Adjusting Bite Point of Juicy 5’s……how???

I have a set of 5’s fitted to my Trek, you only need to pull the levers a little way and the brakes are biting hard. I would prefer a bit more movement, is there anyway of making them bite with the levers a bit closer to the bars?

Would dropping a little fluid out make any difference? Which end?

And before anyone says use the little grub screw to adjust the lever, it is the bite point i want to alter, not the reach of the lever.

Cheers

Chris

There’s no bite point adjust on Juicy 5s like there is on the Juicy 7s.

Whip the pads out, and have a look at how far back the pistons retract – if not all the way back into the caliper, then you may need to unstick them a bit with some brake fluid to get them moving smoothly.

If that still doesn’t work, then there may be too much fluid in the system. In which case, let some out while, at the same time, working the pistons back into the caliper.

cheers ourman, thought it could be to do with to much fluid.

Will give it a bash tonight….and then come to work tomorrow crying when its all gone wrong!!

you can also put an air bubble in your system ..bleed them badly or miss out the top lever part iirc and you get more movement /modulation. I have done this for my front brake but not my back.

thanks for the tip junkyard.

junkyard – that will make them pretty inconsistent and prone to overheating problems.

just set the levers closer to your bars and learn to pull gently on them. (What size rotors do you have? – sounds like your brakes may be more powerful than you really need TBH)

GW – have 185’s front and rear. The bikes a large Fuel EX8. I’m a bit less than 14 1/2 stone.

I think the brakes are about right for the bike (and me) there just seams to be very little lever movement before the brakes bite. I could maybe understand if the pads were always binding but they run free.

I run Mono Minis on my hard tail and they have loads of travel before they lock up.

They sound perfect then!
Why would you want lots of free movement at the lever before the pads make contact?
simply move the lever adjust screw until the bite point is where is comfortable for your hands.

I take it your juicy’s are pretty new? – after a while they all develop (annoying) slop/play at the pivot and in the lever piston rod – it causes no real problem and most folk just put up with it so rather than getting a new lever bushing kit just leave them and it will give you more lever throw before they contact. (did that make sense? :?)

Cheers GW, bikes 7 month old, used once or twice a week. Only problem is that because they bite so early, the levers are quite away from the bars.

They would just be more comfortable if they bit closer.

not at all inconsistent why should it be the pressure is sealed in there etc etc. Overheating not done so yet but you probably have a point that this is more likely to occur.
It is clearly to compensate for a lack of skill though as I found i kept locking the front wheel – which is just harder to do now – think brake performance about the same but would assume some reduction in power but not that noticable.
There is an adjuster screw on the lever to alter start position of the lever
Manual from here
http://www.sram.com/en/service/avid/view.php?catID=1&subcatID=1