Sicklines recently posted a review on the Formula Bianco brakes, the types that I also run. It’s a nice review, and I mostly agree with them. Quote of their conclussion
If you’re looking for a stellar lightweight brake and price is no object, the Bianco’s should be at the top of your list. These brakes are Downhill capable and All Mountain ready. The Bianco’s teamed with the sintered pads offer great power in a lightweight package. Comparatively speaking, the Bianco’s will save you about 140g over Juicy 7’s.
These Formula’s have a lot of small features that you normally wouldn’t think about as benefits, but in the field they prove themselves well. They’re a bit pricey in comparison to a lot of other brakes out there but you get what you pay for with the Bianco’s. The one finger lever blade feels great and the brake never showed signs of fading or pumping up.
They’re holding the price as a downpoint and I guess that’s fair, but all good things don’t come free, right? On another page they have a few suggestions on improvements:
- Better Bushings – The bushings in the lever blade could be tighter as the lever did have some slop to it.
- Caliper Banjo Bolt – The banjo bolt on the Bianco is in a vulnerable position on the absolute outside of the caliper. It’d be nice if it had some protection from crashes and other trail hazards.
- Lever protection – The pivot that the lever rotates on sticks out and as such is vulnerable in a crash. It’d be nice if the pivot were behind a section of the body to protect the pivot a bit more.
- Better lever clearance – The Bianco lever main body can cause some fitting issues with shifters, although with the newer style SRAM/Shimano offerings, this is becoming less of an issue.
- Bolts – The Bianco’s need a lot of different tools (varying allen’s and torx) in order to install and maintain the brake system as there are a lot of different bolt heads. It’d be nice to have fewer of these variations.
The bolts issue is the deal with every brake available and the lever clearance never bothered me one bit. The bushings of the lever blade however do tend to develop ‘slop’ and could indeed be improved upon.
I run 200 mm frontrotors and 180 mm rearrotors and I would have liked to have 200 mm rearrotors aswell. In the Alpes the 180 mm tend to get really hot and burn a bit if you keep at it for too long. Partly my braking skills I guess, partly the size of the rotor.
Besides all that, these brakes are indeed light, they’re awesome stoppers and lookers: people sure do notice them 😉