formula activa are good they'al kick you over the bars even in the middle of a bog, in the middle of dartmoor, in the middle of devon, in the middle of the south west, in the middle of the world, in the middle of the milky way, in the middle of the whole universe!!!!

I may now go for some hope minis, and just have to put up with a odd set of levers.Have they stopped the pad noise?

look at formula b4, very light, email the reviewers (i think tere is three of them) its time hope fanatics learnt the truth.

yeah, but hope fanatics have a reason- we spent shitloads on them and would die if something bettar came out for less cash.

You're all slaves to the marketting men! Hydraulics arn't the way to go for MTBs
(at least not for CC). Bikes are uncomplicated machines so why tart them up with OTT kit. Anyway I wouldn't touch Hopes with even your barge pole due to the very un-environmentally friendly brake fluid they use. Stick to mechanical discs kids! Even better let's all go back to the side-pull days or even rod brakes!!!! Whey hey!!!Yes I'm that old! I had them on my butcher-boy bike in the late 60s well before most of you lot were well..... not around! Retro rulez OK

i don't buy stuff because of adverts, i but it beacuse it works, and i highly rate and brake that can stop me from 60+ mph and not die in the process, all of the old brake fluid (and any other lubes and stuff for that matter) goes into an old oil bottle and is used to lube and clean my chain, and when i do get rid of it i'll take it to the tip and put it in the getting rid of oil tank. why stick to mech discs if you can use maguras or shimano discs which use mineral oil?

Ok go ahead with your mineral oil based discs but as I said, bikes are supposed to be uncomplicated machines so I'll go with mechanicals (at least for the time being). Good to hear that you are recycling your old fluids! Save the planet maaaan!!!!

err, uncomplicated cable discs? thats where your wrong, hydraulics basically have 2 (or 4 or 6) holes with oil and a piston in them, and another hole or 2 at the lever, and some seals (arctic i presume). in cable discs, theres lots of little bits of metal, springs and lots of breakable bits and stuff that wears out.

if you want to save the planet you need to deal with goerge dubya and wheelie bin lardan.

Would someone not buy a set of discs because they don't like the type of brake fluid used? a bike system must only contain a tiny amount of fluid. Do they only buy cars with cable brakes? (or are we talking about mr 2CV citroen, mineral oil) I work in a car factory, and we must use several 205 litre barrels of brake fluid a day, but how often do you need to change brake fluid, in a car it's every 2 years, and you can dispose of it at your local oil recycling point.Don't you think this save the planet thing is getting a bit silly, next we'll be worried about trail contamination by brake pad dust & biker sweat!

its 5 years in hopes but its supposedly best to do it once a year.

i hate environmental type greenies who go stricter than necessary with us and our mechanical fluids. i just tell em "third world developing countries - cfc's/asbestos/bad sewage processes", i want to save the world but i am not superman.

in the meantime i will make my bike OTT and horoughly enjoy the ride.

ditto, i bet he drives a car too, probably a 2CV.

Sorry to disappoint you but I don't (drive a 2CV). Anyway, this has got a little out of hand. However, on the general subject of brakes it is great to see so many people debating the pros and cons of different types of brakes. Brakes are sexy again thanks to the interest in discs. It would be nice if the car manufacturers could take this on board and concentrate more on safety (ie slowing down) rather than speeding up. Bye bye.

Safety sells cars, the cars that we make have six air bags, ABS & stability control (big bore brake pipes with lots of fluid in them though?)

i once had to replace the brake pipes on myold toyota corolla. there was this old retired guy across the road with a machine to make nipples on the pipe and i had to crawl around under the car gettig rust in my eye.

i think bicycls would look really stupid with that sort of piping attached to our brakes to make them work.

You could make a clean looking frame,with the rear brake pipe running through the frame & no canti boss's