Avid elixr r brakes, any good?

[ishaw]

Came on a bike I bought. Seem to be working fine, just not used avid brakes before. I'm stripping the bike and giving it a good clean and polish (titanium) before upgrading most of it, but wondering whether to use the brakes or not. I have others, but these would bolt straight back on so the path of least resistance.

I'm leaning towards other brakes, but could be swayed.

 

[mk one]

Dont think i have ever used the R version, but memory is not what it used to be

Have run the CR version though for many years on my DH bikes. I am a big fan of Sram for racing purposes though, so a bit biased. On my bike sat next to me atm i have full Elixir Cr lever and caliper on the front and Elixir CR caliper with a Juicy Ultimate Carbon lever for the rear. A lot of riders swaped out the levers for the Juicy as it has more feel/modulation than the Elixr lever. Having said that i have used full Elixir CR systems on DH bikes and never really had any issues.

I have never used them for xc though but they are light enough and are more than enough to stop you so should be fine. I say give them a go and i doubt you will regret it, unless the R version is considrably lesser

Mark

 

[ishaw]

Re:

Cheers. It's going to be an xc bike, my first 27.5. The build will be as nice as I can afford, which means pillaging from other bikes which I'll then sell what's left.

I have some formula ro and hope V2/4 laying idle, plus some natural MTS, and I may consider stealing the hope x2s I put on my wife's bike as she never rides it.....

 

[mk one]

Ah, X2's

One thing i will say is the hope brakes look a lot nicer than sram. I find myself just looking at them for ages sometimes

On my general xc mtb at the moment i have a set of Race Evo X2's and i cant think of a nicer looking set of brakes, they move from bike to bike and i doubt i will ever get rid of them. Perfect lightweight xc brake.

Mark

And you have just remnded me, i still have that set of hopes somewhere for sale

 

[tufty]

Never ridden them, rather from a "person who lifts thousands of bikes off the chairlift a day" perspective, and who hits the brakes on every one - when you have a bike that doesn't brake when it's been stood on end, there's a > 95% chance it's got elixirs on it.

 

[mk one]

Never ridden them, rather from a "person who lifts thousands of bikes off the chairlift a day" perspective, and who hits the brakes on every one - when you have a bike that doesn't brake when it's been stood on end, there's a > 95% chance it's got elixirs on it.

They require proper bleeding as there is a couple of places bubbles collect in the system.

My bikes were upside down a lot and never had problems, just need to bleed them properly

Cool job by the way

Mark

 

[klunkrider]

Re:

If you run the Avids then you either need to learn to fix them yourself or make peace with the fact that any mechanic you give your bike to is now gonna hate you.

 

[Matthews]

Re:

Ran a set of Elixier RSL's on 3 frames over 5 years , only maintenance needed was changing pads , very sharp bite compared to Mono mini's I use on other bike but they stopped well .

 

[jonnyboy666]

Re:

having worked on all brands i can say Avid/sram models, the juicy/elixir/guide/level brakes all suck, if not at first then they do down the line, on average a set lasts about 2 years if maintained, the higher end models are better but still suffer down the line. i will admit there are good and bad sets and sometimes there's a really good one but more often than not they are an issue over a year old. wobbly levers, sticky pistons, and they don't retract very far so in muddier conditions wear through loads quicker than others as a result, and not the simplest to bleed compared to others.

i prefer Hope personally for one reason, every part is available from Hope, right down to the copper washers.

2nd preference is shimano, easy to bleed and pretty much don't go wrong unless you get a random dodgy set, pads available everywhere.

then magura, i stock them, have sold quite a few with no issues at all.

if you have alternatives then use them.

 

[The History Man]

Yes. Sticky. Swapped them all out. They hang in the shed, dejected.