bleeding front and as joemetcalfm says, whenever I bleed them, the fluid is always filthy. It doesn't seem to affect their performance though.

There's considerable lever travel prior to pad bite, and even at maximum application, they feel much less solid than any other brake I've used.

This seems to be something you either love or hate. Being a long time hope user, it took me some getting used to, but its fine.

joemetcalf – sorry for the yawn. Your second reply explains fully why you said what you did, so thanks. Might have been useful in the first place though! 😀

I have sets of Formula Oro K18, K24 and Elixir R. I run all with sinterized pads on 160mm rotors. The elixirs have a closer and firmer bite point and prob have the edge on ultimate power. The k18 and K24 feel the same as each other, with a slightly softer bite, plenty of power but the bite point does wander as the pads wear which doesn't occur on the elixir. They are very similar to bleed using a 2 syringe technique, and pads are easy to change from above. The lever reach adjuster makes more difference than any other adjustment for the bite point on the oros IMHO.

Pads back off easily and have plenty of clearance on the oros so dragging discs are uncommon in my experience. OEM pads are expensive for both brake makes, as are the little E clips if you loose those when they spring off.

Pretty easy brakes to live with in comparison to my previous Hope mono minis but neither look as nice