I flushed and bled my Juicy 5s yesterday and they do feel better but I still have to pull the brakes quite a way before they bite. When I had the syringe in the lever it was possible to make the levers feel pressurised from the touch but I couldn't maintain this pressure once the syringe was out. Anybody know how I can make them keep this pressure so that they bite straight away?

Did you loose much fluid when removing the syringes? I had the opposite problem and had mine too full and only had to pull the lever a little to get bite. The pads also rubbed on the rotor. To remedy this, i had to let out a small amount of fluid. You might need to top-up a bit? A drop or two of fluid in the lever port might help.

I have found if you top the fluid up a bit after removing the syringes that usually does the job.

cheers folks tried topping up levers and once again they're a bit better but i still have to pull the brake till it's parallel with the bar before it bites (although when it bites it bites hard). maybe my levers just have a lot of play in them!

I've got the Juicy 7's and I think the only difference is the pad contact adjuster.

When I bled my brakes, with the pad contact adjuster wound right out, there is probably only a couple of mm movement in hte lever before the brakes come on with real bite.

Have you looked at the Youtube vid for bleeding Avid brakes? It is very useful. I have only bled my brakes once (as I popped a piston out by mistake & let some air in) & following that video gave me excellent results.

It sounds like you still have a lot of air in the system or not enough fluid for the levers to almost reach the bars.

In the video it mentions that you have to make sure the reach adjuster screw is in a certain position before starting (I think it's at least 3 complete threads out). This will make a difference.

Did you apply pressure with the syringe just before taking it out and putting the screw back in? IIRC it says to do this in the manual but not the video on youtube.

Also you could try tieing down the levers and leaving them on overnight – not sure why but it seems to help.

cheers i'll try these things out too. i'll let you know how i get on.

I have the opposite problem. Hardly any lever travel before pads are biting. That's whhy at moment I prefer my BB7s as I can adjust the bite point to exactly how I like it.