I’m pretty confident i can bleed brakes. i have some avid elixir r brakes (bought from ebay). when i put them on they were spongey as. after trying to bleed them, the lever pulls right back and the pads hardly bite. i’m getting tons of air bubbles when i bleed the resevoir, but i cant seem to get oil back in to fill the brake to the correct level. does anyone have a technique. i’m ready to trow them in the bin!

Avid brakes need a specific kit. There’s a good video on the dram site which is easy to follow and gives good results. I don’t know your level of knowledge or experience so this next comment is not meant to take the wee-wee. You do know avid brakes use brake fluid and not oil? Use the wrong stuff and you’ve just killed every seal and rubber part in there.

I’d second the SRAM website, or youtube videos on how to bleed, using the specific kit…
Can get the bleed kit, oil, and instructions for £12.99 from epic brakes.

DrP

Make sure all your connections are ok and follow the instructions from videos etc with the right tools. Avid are not among the easier brakes to bleed I’m afraid.
[video]http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DIoaPUw5DliA&v=IoaPUw5DliA&gl=GB[/video]

You have 2 problems there.

This is one:

i have some avid elixir r brakes

This is the other:

I’m pretty confident i can bleed brakes

When you bled them initially, did you get any oil in?
Do you have the correct kit with 2 syringes for bleeding the Avids?
Did you de-gass the oil before putting into the system?

Watch the video linked by kayak23, it should work like that.

Check my post history for a thread that detailed (in colour photographs) a problem with bleeding Avid Elixir brakes. The problem was fixed with help from a lot of lovely people here (some of who are also in this thread).

de-gass the oil

what does this mean? – seriously, I put a new hose on my hope brakes yesterday, ignored the correct bleeding tech (air out of caliper) and just put a syringe on the bleed nipple and put brake fluid in. Pushed until no air coming out of resevoir and stopped. works fine. Now I have to pre-treat the brake fluid?

You don’t have to de-gas the brake fluid, and they feel fine if you don’t. In fact Avid is the only bicycle brake manufacturer I have come across that advises you to. BUT the theory is that the less air there is dissolved in the fluid, they will be firmer for longer. I forget if it affects the boiling point or not: I think that is more about water than about air (being dissolved in the brake fluid that is). Some science about dissolved air, water and hygroscopic fluids should follow but I can’t remember it all any more.

Oh , there is an excellent thread on here from a couple of years ago from Mr Nutt describing bleeding his formula oro brakes: process is the same as for avids, and he goes into some detail about degassing his fluid in that one, and also gives (people’s) names to all the parts of the brake and bleed kit. That may be the same advice as elsewhere, but it is a lot funnier than the avid manual!

According to the Avid instructions, yes. There is a certain amount of air (I would assume that’s what it is) that is in the liquid (absorbed, dissolved, I’m not sure), that could combine together in the system and become an air bubble.

It might be an extra faff, but after all the problems I had with mine, I wasn’t taking any chances, and it does sound like a decent explanation to me.

phew, I was worried I was going to explode or something! I was amazed that it took about 3mins to fully bleed the brake – bottom up, it took about 40mins last time i did it “correctly”!

How do you de-gas brake fluid?
#edit# sorry took too long to reply#edit#

Thanks for this. It’s a little different from the Juicy’s which i can bleed fine. Ill have another go.

Are Elixir R brakes really that bad? they have some good reviews out there. It seem Shimano SLX is the way forward…

I too have heard a lot of crap about Elixir R’s but I bleddy love ’em. Both my bikes run them and they’re awesome.

just dont bother with those cheep ebay avid bleed kits. the hoses pop off the end of the syringe due to them just pushing on . the proper kit has a screw thread between hose and syringe which cuts down on operator swearing around 10 fold ….. i found ! 😀 this includes those epic ones mentioned further up . they suck worse than a murrey mint !!!!

It is quite impressive to do the “degassing” thing on DOT 5.1 fluid – Using a 30ml syringe it makes at least 1ml of air come out of solution which I’d imagine must decrease the propensity for bubbles in the brake.

Doesn’t do anything like the same thing with mineral oil / Shimano brakes.

weekly slag off elixirs yawn…

use the right bleed kit, follow the instructions, have super powerful brakes. it aint rocket science

There’s nothing “wrong” with Elixir brakes but they aren’t the easiest to bleed and do seem to be sensitive to any air in the system. The SRAM manual and youtube video pretty much covers what to do but I found the video guide on Pinkbike to explain it the best

http://www.pinkbike.com/news/tech-tuesday-bleeding-avid-brakes-2010.html

Also some more info on degassing oil…

just dont bother with those cheep ebay avid bleed kits. the hoses pop off the end of the syringe due to them just pushing on .

Absolutely right. Buy cheap, buy twice – at least I did.