Time to switch from Avid brakes? Tell me about Shimano…

Always had Avid Juicy's. Going to replace the Juicy Carbon on my FS. Looked at Elixir but seen mixed reviews. Merlin have these and XT's for £200. Tempted by the XT's.

Juicy's seem to lack the power.. 180/160 been properly bled (not by me!), new pads but still not really cutting it. Time for a change I think.

Any experience? Ta.

Have you chucked in a different rotor? Perhaps your pads AND disc are contaminated? Try new pads and rotor (beg or borrow) and see if you are still having issues…

I have 5 year old XTR dual lever brakes. I love them although they are in need of new fluid and are getting a bit rattly… I'd buy them againa and having used the new XTR brakes, I think they're awesome.

My wife has Juicy brakes and personally I think the pad change on the XTR is easier and it's also easier to move the pistons on the XTR calipers as preventative maintenance.

you can pick up the XT set (without rotors) for about 120 and they are very good imho. I would try changing pads, and cleaning the rotor….surely a metal SS rotor can be just easily wiped clean?

Have new XTR and hope pro mini, will be changing the hopes as xtr are far better in bleed, pad change, and riding is just another level up IMO

I am the same as sparkyspice I have XTR dual controls (newer style) and I love them.I would not use any other brakes.I also bought some superstar kevlar pads and they are great.Lots of braking power.

What's good for cleaning rotors with? I did have some disk brake cleaner but lost it in the last move. What else works? I'll try that and some new (avid) pads before spending any more cash.

Interested donks where you saw the £120 no rotor deal for. I assume they'd work with Avid Rotors?

boiling water, washing up liquid, and an old pot-brush (or wait till the girlfriend is out).

don't forget to give it a jolly good rinse with a kettle full of hot water.

works for me, my brakes are ace.

(shimano)

Ribble cycles do the cheap no rotor deal.

They're excellent.

You can clean them by sticking them in the dishwasher.

Moved from Avids to Shimano and love them. I'd bin the juicys – the last straw for me was the crappy phenolic pistons crumbling (due in part to having to force them apart to get new pads / discs in)

I got them off ebay a while back brand new from an ebay shop, just search around, not really sure about the compatability of rotors between differnt manufacturers. I would say that white spirit or any solvant cleaner ( i may be flamed for this) should get any grease etc off the rotors, failing that a dry cloth and elbow grease has worked for me.

put em in the dishwasher,along with your chain.(seriously)

DONT use white spirit,it leaves a residue !

If the clean and new pads doesn't work, sounds like Shimano are a good option. Disks in the DiskWasher eh? You learn something new every day!

Aye, sounds a bit odd but it's what Fishers recommend.

I’ve cleaned chains, cranks, cassettes and mechs in the dishwasher. They come out like new.

Not tried brakes, would be worth a go if your looking to change anyway.

Just don't tell your Mum, Wife or girlfriend 😀

Go ride Kirroughtree in the rain. 10 @ kirry cleaned my drive train and brakes really nice. 😛

The wifes face would be a picture if she open the DW to see my chain and discs….priceless.

Rotor Cleaning

I go to Boots (the chemist) and buy sterelising alcohol wipes, (the ones that the nurse uses before jabbing a needle into your arm) they're about 4p each. They're easy to carry (I keep a couple in my Camelbak) and get all the crap off your rotors.

I've put contaminated pads in the dishwasher before and it doesn't do them any harm. I'd worry about the salt in cleaning product degrading a chain though… As for pouring boiling water on rotors, I'd take them off the wheel first because of melting and rinsing any grease out of hub bearings.

I swapped back to XTs from Avid Fives. Shimano brakes are great. Easy to setup, easy to bleed, easy to swap the pads and they work really well. Reliable fit and forget brakes.

What's good for cleaning rotors with?

Take it off, hang from a wire, soak in meths and set it alight. Yes. Seriously. 🙂

I find the above comments really interesting. I was lured across to Shimano XT brakes (when they came out with swervo? technology), but I must admit that I have had nothing but trouble with them – for almost two years. They squeal like a stuffed pig, chew through pads and need constantly bleeding and adjustment to stop disc rub. Perhaps just me but I havent been that impressed. When they are working they do have pretty good power and modulation, but overall would rather look at the Elixirs.

Halfords sell huge spray cans of brake cleaner especially for cleaning brakes. Look in the car brake section. Also degreases just about everything!

How do you contaminate a rotor?

My Juicy 5's are just about done I think. Re-bled loads of times but they have loads of lever flex still, I don't think it can be solved by bleeding. Front lever is loose.

I use halfords bike hut disc brake cleaner on mine, seems to work well enough. Other than that try methylated spirit? White spirit leaves a greasy film I think so wouldn't bother with that.

No need for the Flambe(accent) on the discs. Meths on a rag does it for me. Then de glaze the pads on wet&dry placed on a flat surface and pads rubbed in circular motions.
Re-bed the pads.

Avids – 3,5 & 7.

Car brake cleaner will leave an oily film on your brakes and get you nowhere.

I've been using XTs for a couple of years and it's been quite trouble-free. Plenty of power (160/160 rotors), good feel, good consistency.

They can chew through pads really fast but that has mostly been at wet endurance races where everyone else was having the same trouble. My current pads have done over 3000 miles.

The pistons can get a bit sticky if you go down the zero maintenance and riding in lots of filth route. I tried taking the pads out and spraying lots of oil around… That completely buggered them, so I replaced the fluid completely which (despite rumours to the contrary) was very easy. They've been back to brilliant since then.

BTW, I'm using Ashima pads + rotors, Goodridge hoses.

I've never cleaned rotors with anything other than soapy water, WTF do you do to them to get them contaminated that it needs removing with alcohol?

Boar Poo 🙂 They're in the dishwasher. If it works well, I may consider it for cleaning the kids as well!

_tom_ you can get the avid lever service kit, for about 12 quid I think. Sorts out the lever wobble but its a full strip down.

Yeah I did that on my first set of juicy's. Worth downloading the PDF showing an exploded diagram before you take it all to bits. Ask me how I know this eh? 😉

Yeah! Might be a vid on YouTube too.

Cheers, I didn't know about that. Might be worth a go. I'm crap with fiddly stuff though so it might not be much use, and I've never taken hydraulics apart before, bit indimidating! Them and forks are the only things that seem a bit out of my reach DIY-mechanic wise.

I've had XTR discs for 3 years and they have been set and forget—until recently. Finally had a rear piston sticking-got good advice on this site on how to unstick it, which worked, but it continued to stick with more frequency, so ended up replacing the entire caliper. I ride in really dusty/dry/sandy conditions and I think eventually enough dust/grit got between the piston and the piston sleeve to cause the problem. Not sure how to prevent that–thought of using high-pressure air compressor to periodically clean all the dust out.
I had Hope discs previously and they required a lot more messing with and were extremely noisy.

i just got avid elixir R's £154 for the whole lot with 160 rotors great deal. serious power and look smart compared to my avid juicys they feel 1000 times better.

Was that eBay Tony?

XTs on the HT – no problems – nice consistent brakes which are easy to change.

Thanks to everyone for the dishwasher trick. Going to try that 8)