Or are Avid brakes just a bit utter rubbish? Have some Elixir 3s that came on my bike and since a big wet and muddy ride in March they have been the worst brakes I have ever had. The bike itself is only 6 months old but is currently unrideable. As soon as they are warmed up they start howling and screeching like Cheryl Cole on a bad day. Been back into the bike shop twice now – been told they are good and sorted. Out for a ride today and true, they were fine for about a mile and then that screeching started up.

Just a bit fed up with it as I was looking forward to a nice ride I the sun today. Bobbins it is.

until i tried shimano i thought my elixirs were good, the big S is in a different league

I took off the Avids, they were bad.

I run 3 sets of Shimano

one set of hopes.

The Hopes are the best

But when it comes for VFM it’s Shimano every time.

My Juicy 3’s are a faff to bleed, and need bleeding often. But when they work, they work well.
Apart from today when they seemed to fade. Twice. Badly. Leaving me a little bit twitchy on steep bits. And with hand pump from squeezing so flippin’ hard.

matt_outandabout – Member
My Juicy 3’s are a faff to bleed, and need bleeding often. But when they work, they work well.
Apart from today when they seemed to fade. Twice. Badly. Leaving me a little bit twitchy on steep bits. And with hand pump from squeezing so flippin’ hard.

Juicy 3’s are the worst disk brakes I have ever used I persevered with them for far too long. They need constant bleeding, the pistons stick a lot and cause brake binding. I finally ditched them after trying them on a cheapo single speed. They did work but required constant attention and also faded badly at times.

Ex-GF had a set. Took me three hours to change her pads. I’m sticking with formula

I’d rather try and stop the bike by dangling my man bag in the spokes and suffering crippling lacerations resulting in a bike related castration..than ever use another Avid product ever again

Which is all odd because their BB7s are fine.

Juicys are bad. Elixirs are better but still less good than everyone else’s. Codes are actually good though!

I asked my friendly local bike mechanic what the bleed process was like for Formula. He said, have you done an Avid? I said yes. He said, well it’s exactly like that except you do it about 1/100th as often.

Elixir CRs. One bleed in three years, no squeal, good pad life. Modulated power on tap.Have you tried using your brakes less?

I work in a small but very busy bike shop servicing all sorts, we have what is known as the “avid wall of shite” where there are many varieties of Avid brakes hanging up as a deterrent to any of our customers who suggest fitting avid brakes to their bikes, they’re is only one brake we actually push or recommend fitting and that is Hope, if anything goes wrong i pick up the phone, speak to a certain person and the part is with me the next day but that is very rare as they just work without fail – they don’t leak, they don’t need constant bleeding, they are uber reliable, they are 99.99% made in Barnoldswick apart from the teeny master cylinder screws and the peeps who design them/make them are sound.

Support british engineering otherwise we are going to be country populated by ****’s of the highest order like those that are in the BBC3 program about a call centre, that is not a job, i’d neuter them all to stop any further breeding.

Seems like it isn’t just me then. 🙂

Have you tried using your brakes less?

I could hardly use them any less. I don’t even need to use the rears before they start squealing. It looks to me as though they are sticking when they get warm. Well, by warm, I mean me having ridden the bike for about a mile without even touching them. Useless. And they are not even that effective when the were working. Might be tempted to see if the shop will change them for Shimano’s although they haven’t done the most convincing job so far of fixing them. 🙁