SRAM - Good or Bad ???

[Spinnekop]

Let's just get this over with.....I HATE SHIMANO.

 

That said. I had XT on my MTB and road with it for a year. Then switched to SRAM.

And....I.....(dammit).....miss the XT.....

 

Shifting was better. XT shifting you can shift with the thumb and index finger. Nice feature.

Also XT brakes cannot be improved on. Simply the BEST.

 

That said....will I swing my current XX for Shimano? No. There is simply not such a big difference to justify the money.....

 

Much of the sameness

[nonky]

On my Spez Camber, X7 front derailleur has given lots of hassles (chain suck, falling off, not changing smoothly) but XT rear derailleur has been perfect...bike has been serviced 3 times (once by LBS, twice at S2C).

 

My other bike (26er, 3rd-hand, abused) has XT front and rear but, despite all the abuse and lack of servicing, runs like a swiss watch.

[rouxtjie]

been on XX for 3years, not a single problem. have not replaced pads or bleed the system in 3years as yet. i have a few mates rolling on XX and they were on Shimano.

 

could it not be rider use perphaps.

perhaps...or the mechanic rather....

 

See my mine gripe with it is the brake fluid it uses and the admin involved in bleeding them, also the frequency you have to bleed the brakes to keep them sharp....oh and the design of the caliper. Now the the elixirs(CR's) I had used dot 5 brakefluid.

 

So dot 5 fluid is extremely hygroscopic meaning it attracts water and keeps it...more so than mineral oil(which shimano systems use). Being mountain biking, one does tend to divert into mud / water pools every now again and if the seals of the elixirs were designed properly they would keep said water out of the system. However they don't.

 

So what tends to happens is that you go for a ride or two with your new elixirs and everything is fine...but you hit a couple of puddles or mud and boom your brakes now start feeling spongy in your rides afterwards. Initially you think its brake pad wear or bitepoint adjustment...so you fiddle and fiddle...but the devil is in the oil itself....Contaminated dot 5 can only be fixed with a bleed. This is the brake fade that SRAM hatters talk about...It would be awesome if SRAM would then make these brakes easy to bleed but alas, they also dropped the ball here...some say bleeding Elixirs is an art, my opinion, its a curse. If you have the patience to bleed them properly and remove every single air bubble in the system you will be good to go until it gets contaminated again...wash rinse repeat of the above.

 

Over and above, the seals and o-rings come in contact with dot 5 and its quite an aggressive substance, they eventually eat these o-rings and seals turning your beautiful red dot fluid black....so more contamination from this, some guys are fine with riding a ticking timebomb...brakes are too important to me.

 

And then lastly in the bleeding process if a drop of this dot 5 touches your beautiful frame and you miss it, it eats the paint away, making it look hondnaai.

 

So to sum up....Its not the "braking" function that is the root problem here it is however the product of the above.

 

It uses an extremely corrosive fluid, in a system that needs to be nursed and continuously maintained that is in turn much harder to maintain that the competition. The magic tri-fecta of fail

 

If you like continuously having to bleed your brakes / have to money to have someone do it for you / are a pro where its automatically done for you....then yes, great brakes....Me, I like fit and forget things

[ChUkKy]

SRAM for walking and playing mechanic on your rides

Shimano for riding

[ChUkKy]

perhaps...or the mechanic rather....

 

See my mine gripe with it is the brake fluid it uses and the admin involved in bleeding them, also the frequency you have to bleed the brakes to keep them sharp....oh and the design of the caliper. Now the the elixirs(CR's) I had used dot 5 brakefluid.

 

So dot 5 fluid is extremely hygroscopic meaning it attracts water and keeps it...more so than mineral oil(which shimano systems use). Being mountain biking, one does tend to divert into mud / water pools every now again and if the seals of the elixirs were designed properly they would keep said water out of the system. However they don't.

 

So what tends to happens is that you go for a ride or two with your new elixirs and everything is fine...but you hit a couple of puddles or mud and boom your brakes now start feeling spongy in your rides afterwards. Initially you think its brake pad wear or bitepoint adjustment...so you fiddle and fiddle...but the devil is in the oil itself....Contaminated dot 5 can only be fixed with a bleed. This is the brake fade that SRAM hatters talk about...It would be awesome if SRAM would then make these brakes easy to bleed but alas, they also dropped the ball here...some say bleeding Elixirs is an art, my opinion, its a curse. If you have the patience to bleed them properly and remove every single air bubble in the system you will be good to go until it gets contaminated again...wash rinse repeat of the above.

 

Over and above, the seals and o-rings come in contact with dot 5 and its quite an aggressive substance, they eventually eat these o-rings and seals turning your beautiful red dot fluid black....so more contamination from this, some guys are fine with riding a ticking timebomb...brakes are too important to me.

 

And then lastly in the bleeding process if a drop of this dot 5 touches your beautiful frame and you miss it, it eats the paint away, making it look hondnaai.

 

So to sum up....Its not the "braking" function that is the root problem here it is however the product of the above.

 

It uses an extremely corrosive fluid, in a system that needs to be nursed and continuously maintained that is in turn much harder to maintain that the competition. The magic tri-fecta of fail

 

If you like continuously having to bleed your brakes / have to money to have someone do it for you / are a pro where its automatically done for you....then yes, great brakes....Me, I like fit and forget things

 

Well said Frodo

[Guest Smimby]

Front der does not "give" or cause chain suck....chain suck is mainly caused by worn chainrings and funny enough a BAD rear Der....

Edited June 13, 2014 by Smimby

[rouxtjie]

Well said Frodo

I try Samwise....I try

[Guest Smimby]

perhaps...or the mechanic rather....

 

See my mine gripe with it is the brake fluid it uses and the admin involved in bleeding them, also the frequency you have to bleed the brakes to keep them sharp....oh and the design of the caliper. Now the the elixirs(CR's) I had used dot 5 brakefluid.

 

So dot 5 fluid is extremely hygroscopic meaning it attracts water and keeps it...more so than mineral oil(which shimano systems use). Being mountain biking, one does tend to divert into mud / water pools every now again and if the seals of the elixirs were designed properly they would keep said water out of the system. However they don't.

 

So what tends to happens is that you go for a ride or two with your new elixirs and everything is fine...but you hit a couple of puddles or mud and boom your brakes now start feeling spongy in your rides afterwards. Initially you think its brake pad wear or bitepoint adjustment...so you fiddle and fiddle...but the devil is in the oil itself....Contaminated dot 5 can only be fixed with a bleed. This is the brake fade that SRAM hatters talk about...It would be awesome if SRAM would then make these brakes easy to bleed but alas, they also dropped the ball here...some say bleeding Elixirs is an art, my opinion, its a curse. If you have the patience to bleed them properly and remove every single air bubble in the system you will be good to go until it gets contaminated again...wash rinse repeat of the above.

 

Over and above, the seals and o-rings come in contact with dot 5 and its quite an aggressive substance, they eventually eat these o-rings and seals turning your beautiful red dot fluid black....so more contamination from this, some guys are fine with riding a ticking timebomb...brakes are too important to me.

 

And then lastly in the bleeding process if a drop of this dot 5 touches your beautiful frame and you miss it, it eats the paint away, making it look hondnaai.

 

So to sum up....Its not the "braking" function that is the root problem here it is however the product of the above.

 

It uses an extremely corrosive fluid, in a system that needs to be nursed and continuously maintained that is in turn much harder to maintain that the competition. The magic tri-fecta of fail

 

If you like continuously having to bleed your brakes / have to money to have someone do it for you / are a pro where its automatically done for you....then yes, great brakes....Me, I like fit and forget things

 

Been riding SRAM for a year on my commute bike and have not done anything to it.

 

XX on the other bike for 3 years without doing a thing to it either.....

[rouxtjie]

Been riding SRAM for a year on my commute bike and have not done anything to it.

 

XX on the other bike for 3 years without doing a thing to it either.....

Good and happy for you...wasn't my experience with elixirs.

[V12man]

 

And then lastly in the bleeding process if a drop of this dot 5 touches your beautiful frame and you miss it, it eats the paint away, making it look hondnaai.

 

It uses an extremely corrosive fluid, in a system that needs to be nursed and continuously maintained that is in turn much harder to maintain that the competition. The magic tri-fecta of fail

 

 

Dot 5 fluid is not corrosive to paintwork - neither is dot 4.... Dot 3 or 3+ might do some damage, but it's not immediate, and just wetting the spill will neutralise it.

[Guest Smimby]

Good and happy for you...wasn't my experience with elixirs.

 

I think that you get a Monday and Wednesday set with them....but that said.....it DOES seem that Sram's brake factory have more 6 Mondays a week

 

Shimano seems to be more consistent

[rouxtjie]

Dot 5 fluid is not corrosive to paintwork - neither is dot 4.... Dot 3 or 3+ might do some damage, but it's not immediate, and just wetting the spill will neutralise it.

maybe not immediately...you will notice I did say that if there is a drop or two that you missed, so I agree if you see a spill then you are ok, you can clean it up...if not and you hang your bike up for the weekend...ooo nelly.

 

See my correction below, its was dot5.1 is used for the elixir CR's. I do believe that it is in fact nasty stuff ito paintwork

 

http://www.gomog.com/allmorgan/brakefluid.html

Edited June 13, 2014 by rouxtjie

[rouxtjie]

I think that you get a Monday and Wednesday set with them....but that said.....it DOES seem that Sram's brake factory have more 6 Mondays a week

 

Shimano seems to be more consistent

hahaha possibly, I probably got the Friday afternoon set no doubt....bottomline, for the home mechanic I think a set of shimano's might be a better option just from a pure maintenance point of view

[rouxtjie]

oh and ps...just a correction its dot 5.1 in elixirs...typo on my part

[Wannabe]

Just upgraded my bike from 3 x 9 Sram with X0 Twistgrip, X-gen front derailer (not needing a single adjustment in about 5 years of riding) X9 rear derailer with Juicy 3 Brakes on Quaxar rotors. (no squeel or fade of a day old)

 

New groupo is 2 x 10 Sram X9 triggers (just because I could not find decent 2nd hand X0 Twisties), X9 front derailer, X0 rear derailer and a X9 crankset. Brakes is now Elixer R's with same rotors.

Not a days trouble with Juicy 3's. Braking was good and feel progressive.

Elixer R's is much sharper and stopping power is great.

Only non Sram components on my bike is my hubs, which is Xt's laced to DT Swiss rims with Sapim spokes.

 

SRAM FOR ME ALL THE WAY.

[Fabian46]

This is the comparison(or pretty much...not my own info...but from a website):

 

XTR - X0, XX

XT - X9

SLX - X7

DEORE\ALIVIO - X5

 

Any spec lower than that is irrelevant.

 

Mid spec goodies are more durable but heavier, with high end goodies being lighter(negligible) but not as durable. So X9\XT are on the same level and generally the way to go if your not trying win races. To win races all you need is a 29er jokes

 

I run X7 shifters, X9 crank, X0 RD.