The QUICK question thread.....

Avid Elixir 5's on a 2011 Giant, rear brake lever pulls to the grip without doing much braking. I've heard nothing but shit about Avids. What is the likelihood of booking it in for a bleed and it fixing it? Should I just start looking for some 2 pot shimanos?
 
Milpool said:
Avid Elixir 5's on a 2011 Giant, rear brake lever pulls to the grip without doing much braking. I've heard nothing but shit about Avids. What is the likelihood of booking it in for a bleed and it fixing it? Should I just start looking for some 2 pot shimanos?
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Zilch.
Yes.
 
Milpool said:
Thought as much. What model shimanos should I be looking at?
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What's your budget? If you have the coins, xt or slx will do the work most of the time. If the funds are tight or this is just a pub runner these work:

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pink poodle said:
What's your budget? If you have the coins, xt or slx will do the work most of the time. If the funds are tight or this is just a pub runner these work
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My budget is minimal. That Cannondale has m785's on it, not overly keen to cannibalize that and set it further back but I think I'd be happy just with a second hand set of them for the giant too. I only played $500 for the giant, not super keen to spend too much polishing the turd.
 
Milpool said:
Avid Elixir 5's on a 2011 Giant, rear brake lever pulls to the grip without doing much braking. I've heard nothing but shit about Avids. What is the likelihood of booking it in for a bleed and it fixing it? Should I just start looking for some 2 pot shimanos?
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Worth a shot bleeding IMO, brakes aren’t that complicated - if any of the rubber bits are deteriorated then they might not be worth fixing. I’ve got a bleed kit I can loan you if you want to give it a crack - just grab some DOT fluid from 99bikes or Pushy’s and off you go.
 
Nambra said:
if any of the rubber bits are deteriorated then they might not be worth fixing
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That's the problem with old avids. Swollen / degraded seals. IMO you'd be better saving your 10 bucks and 3 hours trying to rescue the brakes. Pads are likely old/munted and would need to be replaced anyway, so there's another $40 lost that would be better spent on new brakes.
 
creaky said:
That's the problem with old avids. Swollen / degraded seals. IMO you'd be better saving your 10 bucks and 3 hours trying to rescue the brakes. Pads are likely old/munted and would need to be replaced anyway, so there's another $40 lost that would be better spent on new brakes.
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Fair call - although if @Milpool's front brakes are still good, it's possible the rear might be ok and just need a fluid refresh. But yes, worst case you've spent $50+ that could have gone toward new, hassle free brakes.
 
Milpool said:
Avid Elixir 5's on a 2011 Giant, rear brake lever pulls to the grip without doing much braking. I've heard nothing but shit about Avids. What is the likelihood of booking it in for a bleed and it fixing it? Should I just start looking for some 2 pot shimanos?
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Elixirs more than any other model epitomise all the bad stuff you hear about Avids - sure they all suck to varying degrees, but none suck as badly as the Elixir series!
Best bet is to just bite the bullet and put Shimanos on! The MT500 (incorrectly labelled as "Deore"; they're not, they're a non-series model) listed up the page a bit are a decent mid-range option.The lever is essentially the same as the proper Deore M6000, but the caliper is a bit cheaper, limited to resin pads and to an extent rotor options due to the greater pad depth compared to better models. M6000 and new M6100 Deore have better calipers basically deriving from XTR but with cheaper materials, and gain more pad and rotor options including metal compound and Ice Tech trickery.
 
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With those newer 6000 deore, do they still come with a split pin? Can they be converted to the same or similar bolt as the xt/slx?

A friend has the mt500 and they are easy to install and bleed. Not sure I'd want them on my dh bike or for epic long rides with a lot of descending/braking, but they seem to work just fine for regular riding.

I thought the elixir were superior to the juicy.
 
Deores of any series are supplied with a split pin rather than bolt to hold the pads in. Can't say I've checked to see if the M6000s have the thread to take the bolts, but given they're different castings to SLX/XT calipers I'd be doubtful if they do. Not that it really makes any real difference.

All the Shimano 2-pots are piss-easy to bleed, so the MT500s aren't particularly exceptional in that regard. Even the 4-pots aren't too bad, but they do need a bit more work especially if starting from a dry caliper.

Elixirs have better modulation than Juicies, but that's about the only small thing in their favour. By any other measure they're just plain shit.
 
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Anyone using these? I note that they are slightly, like a few mm in each direction, larger than my current pedals (nukeproof neutrons and fire eye hot candy) both of which I am very happy with. But the chance for a slightly bigger footbed has me interested.
 
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