Just got home from a ride round Glentress on a new bike I’ve cobbled together, and for the whole way round my back brake was rubbing, enough that when I spun the rear wheel it would rotate once before stopping.

Tried a quick trail repair, took out pads, pushed in calipers as far as they’d go but just no success. Brakes are Avid Elixer 5s, pads weren’t new but its the first time I’ve run them with superstar rotors.

Any ideas, or can I only run Avids with Avid rotors?

ta

I can’t see why there should be a problem compatibility wise. Is it a continuous rub?

yep…continuous rub. Can’t get wheel to spin freely at all

I have regular issues with my Elixir 5s. Loosen caliper bolts, squeeze brakes on and hold while retightening to realign does the trick for a bit. I’ll be ditching them for SLX as soon as I can find some at a reasonable price.

done that too hunta…tried every trick in the book..

only thing i can think of is to file down the pad..

Could be lots of things I guess.

But ” superstar rotors” isnt a good start.

FWIW – the only real ongoing problem I ever had was with a Hope hub being slightly out of spec with the rest of the world.

Also mounts? Some Avids need specific mounts/bolts/ washers.

Can you try: upside down – push pads all the way in. Then try and centre the caliper on the disk (usually has a faint line down the middle of caliper). Some hub/frame/mount combinations just dont work/ centre.

#Edit – I mean centre the caliper as if no pads/pistons “were there”. Some frames / mounts dont seem to let this happen.

Loosen caliper bolts, squeeze brakes on and hold while retightening to realign does the trick for a bit

I’ve not had much success with that method.

Remove pads. If they have a painted back, try sanding off the paint to reduce the overall thickness. If this doesn’t fix it, go to the next step.

Remove pads. Push pistons back. If you suspect they are not pushing all the way back, crack the bleed nipple to allow excess fluid to weep out as you push the pistons back. Re-tighten nipple. Check pistons both move equally by pumping the lever a few times…DO NOT pump too far as the pistons may pop out. Each piston should move out the same distance for each pump, if one is sticking hold in the moving one to get the stuck one moving. Once its out 5mm or so you can use a little brake fluid on the side of the piston, when you push it back in it will lube the seal. Push pistons back and repeat until they move equally.

Leaving the pads out, align caliper by eye over the disc. Easiest with bike upside down.

Make sure there is no fluid left on the caliper, check both pistons pushed all the way back, re-insert pads and wheel and then pump the lever until it firms up.

Test ride.

Where is the rubbing coming from? Could the rotor be slightly too large and It’s the circumference that’s rubbing the caliper or is it the face of the rotor on the pads? Constant rub or warped rotor? Is it the floating rotor? If so, are the bobbins catching the bottom of the pads?

I have a constant issue with older Avid Juicy 3’s – pistons need to be cleaned, cleaned, cleaned and even then they need a bleed a few times a year. They refuse to operate ‘evenly’ each side, and the whole caliper ends up moving under hard braking, meaning that the pads or caliper body end up ‘scuffing’ the disc.
I have done the mounting bolts up so tight to prevent a moving caliper, that I broke a ‘tri-align’ washer. 😯
Pish poor brakes and will be heading to older Hope mini’s or Shimano as soon as I have the money.

I have similar problem with Hayes HFX-9’s, not quite as draggy but on both front and rear. As a temp fix I used to put old pads in and then put a large flat screw driver in and twist gently so as to force the pistons back. This was never that effective and so eventually I replaced the brakes. I’ll try some of the suggestions above as I’d like to re-use them. Any other thoughts ?

This method works for me:

1. Loosen calliper bolts and squeeze lever….tighten bolts.

2. release lever and look down on the calliper with a light behind it to see which side is rubbing.

3. lightly loosen just 1 calliper bolt and move by gently tapping with a spanner.

4. Repeat by shining a light through the calliper from underneath to see where the rub is coming from.

bike I’ve cobbled together, Avid Elixer 5s, superstar rotors.

all ringing alarm bells and without seeing them, could be any number of problems

‘spooky b329’ has the full method above, most other posters are just realigning the caliper without considering that there might be something wrong with the pistons, although some good advice spread about.

Hope or Shimano

Centre caliper over rotor by eye, don’t use the pull lever to centre caliper. If you have a lazy piston your caliper will be waaayy off.

Had loads of trouble with Avids in the past, pistons not returning etc.
However if the brake is new to the bike it could well be that the frame bracket is not properly positioned. I have just built a new frame with an old brake and had exactly this problem. I had to put spacers between the frame bracket and the caliper adaptor which stopped the rubbing and had the brake working better than ever.
Might need a bit of trial and error to see how much spacing is needed.

Fwiw my shimano slx still rub a bit, not quite as bad as the juicy 5s but its still there.

i had hayes stroker ryde on my cube, from brand new they rubbed constantly.
i spent a couple of months faffing about before admitting defeat and buying some slx ones.
voila, problem solved.
thats my 2p worth anyway.

As above really the onlything i can add is i sometimes tie rap my levers on over night an this seems to help center things up

Avids get a lot of bad press for unreliability. In my experience, the main problem with them is their plastic pistons. The constant exposure a rear MTB brake has in the UK to shit, probably isn’t ideal for plastic pistons to cope with and remain free-moving in the caliper body (as ever, US-designed components not up to the job in UK weather).

I bought a piston replacement kit and since fitting it, this problem has gone away. It’ll probably come back again in 12 months’ or so, but by then I hope I’ll have sacked them off for some of the new, well-rated Shimanos.

What I haven’t fixed yet is the constant vibration from the rear brake under mild modulation. My latest theory is that bedding in new pads is putting too smooth a surface on the pads, so I’m trying out fresh organic pads without bedding them in. If that fails, I’ll try baking the pads.

Avids work great when they’re working great but nowadays they’ve got to really step up to compete with the boat-load of very good alternatives.

Related to this, but with a slight apology for thread hijack…

Why can’t I find any Shimano SLX brakes in stock anywhere? (Other than because everyone’s jumping ship from Avids 🙂 )

Jumped ship from avids and could not find any SLX either. More than happy with Deore with XT discs and superstar pads.

I found that liberal and regular lubeing with brake fluid eventualy seemed to get my elixirs working properly. Just in time for my XT’s to arrive from Rose 🙂

Related to this, but with a slight apology for thread hijack…

Why can’t I find any Shimano SLX brakes in stock anywhere? (Other than because everyone’s jumping ship from Avids )

I’ve got some brand new in the bag XT’s with 203/180 ice tech rotors if you’re interested, bought from rose for the missus bike, but she’s decided she doesnt like mountainbiking!

How much space is there between the pads and the rotor?

Slowly rotate the wheel, and see where is rubs…

I’ve got some brand new in the bag XT’s with 203/180 ice tech rotors if you’re interested, bought from rose for the missus bike, but she’s decided she doesnt like mountainbiking!

Spoon, YGM!

@hunta – they seem to have been very popular, recommended to me by my LBS (they had them on their demo bike) but found to be out of stock with 6+ week wait. I bought Hope which was my original choice anyway.

Hi mate, I recently had this problem and it turned out the ENTIRE disc was bent. Completely impossible to spot by eye and would lay flat against another rotor. Put a new rotor in and didn’t even adjust the caliper. I had no rub ! That rotor went straight in the bin.

it was my fault it was bent. i tensioned the wheel to hard in a SS and forced the wheel round 🙁

if not enough clearance, or if using thicker rotors, or using some brands of thicker pads, you just need to let some fluid out (or use a slightly wider block when bleeding).