So, I had a crack at bleeding my Juicys yesterday with a bleed kit bought off eBay, followed the instructions word for word but I just couldnt get the fluid from the caliper syringe into the system as if there was an air lock or something.

I tried a couple of times, the latter ending in tube popping off syringe and walls/bike/me being splattered in DOT 5.1.

WTF am I doing wrong? (apart from owning Avids in the first place).

Did you follow these instructions:
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mg6NbIjmOM[/video]

Did you unclamp both clamps, and slightly pull with the lever syringe while pushing with the caliper syringe?

I tried a couple of times, the latter ending in tube popping off syringe and walls/bike/me being splattered in DOT 5.1.

Hope you cleaned that up properly – it’s nasty stuff!

Sadly this is the problem IMO

owning Avids in the first place

Mine were fine at first, and immediately after bleeding, but quickly went downhill and I ended up having to bleed them all the time.

First time I bled my juicys I had a similar problem, until I realised I was trying to bleed the rear calliper through the front lever 😳
Fine after that following the video on youtube starring the excellently named Hercules Castro.

Ha ha! I thought I was the only one who had done what sweepy described – trying to bleed the rear caliper & front lever at the same time. Took me a while to work out why it wouldn’t work…

I have to confess, I tried bleeding the Missus’s for an entire morning before dumping the bike in my LBS and going down the pub instead.
Never had any problem bleeding Elixir’s in the same way though.

Cheers guys. I’ll be having another crack at it tonight so will re-watch the videos again and go for it.

I’ve bled Juicy’s lots of times, found them to always be quite straightforward if you just follow the instructions. Hope you get on ok.

Are you absolutely sure the red clips are open?

yeah, simple if you follow the process. I think you must have had one of the clamps still shut

Sometimes if you have crap in the caliper you can’t force the fluid up from the caliper into the lever. In which case, you need to take out all the calliper seals and give it all a full clean (had to do it a couple of times in the past to my 7s).