Avid elixir 5’s are on sale at Merlin for £134.00 for a set. I bought a set with 185 rotors for the new Kinesis xc pro3 and they’re the dogs kahunas! And I’ve just seen that they are doing an xt gear set for £129.95 plus 10 percent off. Bargain.

An alien concept to me but I was cleaning your bike tonight, on any mountain bike its normally chain off and stanchion wipe but tonight I spent ages with cotton wool ffs 😀

Nice one! Don’t be afraid to show it a duster and a bit of Mr Sheen while you’re at it 😀

Shimano XT Everytime. Made a bleed kit for £3.28 from ebay and there just simple, servo assist means you can warp a rotor and get away with it, setup is 2 seconds and you can even cut the hose, put a new olive in and put back together without bleeding, Soooo simple and effective

I warped a rotor- I can tell you not a chance. It punished me royally until I bought a new rotor.

I have bnever heard anyone complain of not enough power from Xts – are they actually working properly? Have you got decent pads in them?

Both my bikes have a Hope M4 (180) up front and a mini (160) on the back. They seem to just keep working regardless of conditions and sintered pads last an age. Easy single fingered braking and loads of adjustability with the new tech levers. The pads can be removed from the back of the caliper, i.e. leaving the wheel in place, and they’re also a doddle to bleed.

At least try some others pads than superstar?

While I very much like the cheapness and the sintered last in slop (and the standards last in the wet longer than some organics), neither beds in particularly quickly, provide bags of power, deal with heat amazingly well (especially the sintereds) or modulate all that well
I’ll continue to use them in winter and on the non best bikes but the above is steering me back toward better pads for the best bike tbh

And make sure they’re bled up properly, then you’ll know if its the brakes?

I’ve used Superstar pads for a few years- in my old-style Saints (basically normal Shimano callipers).

I only changed the old-style Saints as a LBS oil-change seemed to ‘change’/lessen them markedly.

Folk who know me will testify to my love of brakes. 8)

I used OEM pads and a batch of Goodridge before switching back to Superstars. The XT’s work, they are just the opposite of what I liked about the other Shimano I had for 5yrs. Maybe its the servo-wave/personal preference thing?

Hope V2. Quite easily the best brakes I’ve ever used. Power, bags of modulation, and utterly fade-free. I use to destroy everything else before I got these.

That said, I’m now a lot faster in the Alps and use my brakes a good deal less than I used to, so it isn’t an entirely fair comparison.

Hope V2 with 203 rotors on the AM bike and Avid Elixir 5 with 160/185 on the hardtail. What surprises and scares me is how close the Elixir’s are to the outrageous performance of the V2’s, and I like the Elixir lever feel 😕

I would rate the Elixirs higher if they didn’t rub and “chirp” quite so much – I can’t fault the braking performance but the set-up is a bit faffy.

I’ve had the Elixirs down a big mountain on the hardtail and they performed great, I’m tempted to bung them onto the AM bike and give them a real test. A move up to Elixer CR or new X0 could be on the cards for the AM if the 5’s pass the test. Then the V2’s can go back on the HUGE DH bike for which they were bought.

Chances of me finding the time to move things about and get these tests done…

Hmmmmmm

http://www.mtbr.com/cat/brakes/disc-brake-system/avid/elixirr/PRD_426161_1507crx.aspx

I have Hope V2’s and Formula The Ones, both offer stunning power but are pricey new. They have both been hassle free also.

If you liked your old Saints Mark, why not try and find another set (or the XTs which were the same). My XTs of that era are what, 4 or 5 years old maybe now. Never bled them, 203/180mm rotors and still stop better than any brake I’ve ever used. Had the Saint versions on my Cotic and they were spot on too.

Yes, theres more pretty brakes but for power and complete lack of any type of maintenance, these are doing me grandly 🙂

Agree- never did mine until I saw someones post and thought ‘hey its been 5yrs maybe mine should be done’ 😐

Saints on MTBR

At the risk of repeating myself, best brakes I’ve ever used

Only downside is price

Still have the servo-ware and this may be something I just don’t like the feel of though? i.e. the issue for me.

My Elixir 5s cost me £130 for fr and bk. Bargain, one year on and they are still doing the business – not had to bleed them yet.

Using the mtbr review system:

Sorted by top

http://www.mtbr.com/cat/brakes/disc-brake-system/PLS_1507_913crx.aspx

Then looking down for the highest number of reviews

Its K24’s…

http://www.mtbr.com/cat/brakes/disc-brake-system/formulabrakes/oro-k24/PRD_365397_1507crx.aspx

These beauts stick out though as well:
http://www.mtbr.com/cat/brakes/disc-brake-system/hope/mono6ti/PRD_363947_1507crx.aspx

http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/category/components/disc-brake-systems/product/mono-6-dhfreeride-10355

However bloody rare.

brettjackson
Both my bikes have a Hope M4 (180) up front and a mini (160) on the back. They seem to just keep working regardless of conditions and sintered pads last an age. Easy single fingered braking and loads of adjustability with the new tech levers. The pads can be removed from the back of the caliper, i.e. leaving the wheel in place, and they’re also a doddle to bleed.

Aye, couldn’t agree more ^

Bugga, I decided on the Formula K24’s but missed out on the accumulator as it ended last night 😳

unlucky. I got some nice elixir 5’s in white for £120 in the accumlulator. Pretty sure they will do it again within the next month or so if you can put up with your XT’s for a bit

Bregante – Are you not familiar with Hora’s purchasing habits. Within 2 weeks he’ll have decided (or the fairies in his head will, at least) that he doesn’t like the Formula’s, they’ll be on the classifieds, and he’ll be ordering something else

When it comes to attention spans, Hora makes the average goldfish look like a chess grandmaster

Can I have first dibs on the formula’s please Planet-head? 😉

I had my Saints for 5yrs though?

Its frames I go through not componentry!

Just frames then is it?

erm… one word… forks. How many pairs have you owned and rejected on the strength of what the voices in your head have said about them? Eh? Be honest!

How many bikes do you own? 😉

Go to Formula Store website, bargains aplenty.

I used OEM pads and a batch of Goodridge before switching back to Superstars. The XT’s work, they are just the opposite of what I liked about the other Shimano I had for 5yrs. Maybe its the servo-wave/personal preference thing?

The later levers are way more powerful, the earlier XT / Saints (same thing, different colour) were nowhere near as strong – the levers are the only real difference, the castings for the caliper are near identical, just with bleed screws and inlets reversed.

If you really need more power, just buy some of the new Saint four-pot calipers and use them with your existing XT levers. If you really think the old XT/Saint set-up was so great, I have several sets sitting here unused. Wanna buy a set? I can guarantee that they’re no way as strong as the more recent XTs 😉

Bwd markhoracekuk@yahoo.com

Newest set possible of the saints. I prefer the initial braking feel of the pre-servo. Just doesn’t fill me with confidence. Preference/psychology thing I guess

http://store.formula-brake.com/special_offers?page=1

To the Formula owners- any leaking/seal issues or trouble locating someone to service them?

My concern is they are selling direct to the public- is this a financial issue? I.e lack of spares down the line if they fold?

Don’t they have a UK distributor and why?

PSA Merlins Accumulator is back on!

Bought Formulas 😀

I seriously doubt Formula are somehow in trouble.

Silverfish are the new UK distributor for Formula.

The brakes Formula are selling off are just older model stock. ‘The Ones’ they are selling are 2009 now replaced by a 2010 version and the K18/24 were replaced by the RX in 2010 so again they are just selling off older stock.

Cool 😀