My mate experienced an issue with his Avid brakes on todays ride 🙁

He changed the pads before the ride, as he has many times before and said he pushed the pistons back in, however I am not sure if he bedded them in at all.

Anyway early on in todays ride the rear brake appeared constantly on, subsequently we removed rear wheel/pads and pushed pistons back in again and refitted everything but the problem remained causing him to turn back.

Sticky piston springs to mind – Is this a common issue with Avids and what is the cure/solution??

I’m not an expert on this, but I just changed the pads in my Elixir 5’s on the front. And they were tight on the disc, even after giving it some hefty levering with a big flathead to get the pistons apart. So…..I let a bit of fluid out of the brake lever, and now it’s all good. I had done a bleed with the old pads in, so they would have been slightly overfilled. Also, I should imagine the cold weather causes the metal to contract fractionally, which might tighten them up as well, by reducing the size of the chambers and line. Maybe.

ok suppose that could be an option to try thanks for the reply

I’ve had problems with sticky avid pistons. Sort of solved by lubing them with DOT fluid and cleaning with a DOT covered cotton bud, but I’ll be expecting issues on my next pad change.

I think making a hash of it twice hurrying on a cold day is the most likely problem, and they will probably just work after pushing the pistons back again. If they don’t go all the way in, as benji suggests.