My juicy 3’s need a service, probably new pistons and pads costing roughly £90 parts and labour. These brakes were never great so is it worth it or should i get some new brakes. You can pick up a pair of Elixir 1s for £90 or something better secondhand (which might need a service anyway!). So if you were skint like me what would you do?

I’d get ’em on ebay. Honest description and see what you get, you might be surprised.

I’d then replace them with some Shimanos from Germany.

APF

Service them yourself?

I did mine recently. Didn’t replace any parts, just cleaned and regreased the seals and bled. Total cost £2 for a pot of red grease from ebay.

File them…In the bin 😉

Buy Shimano Deore. I have serviced LOTS of avid juicy 3’s. They are, good, but not great, OK for light XC use though.

The new Deore’s (& the entire range) brakes are proper solid, reliable, easy to bleed & cheap. £60 each. Go buy em’ from your local IBD 🙂

I run Deore on one of our demo Downhill bikes, they have been more than good enough.

Sell.

Buy Shimano.

My Deores cost me £70 from Rose, so £30 cheaper than servicing Juicys. No contest really.

Definately not worth servicing at that price, but then I’d recommend ditching them ASAP anyway. Wasn’t impressed with with the set that came on my Trek bike, but the final straw was the absolute nightmare I had trying to change pads midway through the Kielder 100.

Been much happier with Avid Elixirs. Well worth getting the bleed kit as it makes it a very easy job to do yourself, and therefore you can also change the pistons quite easily yourself too

I was recently in a similar situation, but looking at servicing them myself and got a pair of (OK wrong handed so still gonna have to faff slightly) basic Shimanos for <£20 an end from a certain German online store.

I don’t think the Juicys are bad brakes, they’re good and powerful and feel nice…

Apart from when stuff starts to seize up on them. Basically I’m sure all the seals and stuff would be fine to re-use, so taking apart and cleaning up is a no cost option that would work for a bit, but I’m just fed up of near constantly having one piston jammed & fairly regular bleeds (which aren’t that hard but shouldn’t be required that much!).

you can get a brand new set of Deore from Merlin for £90

http://www.merlincycles.com/bike-shop/mtb-parts/brakes/disc-brakes/shimano-disc-brakes/shimano-deore-m596-disc-brake-set-front-rear.html

I never managed to bleed my avid successfully, I would never go back, its a 5 minute job on shimnao

Bin ’em. I spent ages trying to get mine to work reliably but they suffer from chronic sticky pistons* so in the end I gave up and replaced them with something else less fussy about mud.

* Yes, I tried that thing you’re going to suggest, don’t bother. And that thing. And that one. Seriously. Shut up. 😉

Juicy 3s are a nightmare once they need fiddling with and even when right they don’t self adjust properly like better brakes, pistons are a git, and replacing the pads are a nightmare. Elixir pad & clip design is miles better.

If it’s going to cost £90 to service, bin and buy something better (preferably something not in the Juicy family. Elixir stuff is fine, or any other brand, all better than Juicy).

+1 for ditching them.

I had more faffing with Juicy 3s in a few months than I’ve had to do in about 2 years since sticking M595 Deores on. The M596 are even better. It’s really not worth spending on the Juicys given the prices on the German sites.

Thought that’s what everyone would say! They’ve been a bit pain since new.

Get rid on ebay and buy shimmy deore from one of the german shops, bought some for my missus bike for £70 and they are spot on for the money, i did need to swop hoses round but it was 5 minutes no bleeding required

who the bleeding heck is it who everybody keeps buying from in Germany !???

http://www.bike-discount.de/?lg=en

Rose Bikes.de

Trying to put those metal clips back into place with a new set of pads was a real pain last time, thinking about it, I think I ended up leaving the clips out in the end, goes off to check……… 😯