Avid disc brakes- good or c@#$% ?

[Cassie]

In general Avids are better brakes than Shimano. Nothing wrong with Shimano' date=' but Avid has better feel and modulation and less heat build up. But you'll only notice the difference when the riding the same bike back-to-back with different brakes. Most people won't notice the dif or ride hard enough to push the brakes beyond their performance cap.
09 Avids are even better than before which should give us hope for 2010. [/quote']

 Crow, how does that work? I thought it would be a function of the pad (type) and perhaps rotor design?

What am I missing?

 

 

[CJVDM]

Can anyone comment on Juicy 3'a vs Hayes Stroker Ryde's?

[DownhillingKing]

If you compare avids to hayes the avids are just way more complicated have nicer levers and are lighter.

[Capricorn]

 

Cassie: that is true, however one has to factor in heat build up in the caliper, which some hydraulic brake systems do exhibit more than others. What this does is to heat up the hydraulic fluid, and you lose some braking power, ie they become really spongy with low to zero bite under white knuckle braking.

Generally, all disc brake components near the point of contact heat up. How the caliper is designed dictates how that heat is distributed and consequently what is affected.

Riders who have the brakes engaged on long fast descents will be the category of rider to ask about this type of brake issue.

Capricorn2009-09-24 02:03:02

[Sammajoor]

I swear by my Avid 3's

[Mudsimus]

The Avid 3's are probably the best value for money option. Awesome trouble free brakes.

[MissionMan]

I have the juicy 7 and recon these things will bring my car to halt. really the best breaks i have had and definately better than shimano.... your local bike shop just needs to take a peek regarding setup

pads are quite expensive, but just order them off chain reaction cycles for a fraction.

[trevorhough40]

How do i get one from brent, and are the avid ultimates easy to learn to bleed?

[Trapper]

I've got Magura Louise on my MTB, and AWESOME, is all I could say. (Stuff's got 5 year warranty against any leakage...). 

 

I use a simple trick (found it in Bicycling Mag) to align the caliper: fit a visite card (the one that sales people always hand out with their contact detail) over the disk, between the brake pads and the calipers. Then squeez the brakes while tightening the bolts as per the instruction.  I found to be effective.

 

But then again, I hardly have to calibrate mine...did so the other night for the first time in probably 8 months

[Mindfloat]

I have been riding juicy 3s for two years.

 

Honestly I have been a bit dissapointed. They are alright until you try and hit some technical riding. Than they just do not have the stopping power. Guess you can't expect more in this price range. They should meet the needs of most XC tracks though.

 

I have also had a lot of allignment problems and have had to spend time trying to reduce rubbing.

 

At the moment they have just been bled and are working nicely though. 

[jmaccelari]

 

How do i get one from brent' date=' and are the avid ultimates easy to learn to bleed?[/quote']

I have the Avid bleed kit (got a fantastic deal on a kit used once

from my LBS), so I can't help you with Brent.

 

Bleeding them is really easy:

Here's the "official" Avid video (it's brilliant) - I love the guy's shorts:

 

For written instructions, Park Tools has an excellent write up:

http://www.parktool.com/repair/readhowto.asp?id=141

 

It is p*ss easy...

 

As for Avid brakes, I started with the Ultimates, but the levers break

too easily and I have replaced them both ('cos they BOTH ****ing broke)

with 9s.

 

The brakes are great.

 

[jayz]

Just dont damage the maguras. At LBS a customer broke the lever off one of those and the replacement lever took ages to get and cost a few bob short of a whole new disc brake kit. But now I see the Merida agents are taking over magura as they come on a lot of their new bikes, so hopefully spares etc will be more freely available. I am normaly a shimano guy running full XTR but AVID to me (brakes) are best especially the Elixer range. I had the elixer r's and now a dope pair of black cr' with the red adjusters. 375g and work da bomb, only problem i'm already looking at the XX which weigh in at 284g so 90g per brake is a nice weight saving exercise.