AVID DISC Brakes.. Are they any good?

On one have good deals on Avid XX, AVID elixir5,r, cr disc brakes,

But are avid brakes any good, and which of the above is the best value for money, the xx are 99.99, the cr is 89.99 the r is 109.99, and the 5 is 64.99.

Cheers

My Elixr 5s are perfectly adequate. I pull the lever and the bike stops. That’ll do for me.

I know no-one with Avids that has enjoyed the experience. Fiddly, unreliable – most people change them out pretty quickly for something else….at least up here in Aberdeenshire.

what would you recommend then?
Hopes?

Great when new. 😉

And ‘tool-free’ pad replacement – is there a more pointless ‘innovation’?

Eventually I binned mine (Juicy 7/carbon) and went to Hope’s – job done.

My favourite bike has old juicys. They are great. Others have current saint, xtr or formula ones.

I’ve yet to see a convincing argument for buying anything other than Shimano.

no problems with mine

got Juicy 7s in 2005 and gave them away this summer to a kid who needed some brakes for his bike – they were still working perfectly well despite 6 years of abuse all over the UK, Canada and Europe on 6 different bikes with different rotor sizes

bled them twice a year, new pads as needed, changed the master cylinder diaphragm on the rear after 2 years, never changed the pistons or seals in the caliper

also have Elixir CRs, also no problems to report – now 3 years old and have been on 3 different bikes, lots of muddy / wet riding and downhills

the Elixirs are tricker to bleed, it takes some experience and knowledge to get a good reliable bleed and also set them up properly to ensure balanced performance – Avid’s CPS mounting system does not help in this respect as it allows a bad initial setup which can cause premature pad / piston wear, squealing, etc.

something I would say about Avid (and SRAM in general) is that we have seen a decrease in their quality control pretty much every season

the “new” Avid is not as reliable as the old “Avid” in my opinion having worked on 100s of sets of Juicys and Elixirs

however we are seeing reduced QC on many brands (cheaper parts, wonky wheelbuilds, poorly aligned or defective frames) as they cut costs to try and maintain competitive pricepoints

one of the best things about Avid / Sram is the stellar backup you now get from UK distrib. Fisher Outdoor, as long as you guy from a proper dealer then you have a solid warranty on Avid

i got rid of my bb7 id had for years and got a set of elixir r brakes earlier this year . im loving them so much power and feel to them ! they squeel a bit towards the end of a ride but im fairly sure thats just a layer of dirt coz wheels spin free enuf ! pads are piss easy to change and bleading is simple enough once you get used to it .

2002 Magura Martas, bled them 3 years ago, had a new master cylinder on the left (£26 from Magura) last year. Flawless. Can remove pads in the dark and whatever the conditions. Brilliant pad life with sintered. Usually a bargain 2nd hand on STW.

Like Druidh said Shimano are excellent too….they copied magura massively in the early days. Very reliable.

Lots of people I ride with also like hope but I’m not a big fan as I think the levers go floppy quickly and the power output is a lot lower than the magura and shimano offerings.

I love mine. I’m using juicy 7s, XX and XO at the moment, but have had good experiences with Elixir Rs and CRs as well. There were problems with early XXs, but 2011s seem sorted (or mine are at least) and the XO and 2012 Elixir 7s are mega in my experience. All a lot more subtle looking than the Shimano alternatives too.

All my bikes have Avid. Work fine. Pad change much easier on the Elixir. No points in going for anything other than bottom of the range IMO as all you gain is adjustment and very slight weight loss.

Agree about the backup. I broke some Avid Juicy Ultimates nearly 2 year after buying them, both replaced without question.

i’ve not had any problems bleeding using the proper kit.

Don’t seem to be able to get all the spares as easily as for Hope, but they are so much cheaper to start with i’m not too fussed.

Had bad experience with Hope Tech M4’s, very underwhelming given they were 2-3x the cost of the avids.

I got rid of my Shimano brakes for avid Elixir’s when I built my bike up in February, predominately because I wanted white brakes 😳 but also because the seals on my Deore brakes failed in the cold weather and rendered them useless.

I really rate the Avids, so much so that when I built my 29er up the other month I slung a set on there too.

The majority of my riding mates have Avid Elixirs too and have not had a problem with them in any condition, great amount of power and feel too. Better than the equivalent Shimano IMHO

why would you want to adjust pad contact ? if your brakes have good modulation you pull lever a small amount and get a small amount of braking right ?!
you pull some more you get . . . some more braking power .
my elixirs lock front or rear tyre long before the lever reaches the bar and you can adjust the position of the lever or, were the hole process starts from, so unless your disc is warped
why ? surly they are within a mm or two of disc to start with ??
or am i just a bit simple ???

I liked my Elixer CR power and feel (prefer them over XX), but found they were pad killers and didn’t blead as easily as my Shimano. I’m running Shimanos on most of my bikes now (love my XTR Trails especially) and will be sticking with them after trying a few different brakes over the years.

If you want to try Avids from that range I’d recommend Elixer CR, otherwise 2012 Shimano XT is a similar price range.

Had some Juicy’s that were at best inconsistent. I only like stuff I can service myself so I bought Hopes.

A mate has Juicy’s and had to wait over a month for spares to get them going again.

I wouldn’t bother.

Shimano disc brakes are amazing, ive had saints and xt’s and they have been faultless. The avid codes I had needed bleeding alot and didnt offer as much power, and the juicy’s I had were similar

as someone who works professionally as a bike mechanic; something I would say is that all the Avid brakes we’ve had through our workshops (in 4 different stores) with ongoing “bleed” problems have had bad bleeds, often when a customer has tried to bleed them at home or had an inexperienced mechanic work on them

if they need bleeding alot or feel inconsistent, this is because they still have air in the brake system – this doesn’t magically work its way in 😉

perhaps this is Avid’s problem – their bleeding process on the Elixir is “tricky” and best left to experienced bike wrenches

I can count on one hand the number of times there has been a genuine
problem like a leaking MC diaphragm or faulty piston seal

spare parts are readily available for both Juicy and Elixir if you shop around and the brakes are super simple to work on even at home with basic tools, silicon grease (for piston seals) and Avid bleed kit with Dot 5.1 fluid

Do any of you guys know if avid brakes come ready to use, or will i have to add the fluid.

Also as they will be going on a full suspension bike, has anyone used them on one?

cheers

Yes we think they are good.

Avids on on 5 bikes here and Shimanos and Haynes on two others. Some of the Avids my 7s on the SS have not been touched for years, its my most ridden bike and they are great. Some of the other 7s have required more attention but less than the Hopes we used to run through out the house hold. Two pairs of Elixirs, so far they are even better.

I work on lots of brakes, we like the Avids, pretty easy to work on effective and powerful, Hopes easy to work on, older ones not so powerful, newer ones better, I quite like the ‘steampunk’ engineering but find them expensive and a little clunky. Like the newer Shimanos also well worthy of recommendation.

Avid’s are great, but if you’re ham-fisted like the majority on here seem to be then don’t bother ‘cos you’ll convince yourself that avid brakes are crap. 😉

My BB7s are the dogs danglies

I have elixir 5’s on both my transition tr450 and my transition covert. I am a reknowned fat overbraker. They are brilliant.

Elixirs are fantastic until they need bleeding after that it becomes a bit of a gamble 🙁

My 7s have been faultless over 4 years or so now including two bleeds using the correct kit, correctly. I can’t complain as my previous hopes we less than stellar.

juicy 5’s have been faultless and were easy to bleed with the right kit. Bb7 i set up last week was every bit as good with new Shimano cables.

I like my Juicy 5s when they work which is actually quite a bit of the time now I’ve replaced and greased the pistons. Finally got the hang of bleeding them (didn’t follow the avid guide as that never seems to work for me). Very reliable over 2 months of Whistler and pad wear was very good – same can’t be said for the Formula K18 I had on the rear which was a bit shite. That being said I’ll probably switch to something else when they do eventually die, hopes or shimano I reckon.

Love the BB7 I have as well but its not great at modulation.

I have Avid Code 5s (juicy lever, code calliper). Really like them and found them easy to set up, powerful, reliable and easy to bleed with the syringe kit. Probably bleed x2 per year. Much better than previous Hayes or shimano brakes I’ve had (at a lower price point) – mainly in respect to fluid fade and pad life. They look pretty too.

Down side for me is that I cant easily get pads.

There was an issue with a crimped hose out the box but it was warrantied very quickly and with out question.

For some reason you cant use them with braided hoses. Voids the warranty and I have read some where about bursting the seals… but I cant see how it would do that (?)

I’ve got a set of Juicy 5s and two sets of Elixir CRs…all work well and have been no hassle. Pad changes are the only niggle I’ve had with the Juicy 5.

I have Elixir CR’s. Work well. Likewise the Juicies I’ve had.
If you want fit & forget you need to look at Shimano though.

Elixir r on both bikes – brilliant IMO – easy to bleed with the proper kit if you follow the instructions. Those xx deals look awesome

AVID DISC Brakes.. Are they any good?

No

Well does anyone have any avid elixir r or cr that they want to sell, that are also working well.

Cheers

Got a set of brand new elixir 3’s (changed from r’s to 3’s for the 2012 ones) that I am selling for £85 posted, come with the new rotors in 180 and 160 with adapters ( post mount front and is rear) email in profile if your interested

they are utter dross,

I love my BB7s – dislike the Avid hydro versions though ( working on them and seeing mates have issues esp changing pads ! )- I would say shimano all the way for hydro….

tried hope / formula too – all ok but nothing comes close to shimano

paul

I’ve used many different brakes, avid and formula being my faves avid r are about the best for the money generally but if you can get xx for £99 per end then go for it , ive never used xx but they will surely be lighter with the same amount of power as the r’s.

Elixir can be awkward to bleed but when working correctly I don’t think anything matches them at similiar price point for power.

It’s rare people talk about the lower end formulas i.e k18’s on here but they are very powerfull and feel great.

As for hope as much as I love them as a brand I just cannot get on with their brakes ( ducks head ) I personally find them underpowered, the adjustability is great though and they are second to none for customer service.

If you are happy getting your head around the avid bleed process I’d go for the xx or the r

Just my ten cents for what it’s worth.

I have BB7s on both mountain bikes. I love cable-actuated brakes. Simple to fit. Never pump up. No bleeding. No pad rubbing or dragging. Lots of adjustment for if your mounts aren’t aligned correctly. Brilliant, and that’s despite having non-disc-brake specific levers. Got Shitmano hydraulics on my commuter. Horrible rattly draggy things yuk.

I’ve had two sets from new, one bought from Evans at full whack (Elixer 5’s) and another set that came on my new 5. The set from Evans were horrendous, I used them with 203mm rotars and they were full of air from the start and never worked properly, even when I took them back to eVans. Second set on the Orange is just the same and thats routed internally….magic.

Buy a set of R1’s and be amazed – they really are worth the money

Oh, and +1 for the cheaper formulas, I’ve got a set of K18’s that have never needed touching – absolutely spot on for the money

I’ve also got a set of MT8’s sat in a box looking all badass – just need to fit them to a bike now!