[Closed] avid juicy/elixirs

Elixirs are worth having, whereas Juicys aren't. Science.

My 2p...

Neither are worth having. Get some Shimanos or Hopes. £35 for a bleed kit is bendy-over bum rape, but you will need it at some point in the first 6 months. (the bleed kit that is, not the bum rape..)

6 months is optomistic, you may as well reap the rewards of having one and do it straight away, the factory bleeds are appalling.

bleed kits are a lot cheaper than £35 if you keep an eye out for a sale item / 2nd hand one. I've bought a couple, new, for about £15 each. They make bleeding very simple - well worth £15 in my view.

I've run Juicy 7s on a couple of my bikes - no problems to report so far.

smurf

Elixirs come in quite a few versions, 5 is the basic model, C has adjustable pad contact, R has adjustable reach and CR has both, also there are carbon lever versions and think they may have a 3 or 4 model now.

Elixirs are the successor to the Juicy (although they're still selling Juicys in some incarnations). You get a hell of a lot of Elixirs on new bikes from the big bike companies as they are cheap to them and are considered a high quality component (mostly due to their extortionate rrp).

I have Elixir CRs on my Remedy and I can safely say that they're the most powerful best feeling brake i've ever used. HOWEVER.....i'm forever realigning the calipers to stop them binding and I even went down the road of buying Hope rotors as the originals were made of cheese. The clearance between pads and rotor is laughably small. They are very maintenance heavy....fine if you're prepared to put in the work. I have a pair of Hope Tech X2s on my hardtail, they have the same amount of adjustment, look great but unfortunately lack the power of the Avids. They have never been bled and are showing no signs of needing to. They have loads of space inside the caliper and never bind.

I'd go for the Hopes if I were you, or stick with the Formulas. I rode a Lapierre Spicy with the RX model on and they were ace

elixirs on both my bikes - frickin great, easy to bleed with the proper kit (overpriced though) pad swap is less than a minute. can't fault them

oh and for balance - never touched them maintenance-wise in 8 mths

hmmm.........im surprised at the 'anti-juicy' thoughts. when they came out i got the impression they were the dogs b*ll*cks really, so its surprising to hear the negativity.

but........ive just sold my oro's now so im committed to buying again.

what hope or shimano mdels should i be looking out for? never looked at hopes before as i always thought they were overpriced. mono minis or something was it last time i bought brakes? and shimano would just be XT to look out for?

what about bleed kits? yep, i always thought avid bleed kits were a rip-off, but same with formula so i made my own. are hope or shimano any cheaper?

have always liked my oro's tho, so may look out for another set of them too 🙂

thanks

I have had juicy's (5, 7, 7 Carbon) on a number of my bikes. When they work, they're great but all the comments on bleeding etc are in line with my experience.

I was going to junk my two year old 7 carbons but the bike shop rebuilt them and now they are fantastic. But if/when they need more maint, then I'll get something else.

Looked at the Exilir and Merlin had some good deals on them, but now I think I'd go Hope (expensive) or Shimano.

I had Juicy 7's on my old bike which I have now transferred to a HT and they were a bit of a faff sometimes, mainly when it came to replace pads as there's a bit of a nack to doing it & the pistons don't always want to retract sufficiently.

My latest bike came with Elixirs and I was a little dubious, but they have been far more 'fit and forget', aside from the front needing a bleed from new.
They work well, the pads are easy to change and since the initial bleed, I haven't had to do a thing to them.

Im a luddite when it comes to anything faffy bike. I bought a set of Juicy's and tbh found them 'vague'- too much modulation and no bite.

Bought a set of Saints (mk1) and never looked back.

I've moved from Elixir Cs to Hope X2s. I eventually just gave up on the avids. I could never stop the pads rubbing. I could get it all perfect, and get back from a ride and the pads were rubbing again. Horrible noises from the front and after trying everything, just couldn't resolve.

So now I have gone with Hope X2s with braided hoses, 185m front and 160 rear. I find them a lot more powerful than my avids, and had no problems with them since installation.

<mutter mumble complain> they'll flip £30 on an anodised q/r but they moan at a bleed kit that makes the job easy and moan when it's difficult without</mmc>

2006 juicy 7 just bled the rear one for the first time. Took all of 5 minutes. Working just fine thank you.
2008 juicy 3 never been bled. Still on first set of pads! working well.

2010 XT needing a look at already - came on new bike 11 months ago.

I have Juicy 3s and 7s. Only had to bleed them when shortened the hoses. Yes bleed kits are expensive but I only paid £40 each end for the 3s so they are still dirt cheap (merlin bargain again). Pads are a bit fiddly to change but it's not something you have to do every week is it. If I was buying new brakes now I would look at SLX they seem very good vfm (£52 at ribble excluding rotor)

Elixirs all round here too. Get them from Merlin.

edit: after initial setup I've never touched them apart from pads

aye just looked at the merlin and ribble ones. look good vfm there. no rotors tho as you say. without googling, i assume thatd add another £30/£40 yeah? :-/

XT or SLX better? not really up on this SLX thing. always known deore/LX/XT/XTR 🙂

ta

I've got Elixir R on my fancy bike. Trouble-free and can stop me toot sweet despite my XTREEM lardcore riding style and personal cake intake.

has some juicy 7s on a bike for 4 years now. never needed bleeding and probably ridden over 5000 km

just thought i'd balance the negative stuff up there

My Elixirs stopped me from cutting a spaniel in half last night, so there's a middle-aged woman in East Lancs who rates them (and my reactions) at least.

Juicy 5's, 7's and carbons on my bikes for over 5 years. Never bled any of them, still working perfectly, and pretty much identically to my virtually new Magura Julies that came on a bike.

One of the sets of 7's has had at least 3000 miles on them, with some of that freeriding in spain. Other brakes were cooking - mine weren't.

but then, I'm not northern so I don't need to buy hope, and wouldn't given friends experiences. Same with formula. Magura work well but they vary the pads too much between models. The only others I'd consider would possibly be Shimano, but been very impressed with juicys.

just been googling and its implied the shimano just need a couple of syringes and bit of tube to bleed. that right? no rip-off bleed kits? that might sway me. simple to bleed? same with hopes or dedicated kit?

as it stands i can either get SLX, or XT would be about £30 more? worth it or can you not tell the difference?

(become a bit of a disc brake free for all now rather than just avid. should really start a new thread :-))

ta

Ante your juicys only have to stop a svelte-12 stone hombre...

My brakes are required to stop 16stone+ of prime-grissle 8)

Had Juicy's 7's on the bike when it arrived circa 2 years later, they were gone, totally p'eed off with the rear one needing constant attention - pistons 'always' sticking...
Swore i'd use anything but Avid but, a nice offer a Wiggle, the fact I already had the bleed kit, and positive reviews swayed to to a set of Elixir CR's. I paid about £100 an end - good price at the time, pretty widely available at that price now?
Hoses needed trimming so I had to bleed the (god awful) factory bleed anyways.
Faultess thus far - circa 10 months - stop 16 stone of lard with hardly a whimper - even when using SS pads - original avid pads died after just a couple of rides - as above pad replacement is simples... 😉

hora - Member
Ante your juicys only have to stop a svelte-12 stone hombre...

My brakes are required to stop 16stone+ of prime-grissle

Lose some weight then fatboy!

Merlin defo include the rotors for the price unless that's changed v.recently

My bike came with Juicy 7s.

After all the crap I'd read about them I was so ready to hate them and planned on replacing them at some point.

Having now had the bike about 18 months The juicys are still there. They just sit there and do their job, stop me well, dont rub and never need looking at. I don't really notice or think about them at all, quite an endorsement really.

Just upgraded my front 160 to 185 rotor and now my juicy's on my XC HT are purfect 🙂

I had J5s on my Stumpy - when they work, they are fine - but they often don't. I find the pads utterly hateful to replace and they always rub - mines annoyed me more than not.

Got Elixir CRs a few months ago and love them - easy pad replacement, superb feel and modulation and less bulky. I stuck the G2s (not G3s) rotors as they are lighter too...

I replaced my Avid Juicy 3's and Ultimates with some Hope Tech M4 and wish i hadn't bothered!! They've needed quite a bit of maintaneance. after some emails from hope they are now sorted but they still don't seem very powerful.

Avid's felt a lot more comfortable and powerful for a given rotor size. Spares are expensive though. Some slicone spray on the pistons occasionaly can help with corrosion ( i had to bin a pair after they corroded and pistons got jammed)

Having owned the top end Ultimate (100-200 quid each) and the juicy 3 (35 - 60 quid each) i'd stick with the bottom of the range ones. Extra adjusters aren't that useful, not much weight difference (50g?) and lever feel is actually better on the cheaper ones.

Hmm I have juicy 7 and M4's and both good - the M4 with 203's are easily enough power for me and I have no issues with maintenance - got the juicy bleed kit and no issues with my juicys either 🙂

I have juicy 7's and the initial set up was a bit of a faff and the hoses were massive so forced to do a bleed (was thankful in the end as once bled were a different brake)

since then I have had no problems whatsoever, I love them and if these need replacing I wouldn't hesitate to get more Avids. The initial negative comments put me off but finding them for stupidly cheap a while back swayed me.

No problems here at all 😉

bought a orange 5 2011 few weeks ago and had the Hope V2's with 203mm floating rotors. some would say overkill but they were a free upgrade from the lbs so why not? there amazing, plenty of stopping power, and I weigh over 15 stone. just make sure you hold on or you'll be otb's. But great modulation too, and adjustment of lever etc, and pads very quick and easy to replace. Look's good too