What are general opinons of these two brakes. Is one the clear leader, or are they much of a muchness in terms of performance. Thanks

I’ve just sold a bike with XTs on and bought one with Juicy 3s, which are near as dammit the same as 5s, both with the same size rotors.

Now I think so far that performance is pretty similar, but I reckon the XTs are a bit easier to set up, mainly because of the servo wave thing giving more pad clearence. Also XTs dont need an expensive bleed kit and pad replacement is a doddle, you don’t even need to remove the calipers.

I’m not going to swap the J3 for XTs, but given the choice of ONLY those two, I’d have XTs

Given a free choice, I’d have Magura Louises, which are far better than both…..

Sorry…
😀

I swapped my Juicy 5’s for XTs as I had problems with overheating (in Spain), replacing the pads was awkward and the springs holding the pads apart kept wearing too.

Much happier with the XTs. Very easy to bleed etc. Didn’t over heat when I rode the same descents in Spain. Pretty much fit and forget. Very easy to change the pads.

I have changed from Juicy 5’s to xt. I find the extra pad clearance on the xt’s to be very good and they feel less on off than the juicys it is also easier to change pads and reset the pistions in them. I am happy that i made the change overall.

Cheers all

panda

you don’t even need to remove the calipers.

I’ve never owned Juicys, so this may be old news, but is that pretty much standard for removing the pads? 😯

I run XTs on two bikes at the moment, a mate has Juicys on his and pad changing is a relative nightmare on the Avids, just fiddly. And while the XT pads are held in place with a bolt through the top of the pads, the ones in the Avids aren’t. I mention this because my mate had a pad disintegrate and then eject itself from the caliper like a super-heated, warped crisp. I’d go XT personally.

Nick – I’m not sure yet about my J3s (Having not changed the pads yet), but every other brake I’ve had apart from the XTs, I’ve had to remove the caliper to change the pads
It looks like you have to remove the caliper on the Juicys, though….

It’s no problem, just a point to note, IMO
🙂

You don’t need to remove the caliper on the Juicys but it can make it easier to get the pad out. I found using long nose pliers made it hell of a lot easier.

i wish i’d gone xt, but i got juicy 7’s cheap, and folk raved about them. i really dont rate them much at all I’m afraid. pad replacement is a nightmare (relative to my old hope minis and by all accounts shimano), lever feel is horrible (like there’s loads of stiction in the pistons – ive cleaned them to no avail. the multi-align caliper system is great for initial set up, but it tends to creep overtime, and periodically (every few rides) the callipers need re-seating over the discs.

Never knew that, what a PITA 😕

Never removed calipers to change pads (and I run three sets of Avids on various bikes), but admittedly it’s a big faff and one of my most hated jobs. Bleeding them is also a pain, but they rarely need it.

Performance has been generally fine, although the oldest set of Juicy 7’s are now not what they were (perhaps I do need to bleed them then!). Not sure what I’d replace them with if I did. Sorry, can’t compare (which was the original question) with XT’s, I’ve never ridden any.

I’ve never removed calipers to change pads on any of my brakes (including juicys). Why would you need to? Once the wheel is out, the pads are fully accessible.

Also, juicy pads are a piece of wizz to change if you don’t have too much fluid in there.

Having said all that, I’d still go for XT though, since they are better made imo, and don’t use DOT fluid.