The Oro K18 offers exactly the same level of performance as the other Oro brakes, even if it lacks the free stroke adjuster and exotic materials. With rotating banjos at each end of the hose you’re pretty much guaranteed perfect cable routing regardless of the frame design. Both banjos are crimp fitted to the hose but a joining kit is supplied with the brake so you can cut it to length. You will, however, need to buy a bleed kit.

Formula offers four different aftermarket pad options — semi-metallic, sintered, comfort (with extended durability) and the ultra-light pads that come with the Puro. K18 brakes are shipped with the semi-metallic pads as standard, and as a result the brake takes longer than the Avid or Hayes to come back to full stopping power when it gets wet. This can be quite unnerving when riding in changeable weather conditions and we recommend swapping to the high-performance sintered pads as soon as the stock pads wear out. In the dry, the K18 offers the same level of stopping power as the Hayes Stroker with better lever feel, but the deep lever body doesn’t sit so well with SRAM shifters.
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Mbr rating:8