So, got elixrs on the bike at the mo, rear pistons are stuck almost fully out and had to let oil out of the system to even get the rear wheel to move… Worth servicing and re bleeding that caliper (probably cost 50 quid for the bleed kit, service kit with seals and dot fluid), or shall I just replace with a pair of slx/xt? I’ve always got on with shimano in the past, a full set both ends is 80-100 quid depending on where I get them from…

Take the chance on the existing caliper being serviceable and save a little, or just spend a bit more and get brand spankers, what do we reckon?

No brainer Ditch them and get the Shimano’s! So easy to bleed (if they ever need it!),lovely braking feel and put the “r” into reliable. Pretty sure you can get a pair of slx from merlin for about £90-just do it! I’ve done this a good number of times for myself and my friends with not a single issue,regret..

I ditched elixirs for shimano and am pleased I did so.

I replaced mine with Shimano,loads better.

Agree with the above, only a little bit more but IMO well worth it.

I got rid of mine for hope’s but hey…I think the general concensus here is just get rid of them 🙂

Shimano are cheap but dont last imo had three sets of xts of varying ages over the years.

**** pistons start weaping.

My originl hope minis are still going strong so i replaced ll our bikes in the house with hope nd **** shimanos pieces of crap out.

Probably do fine if you change bikes every year – but i dont.

But get rid of the avids i agree…

trail_rat
Shimano are cheap but dont last imo had three sets of xts of varying ages over the years.

**** pistons start weaping.

My originl hope minis are still going strong so i replaced ll our bikes in the house with hope nd **** shimanos pieces of crap out.

Probably do fine if you change bikes every year – but i dont.

Not in my experience. My XTs are getting on for four years old. In that time I think they’ve been bled once.

This is the same as all my riding buddies except those who’ve had XTR which seem more problematic.

The Saints they replaced must be 10 years old, hanging in the garage. Still work fine.

LOL, yep I ditched my Elixrs for Shimano.

Ditched my juicies for xt 785. I now have two sets and a set of most recent slx.

They all just work, the older set is a few years old now and continues to just work.

XT no brainer

Depends on the model really. Anything lower than the 5s I’d bin.
Sorted a mate’s 5s out and they are a pretty nice feeling brake, much better feel than you get with shimanos.
But yeah if you can live with the cheapy plastic shimano levers n get used to that weird on off feel they have and are also prepared to scrap them at first sign of them playing up them the Shimanos are ok for the ££.

Maybe try SRAM guides instead.

Bin and replace. I’ve felt so much happier since I did

My avids are hanging in the bike shed as a reminder never get these on a bike again!

Run SLX on my proper bike, and deore on the other. I’m pretty sure Merlin have some XT’s in the sale at the moment at £95 for the pair, bargain!

The only problem I had was sourcing the new barrel for easy bleeding, but now have 3 after a Halfords error.

Personally I prefer to repair than to replace but I guess that’s not the way things are now.

Not tried elixrs but I’ve got three sets of juicys (5,7, and Ultimates) which are all running fine after round about 7 years. Bled each of them a few times and replaced the pistons on the 5s but that’s about it.

Edit: I guess I should mention that the 7s could possibly do with a new lever since I managed to bend the rear in a crash. I suspect that many other levers out there would have broken rather than just bend. I’ve been running them bent for over a year now without any major issues so I’ll probably just stick with them.

Why not consider deore for 60 a pair? They’re stupendous brakes and as with all my shimanos, good easy modulation, long lasting, powerful, light. 2 year warranty should anything go awry.

Wot glasgowdan said – be rude not to at that price.

Just fix them. Elixir Rs here which had stuck pistons after 4 years of neglectful use. Bled and cleaned up, absolutely fine.

Yeah, if you can spec Shimano in the first place, great, but no reason to chuck Avids away just because maintenance takes a little longer once in a blue moon.

My father ditched elixir 1’s for SLX and my son did the same with 3’s but for Deore.

Neither have looked back.

If it’s just a bleed and a stuck piston, an Epic bleed kit for about £15 Inc fluid and a blast of fork juice/similar silicone spray are all you need apart from a bit of time, paper towels or other disposable rags and IPA for cleaning. I’d personally do that before dropping a ton on more fashionable stoppers if those were the only problems.

If you suspect seals have gone and a lever rebuild may be necessary then bin. The repair isn’t hard, but it’s difficult to justify.

Rebuilt a set of Elixirs I got off here that were reputedly leaking/stuck piston.

Fully stripped and cleaned(also shortened the hoses with new barbs/olvies).

Rebuilt them with silicon grease and dot5, bled and have been working faultlessly ever since.

You can get a good bleed kit off ebay for £12, and brakefluid is a couple of quid for a litre of Bendix Dot5 at eurocarparts.

Get Shimano but don’t get Deore…. steel pistons get stuck eventually.. go at least SLX, not much more and pistons are ceramic and never stick….

I’ve got some Formula Oros that need bleeding, but proving a bit difficult – same advice to ditch them for Shimanos?

Yep Shimano are easy to bleed, super reliable, use mineral oil and are
cheap…..what more do you want?

Shimano are gash in comparison to Elixirs or now SRAM Guides. Had to shorten the cables on mine last night, 10 minute job to re-bleed, easy and the performance is streets ahead. IMO of course.

Shimano all the way tried pretty much all the other brands over the years and keep coming back to shimano, all brakes have issues but I have found shims to be about the most reliable

jimmy – Member
Shimano are gash in comparison to Elixirs or now SRAM Guides. Had to shorten the cables on mine last night, 10 minute job to re-bleed, easy and the performance is streets ahead. IMO of course.
POSTED 5 MINUTES AGO # REPORT-POST

Just been on holiday an watched several guide users tearing their hair out with them. The new improved bleeding seemed to be just as much fun as of the old brakes.

On the other hand…. my SLXs have been a bit gash! The front is ok, 1 rear has been replaced due to a failed seal in the master cylinder, and the replacement doesn’t want to stay bled

XT for £93

http://www.merlincycles.com/shimano-xt-m785-disc-brakeset-special-offer-pair-85375.html

I’ve recently made the swap from Elixir to Shimano SLX and am happy so far.

When the Elixirs work, they are really good brakes, but they needed constant fiddling.
I could never understand how they’d be fine on one ride & then I’d get the bike out on the next ride & both sets of pads would be rubbing the disc. I’d push the pistons back and still get it, so would re-centre the caliper on the disc which would solve it. Then it would be fine for a week or so & then start rubbing again.
Other times they would be fine at the start of the ride, but would start rubbing after a short bit of riding & get progressively worse requiring a mid-ride caliper position fettle.

Annoyingly, I bought the Elixirs for my Inbred as the ones on my FSR had been fine (Elixir R SL, I think) and I thought it would be sensible to have common brake pads across bikes.

The levers on the Elixirs on the FSR have now started flopping away from the bars which I though would be solved with new bushes. So, replaced them & they are still just as bad. It’s no fun hammering down a bumpy section of trail & reaching for the brakes only to find they have flopped about an inch further from the bars than they should be.

Once funds allow, I think they’ll be getting replaced too.

It’s my understanding that when the new line of short-levered shimano brakes came out there were many -particularly XTs- that had issues with leaky master cylinders and pistons. My self and a few other early adopter friends all had issues.

Is this still the case or have recent batches all been fine? I’d imagine the new XT (M8000) would have had slightly redesigned gubbins as from what I heard from Madison it was a fairly common problem before?

Happy with my £50 deores here – might go m8000 as part of a groupset from Germany

My SLXs are from December, so unlikely to be earliers. Annoyingly (sort of) the XTs on the other half’s bike have been bullet proof

The new improved bleeding seemed to be just as much fun as of the old brakes.

They’re doing it wrong! It really is easy.

Really? This included several people who have been around plenty of brakes in their time and 2 full time mechanics