avid brake review
And for fairness a review of Avid brakes of roughly equivalent spec
If you search all the other brake reviews on bike radar Monzer you will notice a lot of the reviews of various Avid systems mention set up, bleeding and levers pulling to the bar issues
There is no denying Avod had a pretty rotten couple of years recently which coincided with Shimano really getting their braking systems sorted

brake review

Hopefully help people fight past 'opinion'

(Of course a magazine review is just another opinion)

I counted 6 people that recommended Shimano then got bored. I forgot that I originally posted this deal to get a demographic of who uses which brakes.

As I said, all these replys are just other people's opinions, which I personally value much more than any magazine review.

Well from a personal experience as 90% of the other members on this conversation have stated, avids are a pain to setup and keep running true.

I don't think it's a fair statement to say other members are being lead up the garden path by people, who have an opinion from experience, as do you Monzer. You prefer Avids, fair play to you.

At the end of the day, you buy the brakes on the post at a cheap price (which is what we are all here for) stick them on your bike and for the majority of people here there will be an improvement.

I have elixir r with a 185 g3 clean sweep rotor and adapter up front and a 160 at the back. Would this be a straight swap for front and rear? I could go back to 160 at both ends....

I did some research and saw a post about overhang of the rotor with a 185 and avid rotors being thicker than shimano. Thoughts appreciated.

Lighten up. I'm pulling your chain. Shimano brakes are great but Formula and Avid were my faves. The original Juicy was developed by Formula.

But do learn how to bleed.

I'll keep that in mind when I'm replacing both hoses on my set this weekend. I will never do the rubber band thing, now purely out of principle more than anything else!

Keep on topic and remember the code of conduct please.

you can't bleed.

I know you will do the rubber band thing.

Wow what a lot of bickering
Monzer, you may have decades experience but I'm afraid you are wrong on this occasion (and I have decades experience too, however that's irrelevent when it comes to disc brakes as they haven't been around for decades)
Avid brakes, (and Formula) whilst good and they have their fans for their modulation are indeed a complete PITA to set up, bleed, change pads etc. compared to The latest Shimano offerings especially at this price there is simply no comparison
These really are fit and forget, even shortening a hose is child's play, and their power is far superior to Avids (or SRAM) and far more reliable
I've ran Marura, Various Hope, Formula, Avid, Hayes and most recently Shimano Deore and XT over the years. Even the cheap Deores far out perform something like an old Juicy 7
I have heard good things about the new Sram Guides but unfortunately past experience combined with the value for money of current Shimano offerings means I'm unlikely to ever try them

I know I don't need to bother myself with it, because these Shimanos don't get air bubbles like an Avid does. Hence they've been largely untouched on my bike for nearly two years. You only need to do this rubber band rubbish if you're consistently getting air in the line... because you've got the wrong brakes.

Yeeeeehh.. cos mineral oil doesn't suffer from air in the system does it?

Haven't you got some homework or GTA to be doing?

I'll share a little tip. When you are not riding, place an elastic band round the lever and grip so that the lever is pulled in. Doesn't need to be stupidly tight, just as snug as you can get it with an elastic band. After a few hours any air bubbles that have made their way downstream will have made their way back up to the main reservoir in the lever body and the lever feel will be much firmer. Like a mini-bleed.

Yeah I brought the deores to replace some avids. Why you need to put cup washers on a brake calliper so it can move in every direction is beyond me.

I own 5 bikes currently and ride every day, service my own bikes, have had many different disk setups, and my opinion from the road, trail and workshop is to go with shimano, life's too short to fiddle about with avid or others. You can get excellent results no doubt, but you'll get equally good and better results with far less hassle with shimano.

Sorry to post a question in amongst all this infighting, but is it possible to replace a set of mechanical disks with these?

I've got a Specialized Hard Rock Disc Sport (from 2011) and the brakes are lousy. I had the bike serviced at the start of spring last year before commuting on it and they've never been great. Just wondering if I could swap them out for these (or something cheaper), or would I need new gear shifters as well?

When did I ever imply either of those things. I've not been a teenager for over a decade. But whatever makes you feel better champ.

Says the guy that claims to know it all.

SRAM Avid make cheap and expensive brakes just like Shimano and others. It is more important to set the brake up properly and keep pads and disc clean. You should learn how to bleed a brake, there is an art to it. I preferred to do it with syringes.

I do like Shimano, particularly because they use mineral oil. Dot fluid is horrible to handle and can wreck paint but a suitable mineral oil is more expensive.

M8, we do get that you have loads of experience, but is there a reason why you have to offend and make fun of other people? You can express your opinion without being sarcastic? The fact that you work with bikes for so long doesn't mean that you are all time guru. In a lot of areas young people are a lot better then old folks, hence not taking away any of your experience, I do not understand why you have to win?

From my point of view, even though I'm quite new to bikes (which kind of explains why I have to change a lot in my bike for better quality / more expensive equipment) gbmcginty gave me a lot more reasons to go towards Shimano, then your side of the story. What I see from your comments is just a lot of angry thoughts cause some disagrees with you

get a smoke, take a run, or get a grip

Thank you?... bizarre, angry man.

I agree you invented the bicycle. You are Giovanni de la Fontana. You invented the Starley Rover. You are Gary Fisher. Well done you. Shimano are the only make of brakes worth looking at because you say so. Well done.

PS: Maybe you need to learn how to bleed a brake.

So when you said you Didn't want a flame war, were you just lying, or...? That's great if your two pairs of Avids were your favourites. Clearly that's based on your anecdotal experience. Forget that you've twice mentioned Juicys, which haven't been fitted to a new bike in what, five years?

My anecdotal experience is that every single set I've used have been noisy, unreliable and impossible to bleed consistently even for a qualified mechanic. By contrast these Shimanos are fit and forget. They're not perfect, but they work reliably and effectively which is what most people want.

I'm not saying there's no such thing as a high end set of Avids, darling:neutral_face: Only that at this price point you'd be a maniac to want Avid over Shimano. Everywhere I go people are lamenting or replacing their Elixirs, and there's a reason SRAM have abandoned the brand altogether.

I understand. You're bored and/or insecure and/or young and/or somehow need the last word. Or some or none of these. No, I have not been long out of cycling. I built bikes for 4 decades. The two pairs of Avids I personally used never let me down and were my personal faves.

And no, it isn't fact that they only came on cheap bikes. All the manufacturers have cheap brakes and expensive brakes and brakes that sit inbetween. So no darling. Not facts.

K... fine, but you did start your first post by saying 'I don't ride any more'. So maybe I've got the up to date experience with these things and it's a bit more than opinion? But regardless, that opinion is extremely popular when it comes to the majority of Avid brakes - they're awful. I liked Elixir 5s when I tried them, the modulation was fantastic, but that owner also changed to SLX brakes because he was fed up of trying to maintain them.

It's still a fact that they're cheap and came stock on a lot of cheap bikes, that's not opinion and low end Elixirs go for pocket change for exactly this reason.

who wants to buy these for me for my bday so i can replace my old hayes stroker trails...... :smile::smile::smile:

Do these come set up ready to fit?

I am assuming these would be a good upgrade over Avid Juicy.

Awesome brakes btw, have a set of Deore and a set of XT on my bikes and both are fantastic.

I don't want a childish flamewar but you are simply expressing YOUR opinions. Your opinions are not shared by everybody. Like with any product, people have good and bad experiences with all the manufacturers. Your experience of Avid was not mine. Having owned Hope, Hayes, Shimano, and Avid.. I have very fond memories of the Avids. I did my own bleeding and setting up and I had no issues setting up or bleeding any of the brakes I owned.

Unfortunately they didn't improve over the years. The issue was SRAM started using them as spec brakes on budget conscious bikes, so they were built to a cost and ultimately awful. I've got a pair of Avid Elixir 1s and 3s sitting at home, both waiting to be punted off the face of the earth. Even the good ones work well but are an absolute PITA to maintain. God help you if you want to reliably bleed them or ever apply the brakes without getting the classic turkey warble..

SRAM realised how badly they screwed themselves last year and gave up on Avid altogether, the new Guide brakes are supposedly much better.

This is an upsettingly good price, OP. I can't justify the purchase even slightly.

Excellent brakes compared to Avids, easy to bleed/service aswell

I got the xt breakers for just below 70 quid. Not had time to fit them yet but really looking forward to it. It was from one of the auction sites and one off, hence didn't post it here

just bought these and the rt86 rotors last week and the kit came supplied with the f03c finned shimano pads included....

The rotors shimano zee/slx are really cheap on.ribble cycles.

These slx are supurb, so sharp and effective, just don't pull on too hard the first time you use them, or you.ll be over the handlebars ..
I now have on both my bikes having recently upgrading a new bike with these m675 for an upgrade cost of £20 having sold on the m615 Deore as new for a good price

But if you did want new discs the matching ones for this brake set are on offer at wiggle. Only have 180mm and 203 in stock. http://www.wiggle.co.uk/shimano-zee-rt66-slx-rotor/

ooh, very interested to replace my Avids like above, anyone know whether it is worth replacing the rotors as well?

Sorry forgot the price. £74.95 delivered.