They always seem to get good reviews, and presumably the mags ride them a fair bit before passing judgement(well hopefully).
But some Elixir 5's came on my new bike, they've made it 192 mostly dry trail center (swinely) miles before now either being rock hard with no free play or pulling to the bar, and there's no guessing which they'll do for any given pull!
This is the second set I've had that's gone to pot within the first month of riding so I'm pretty much convinced they really are this bad. The last set went back to Fishers and came back with a note saying I'd bled them incorrectly, which was strange as they failed before I bled them (must have been preemptive failure), failed again after I'd bled them, and failed again after Fishers had apparently bled them correctly!
This time the new bike was new (but never ridden by the original owner) so at least I don't have to deal with months of faffing before I can bin them.
Time to go back to hopes, they might not be as powerfull, and they might cost several times more, but on the basis my last two sets weren't maintained in 3 years, that's 36x better reliability.
6 year old Avid Juicy Ultimate's here. Great brakes - no issues.
Same here. Had juicys and elixirs in the past. No issues. Running elixirs now. Although I do know of a few mates that have had nothing but problems.
Make of that what you will
My BB7s are great.
Avid Elixirs 2 sets love them, on the look out for another cheap pair as it goes.
Juicy 5 on my old old bike were mega. Elixir 5 on my mates went wrong from the off.
I've had a a few sets and never had any issues.
Not fantastic but I have Juicy 3s, 5s and 7s on my bikes. Had a few issues but nothing major. The 3s on my commuter haven't been bled since I've had them - over five years.
Get them bled by someone that knows what they're doing and they'll be excellent, unfortunately this wasn't my LBS.
Yep. 2nd hand Juicy 5s lasted me 3-4 years including a summer in whistler, still probably fine to use as well. Went back to Elixir 3s from slx on my main bike and much happier. BB7s awesome as well. Absolutely no problems here! I only changed the juicy 5s cos I fancied something new and shiny as well 🙂
Had Juicy 3s, 5s, 7s, Code 5s. Very easy to service, easy to bleed, nice and powerful.
I never got on with Elixirs though.
...only when I replaced them...and the good experience was that I didn't need to use them again!
Don't like the feel of the lever, don't like the feel of the actual brake, bleeding is ok but nothing good or bad, pad replacement is a ball-ache...pleased I got shot of them.
Mine are fine too.
BB7s are brilliant.
My elixir 5s were truly awful...never again.
Elixir 5's shockiingly bad, keep hoping they will bed in, going to give them 1 more month if not then shimano slx on the way.
Have 4 sets across me and Mrs Shecks bikes for about 4 years... No issues for 3.5 years, but in the past 6 months 5 of the 8 brakes have had issues, some of which I've cured, some the LBS, some Fishers, and one of them seems incurable. Beginning to lose the faith
Had loads of Juicy's and Elixir's, currently running Elixir 9s on mine and the missus bike, and held up fine in the Alps last year for PdS and Les Gets bike park, and still going strong.
Bleeding can be hit and miss. Still not 100% sure whats needed to make the bleed go right as I do the same thing every time and sometimes its a good un, sometimes not. I do tend to push more fluid through than they say, that seems to get a bit more air out. I think its pot luck and if you get some trapped air it can be a sod to get out.
BB7s are good. The Juicys that came on my Pitch were ok when freshly bled but quickly deteriorated. Faded horribly in the Alps too.
Had Elixir cr's for two years excellent brakes
Rode a few different brakes at a demo day and none had feel and control as my elixir's
I had a wicked experience with my Avids. I threw them in the wheelie bin, and it was great...
Their V brakes are/were superior to shimanos efforts for the same price. Avid arch rivals if set up properly could be/are amazing.
Sadly their disc brakes don't seem to be in the same league.
Elixir 5's on my Trance seem fine to me. I wasn't a big fan of the funny washers on the brake mounts and it took me a few goes to get them lined up perfectly, but now they are they give as much power as I could ever need. I also bought an Epic solutions bleed kit and learnt how to bleed them, which only takes 5 minutes every few months and keeps them sweet.
love elixir 5's no issues with 3 sets.
Elixir R's here four about three years. Never been bled and never had an issue. Hopefully I've not just jinxed them!!! 😀
Elixir 5's came on my bike, worked for the past 18 months with no maintenance other than changing pads, never been bled.
I've got a set of ancient Juicys and some Elixirs from the first year they came out. As my bikes have chopped and changed over the years I've got rid of Shimano, Hope and Magura brakes but stuck with the Avids.
They just work.
To be fair the Shimano were good too but I didn't like the feel of the Magura and the Hope were unreliable.
Elixir 7s for 10 months. CRs for a year. They're great. I'm not a heavy rider though.
Mine needed bled on first pad change, on two bikes, as the OEM pads were thinner than new ones. Possibly not avid's fault, mind.grilla - MemberElixir 5's came on my bike, worked for the past 18 months with no maintenance other than changing pads, never been bled.
Elixir 5s are basically OK IME, good but not great performance and annoying amount of adjustment / bleeding. Not bad enough that you just have to upgrade them with something good asap, more something to replace in time when you've got some spare bike money.
Had some Juicy 5s. I get very angry when I think about them. I'm angry now. 😡
The Avid X0 Trails I've got are brilliant. I bled them out the box, which wasn't that hard, and they're a great brake. Lots of power and modulation, along with not a lot of weight. What more do you want?
I have bb7 at the moment and my first bike had juicy 3s which worked great through much abuse.
160mm BB7s on 3 bikes with superstar sintered pads, faultless and low maintenance, cheap to run... 🙂
I've had my Juicy 3sl's for 4 1/2 years, never had an issue with them. No bleeding or sticky pistons.
Factory bleeds are hit n miss . Seen plenty with the "one pull ok next straight to the bar" symptoms.
're-bled a set of Elixir 1's on a mates bike recently and they seem fine. He's happy with the feel of them, can't stand the things myself...I don't get on with any other than Hope's .
Yeah, BB7's are faultless and you can strip, clean and rebuild in about 10 mins. Get a workshop box of inners & some Speed dial levers and you're laughing.
Aside from that, no.
Had Juicy 5's, they were crap. Followed by Hopes which were just too modulated for me, now on Formula The One and LOVE them. Faultless over 2 years, changing pads out is so easy, light. Must I go on 😛
i've had 3 sets and all have been flawless, current x0 trail brakes re a bugger to get pads into though. on the plus side they could stop a planet the things are mentally powerful
Had 3 sets of Juicy 7's - never had any problems with those.
Currently running 4 sets of Elixirs: -
1. Elixir 1's - nearly new - bled rear once no issues since - front no issues
2. Elixir 5's - 2 year old front & nearly new rear - had to bleed the rear on receipt - no issues since - front never bled
3. Elixir R's - 2 year old front & rear - never bled - the sharpest of the ones I own
4. Elixir R rear & CR front - never bled the front - had to bleed the rear recently (twice) - I didn't do a great job first time, but got it spot on second time
Followed the SRAM tech video to get the bleed process correct - just make sure I take my time nowerdays to get all of the air out
I'm happy with them & the only ones I'd think about swapping for is the latest Shimano ones
Enjoyed my juicy carbons greatly. Just the carbon levers and the pricetag attached too them kept me from using the full potential of them..
The Juicy 3s I had were **** awful. After years of misery trying to get them to work reliably I buried them in the garden with stakes through the master cylinders. I'm only slightly exaggerating here. Dreadful things.
LMT - MemberElixir 5's shockiingly bad, keep hoping they will bed in, going to give them 1 more month if not then shimano slx on the way.
You do realise that you are meant to bed your brakes in when they are new?
They don't just bed themselves in during the course of normal riding.
The precedure is in the manual you know.
You did read the manual, didn't you?
😆
urgh Avid brakes a continual thorn in my side.
Another BB7 fan. 🙂
Bugger of a thing to bleed though...
BB7's- amazing, I have two sets. Faultless.
Juicy 7's and Carbons- great- no problems at all, ever. Until 110kg of Ambrose tries to drag the brakes in the Alps. 185 rotors. Boils fluid. Scary (I mean really scary) but not Avid's fault, definite user error.
Swapped over to Frankenbrakes- Code calipers, Juicy Carbon/7 levers. 203mm rotor front, 185 rear. Perfect. No problems ever since, whatsoever. Ride Alps, Wet and gritty Wales. And I'm a big biffer too.
Son of Ambrose also has Avids, the Frankenbrakes' Evil twins. Code levers, Juicy 7 calipers. Brakes have been faultless to date, inc. Alps and local (South Wales) riding. He's a big lad too.
All on Superstar pads as well.
I must admit to wondering if people sometimes just want to jump onto the most recent bandwagon. Avids get slated- but I've more experience of Hope's being Hopeless. And I've had as many OEM pads fail on me as I have had SS fail. Is it just a fashionable thing to do- slate certain brands.
FWIW, I like Avids and see no reason myself to change from them. Likewise Superstar.
