Anybody who ran disc brakes more than about 5-6 years ago will atest that reliability is a relatively modern addition to the recipe. Arguably (this is open to debate, of course), Formula were the first to crack this too with their Oro brake. This brake had a cult following among riders who spent much time in the big mountains. They were a little quirky, the set I ran needed to be dragged constantly to keep a little heat in the system, but they were one of the few options that would work consistently all the way down a big mountain descent. In fact, the design was so good that when Avid (SRAM) came to enter the world of disc brakes they enlisted Formula to design their first brakes. The result of that collaboration were the Juicy 5 and 7 brakes.