I hear this time and time again - glad my new bike has the Formula RX's! what is so bad about the avids Pete? and how can such a big company keep getting it so wrong? don't they have a testing department? also if they are so bad why are so many makes of bike equipping them?
Avids work really well. They stop the bike well, they are light and powerful.... BUT
They are a complete pig to align/set up properly. The Elixir Rs on my Boardman needed adjusting every ride to stop them from singing/rubbing.
They are a pig to bleed, and they need bleeding regularly.
Many people can't be bothered to adjust/set them up/bleed them, so unless you are prepared to invest time energy and effort in them there is zero joy of ownership.
So many bikes fit them as standard equipment because they are light and powerful. They are also absolutely dirt cheap. Avid's sole market is OEM, simply because the cognoscenti won't buy them aftermarket.
Those in the know buy a bike with Avids on them and put them straight on
Ebay. If you have any spannering ability whatsoever you can get a set of Shimanos (M435 Deore at
CRC for £15 an end last week) or M596 Deore from Germany for £60 or some SLX from Germany for £110, or XT for £130. That's for the set, front and rear. All you have to do is swap the hoses over.
Brake Wars on Singletrackworld.com rage between the polarised camps of Hope VS Shimano. I'll let you nip over there and read them , but basically the oldSkoolers love the ownership and faffage of Hopes, which are repairable when they go wrong/soft/leak, or Shimano which cost half as much but you can't get spares to rebuild them. They either work superbly, or you throw the caliper away and buy a new one for next to knack-all.