THEY ARE ALL S**T*

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Yep, i have yet to meet someone who purposely sought them out to retrofit their bike, they seem to come fitted as OE by the manufacturers who wish to save money.

We have a wall of shame in the shop with a collection of duff Avid brakes hanging up, they are all shite.

Yep, i have yet to meet someone who purposely sought them out to retrofit their bike, they seem to come fitted as OE by the manufacturers who wish to save money.

I swapped my SLX out for Elixir 3s and am much happier. Been using avid brakes since I got my first proper mtb years ago (juicy 5s) and the shimano levers just feel weird and small plus they were very leaky. that said I probably won’t buy another set because I had to take it to the shop to get em bled, just couldn’t get it to work at home despite having the technique sorted for my Juicy 5s.

My Juicy 7s work alright mostly. There is a constant rub on the front which makes the most annoying sound in the world though. No amount of pad replacement or adjustment will sort it.

That said, they’ve been bled twice in three years and it’s a simple job.

Yet my Juicy 3SLs are working fine 5 years on with no bleeding.

My wife’s bike came with juicy 5s back in 2006. They never dragged, never had sticky pistons, just did their job. Got moved to the commuter and have now been moved to the pile of stuff to eBay. Only took them off because of the trickle down effect of hope brakes on my bikes.

I have purposely bought 3 sets of elixir 5’s and have had no issue, unlike my shimano saint 4 pots, shimano m575’s which keep spontaneously falling to bits.
You just need to learn to bleed.

I’ve purposely put Elixir’s after having Juicy’s, on all my bikes to keep it simple when buying pads, they’re a doddle to set up and a piece of piss to bleed. I honestly don’t know why people have such a problem with them 😕

I like my bb7s every other avid I’ve had has been a bit poo. Siezed pistons, flakey performance (even with proper bleeding) and jusy not as good as the competition

We run them here. Never had any problems with Elixer cR or 9s and 5s. I have heard from some people that you either get a good set or a bad set but 3 for 3 we’ve had solid reliable brakes.
Although I do like SLX as well.

I’ve given up on hydraulic’s of late. Just an old set of Juicy5’s left on the Wifes bike, & I’ve some BB5’s to go on there soon. I’d always stuck up forAvids but as Taz said, even bled till solid they still go crap quickly. Got fed up with bleeding & twiddling. Much much happier with my BB7’s, & they work as well as any hydraulic I’ve ever had. No rub, it’s great to have no rub anywhere.

Had Avid’s 3 and 5 on both my 26 and 29 er Anthems……..awful!!!!!!……. every other ride , back to the bars failures on both…….. Sold my 26 in the end but sent a raging email to Giant and Avid, quoting my history and several MBUK,MBR and WMB reviews, all bad.
Surprise!!!!!!
Got an email back next day, apologising and they instructed my LBS to fit a brand new model set of Avid 9 ( bleed problems fixed apparently)………used em lots, not as good as XT’s on my Trance but they’ve never failed.
Goes to to show, that they acknowledge the issues and if pressed will act accordingly.
I’d never buy any though.

I’ve got some elixir 5s on my bike. Fantastic brake. So much more feel than the XTs (new shape) they replaced. You can feather the break easier and ultimate stopping power is better too. Not had any issues with them to date. My old juicy 3s were great too.

i ran a 3 on the front for a while, it was great for a while then last month i took the bike out of the garage to find it locked and the lever rock solid.

dumped it for a shimano

This

My Juicy 7s work alright mostly. There is a constant rub on the front which makes the most annoying sound in the world though. No amount of pad replacement or adjustment will sort it.

That said, they’ve been bled twice in three years and it’s a simple job.

and this

I’ve purposely put Elixir’s after having Juicy’s, on all my bikes to keep it simple when buying pads, they’re a doddle to set up and a piece of piss to bleed. I honestly don’t know why people have such a problem with them

The only Avids I have had any bother with were a set of BB5s that a mate gave me.Don’t know what he had been doing with them ,but I couldn’t get them to work that well. Just fitted a set of BB7s on the last build and I really like them .

Had Juicys and Elixir Rs, both worked very well indeed, but oh so fragile.

Function 9 out of 10
Lastability 2 out of 10

I can only go on personal experience. My son’s Juicys were appalling, dragged from day one, leaked, and even after much warranty wingeing still were rubbish. A mates Juicys seemed to cause a problem every time we went out for a ride and when the shop finally replaced them with Elixirs they were little better. He has now bought a 29er which came with Deore brakes which he thinks are the dog’s nuts after years with Avid.

I had one Juicy 3, and it was great. I tend to specify Speed Dials on bikes with mechanical brakes.

Having said that I also have a set of XTRs Vees and the quality is sublime- hardly any wear after 5 years, whereas the Avid levers rattle and bend after a couple.

My Juicy 7’s have been fine from day one. Been bled twice in 5 or so years don’t rub, pistons are fine, feel and power is spot on. I don’t get all the bad press or maybe I just got a good set.

Juicy 7’s – were fine for ages but slowly deteriorated and got rid after sticky piston syndrome became too much of a pain.

Elixir R SL’s – Been on my Stumpjumper since I got it in Jan2010. Been perfectly fine until I left it in the car on a very hot day recently. Pistons moved in on front & rear; ended up having to remove fluid from both calipers to ride the bike. Need re-bleeding now as too much lever travel, but they still work fine.

Elixir 5’s on my Inbred that replaced my Juicy’s have been OK so far, but recently had to push pistons back for no reason I could really work out.

When I get the chance, I want to bleed both sets and run new fluid through them.
Will probably try another brand when I start having more issues with these ones….

There will most likely be a constant rub (even after your pad replacement) if the pistons are never cleaned and lubed before the bleed. It helps wonders.

I’ve got 3 sets of Elixirs, and a set of (original) Codes, all are a few years old now – all work perfectly.

I’ve had to bleed each set once or twice – woo hoo de hoo.

I have one set which will probably need a lever seal kit soon. Again, no big deal. They’re five years old and well used.

Never had an issue with mine.

I have Elixir 3s on my bike. Not impressed at all. 1 big ride in March and they were not happy. Took a fair bit of faffing around with them including a bleed before they were sorted. Still get a bit of judder with the fronts. Worst brakes I have ever experienced. Even the Giant MPH brakes on my last bike were way better than these. Change of brakes is likely to be the first major change on this bike and based on my experiences I will not be going anywhere near Avid.

i’ve had 5’s and 7’s, total rubbish! constant bleeding, rubbing, unreliable. Formula Oro now and very impressed.

Make a large coffee, grab a packet of choccy hobnobs, and click here
😯

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=avid+turkey+warble

For the TL; DR version there is always the plastic bag fix 😯

http://www.socaltrailriders.org/forum/showthread.php?64687-Unbelievable-but-true-Story-Avid-Brake-Turkey-Warble

Again? Really?!

I’ve purposely put Elixir’s after having Juicy’s, on all my bikes to keep it simple when buying pads, they’re a doddle to set up and a piece of piss to bleed. I honestly don’t know why people have such a problem with them

^^^ what swavis said. They also work very well.

Had some XO Trails since April. Excellent performance and I can mount my reverb lever on the brake lever clamp.

My mate who owns a bike shop told me I was mad ‘cos he has no end of problems servicing and repairing leaky Avids. He said its because they use plastic parts where Shimano don’t.

Probably true(er) for budget ranges but my XO’s look well made and solid. I notice that plenty of DH teams have to use them but still manage to do pretty well on them. Probably keeps the mechanics busy!

I’ve got X0 Elixirs on mine – absolutely faultless, lots of power and lovely modulation. Much better than the Zee I used to have – a bit less top end power but less grabby, more usable power, and (unlike the Zee), all seals etc are fine.

Starting to feel like they need a bleed now after flying the bike for the 4th time this season but I have seen that with every brake I’ve used.

Juicy 3s, died of sticky pistons inside 6 months. Elixr Rs, also died of sticky pistons but they took a year or so. Couple of other people I know have had issues with sticky pistons in their Avids too. Not a statistically significant sample, but bad enough to put me off ever buying Avids again. Maybe there’s something funny about the mud round here, I dunno.

Ultimate shortys are the best cyclocross brake bar none in my opinion.

I retro fitted some E5s on my old bike for the sole reason they were cheap. New brakes for less than the second hand rate of hope/shimano. I ran them for 3 years without ever bleading them. No problems.

I have XT on my new bike. They feel a bit better but no real performance advantage.

The only problem I’ve had with elixir 5s in 2 years was my fault which was a crap bleed I messed up, of course being pig headed immediately thought it was. Seized caliper not me, took home rebleed properly and fixed. I also rode with someone who has the juicy breaks which work awful but he does leave his bike covered in mud for months on end so can’t always blame the product. I do want a set of shimanos but that’s purely for looks.

I’ve never gotten on particularly well with both sets of Juicys in the PJM household. Initial results are good, there’s plenty of braking power and feel.

However, I soon encountered the awful lever-to-the-bar feeling and general mushiness, the pistons refused to retract properly and the lever shape began to grate for me.

They need a lot of TLC, you need to regularly clean the calipers to ensure that the pistons don’t clog with brake dust and frequent bleeding is a given.

Otherwise, you could buy a set of Shimano brakes off the shelf and expect excellent performance and hassle free bleeding on the (rare) occasions when they need it. In ten years of running Hopes, I’ve never had a problem, aside from a single loose banjo but the resulting rebleed was simplicity itself and I prefer the lever shape to boot.