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OK folks, I've got up to £250 to spend on brakes for my new build, there are a few conditions that must be met, they are:
1 - Good power & feel
2 - Good reliability
3 - Decent pad wear
4 - Must be available to be at my door by Friday
5 - Absolute maximum of £250 complete for 180mm discs F&R, calipers, levers, hoses, Front post & Rear IS mounts.
6 - Brand new, no 2nd hand 'bargains'
7 - If you know of t'interweb bargains post the link.
Cheers
Go directly to CRC, buy Formula Oro K24s, £160 for exactly what you describe (join topcashback and get 4% cashback too). The Formula store is a little cheaper but might take a little too long for you.
Are those there K24's good brakes, as in are they as good as the RX's they have on offer?
I've never used RXs so can't compare but I got a set of K24s when I built the Hemlock, a month later another set replaced my XTs. And then I got a set of k18s for the rigid 
Not cutting edge but very good, don't really have much of a bad word to say about them.
SLX are good and nice prices around (CRC have them on the wrong way round levers but easy sorted)
Have a look on Merlin cycles, xtr for 200 including rotors plus lots of others
Thanks guys, to be fair this is most confusing!
£250 a reasonable budget? NO need to spend more than half that IMO, I got a set of BB5s w/cables and levers for £45 on ebay last week.
The XTR at Merlin only comes with 160mm centrelock rotors, so possibly not ideal- and I think they're IS so more limited fitting choices than PM with adaptors. Which is why they're cheap I guess!
i feel i should draw everyones attention to the fact that only Hope are considered truly good quality and that there is never a problem sourcing spares for the occasional rebuild.
For a combination of performance, feel, reliability, servicability and price the Hope Tech X2's have to be the best, but front and back including rotors and adaptors come out at £300 on Merlin. You might be able to haggle as you are buying a pair
"For a combination of performance, feel, reliability, servicability and price the Hope Tech X2's have to be the best"
Or, not. Good brakes but at too high a price to be a clear winner.
Whats the difference between Avid Elixir 5's and Elixir R?
Answered my own question 😀
Elixir R's Tool free adjustment & 375g's for 160mm set up £159 F&R
Elixir 5's No tool free adjustment & 392g's for a 160 set up £145 F&R
So is the tool free reach adjustment really worth £14 ❓
Probably not. Depends if you think you'll use it 😉 I'm biased obviously but I wouldn't take Elixirs over the Formulas.
But with the Formulas being older generation brakes are there any issues with spares etc
I was looking at formulas today, not sure what model (RX probably) but one of them will be replacing the SLXs I have.
steve_b77 - Member
"But with the Formulas being older generation brakes are there any issues with spares etc"
Nope, and looking back Formula still sell spares for brakes that have been out of production for some time (frinstance you can buy The Oro was a popular OEM brake so there's a lot of them out there. Obviously I can't say for sure, maybe tomorrow UK Bike Store and Formula will throw all their old spares in the bin but I'm not worried.
Magura Louise;
[url= http://www.noahsark.co.uk/magura-louise-bat-2009-p-2810.html ]http://www.noahsark.co.uk/magura-louise-bat-2009-p-2810.html[/url]
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great brakes, I run two sets and have had no problems with either.