Gave up on the Avid XO brakes... XT Ice Tech on its way
First ride on the new bike with the Avids and the brakes just plain sucked. Brought the bike back to the shop... they cleaned the rotors, put a shim (not sure why they've had success with that) on the rear mounting point... brakes still sucked. Brought the bike back to the shop... they swapped out the pads and cleaned the rotors. Breaks still suck.
By "suck" I mean that they make a ton of noise and (the important part of the sucking) they had a terrible feel - like metal on metal - and they chattered. Hard to explain... but when any of my Shimanos made noise, they just made noise - the braking force still felt smooth and linear. These brakes feel like the braking power fluctuates at the same "frequency", making it hard to modulate the brakes.
So, today as I brought the bike back into the shop - 3rd time in 2 weeks (6 rides) - the owner happened to be there. He said "Brakes?" I said "yeah". He said "Okay, enough's enough. Let's swap it all to Shimano XT - the new Ice Tech... you okay with that?" And he apologized too. I felt bad - it sucks that this is on the shop - Cannondale should have to eat it for spec'ing such crap.
Mountain bikers who don't road ride are usually slow.
Roadies who don't mountain bike are usually d***s.
You have a good store. Keep on supporting them. I just switched from a failed Hayes Prime to XT and think the XT is great so far.
I have Avids on another bike and don't like them very much.
You're right - the shop is awesome. I'm one of their biggest fans - always sending people there. They tell me they take care of me because I'm a great customer. But I'm a great customer (advocate, fan, etc.) because they take great care of me - and everyone I send there. Love that vicious cycle!
I've been a Shimano guy for ever - since my first mtn bike, circa 1987. This is my first "non-Shimano" bike, e.g. XX shifters, derailleurs, XO brakes, etc. The orientation of the shifters took a couple rides to get used to. But that precision and crispness didn't. Damn! I am loving the shifting on this bike.
I wanted to like the brakes... I really did. But they were the worst feeling and performing brakes I've EVER had on a bike - about on par with V-brakes after/during a wet ride on sandy/muddy trails.
Mountain bikers who don't road ride are usually slow.
Roadies who don't mountain bike are usually d***s.
My XT brakes, rotors, levers show up tomorrow in the mail! I am I the same scenario as you although I haven't had any issues with my brakes until 2 weekends ago. My shop offered to switch me if I pay the difference between my XO and the XT. I think its almost the same amount but I will be happy to get the XT's. My rear XO's piston and/or seal blew last weekend. I was happy they right away offered just to switch it all out for warranty or pay the difference for a different brand!
I'm almost convinced that part of the problem with "Avid brakes" is Avid rotors. I run Ashimas on both of my bikes (one with BB7's and one with XO's) and haven't had any trouble with them.
as a mechanic, I can't wait for Avid to get their act together or for manufacturers to stop putting Avid brakes on their bikes. I am sure it's horrible to ride brakes that don't work, but it's also difficult to bleed every single brake on every bike you have sold multiple times, argue with SRAM on the phone to get them to replace the brakes, then get them working just long enough so the customer can justify riding them a few more times before buying some brakes from Shimano.
I'm almost convinced that part of the problem with "Avid brakes" is Avid rotors. I run Ashimas on both of my bikes (one with BB7's and one with XO's) and haven't had any trouble with them.
Im using avid rotors that came with my elixers with my XTs and they work fine. Totally silent.
I tried to like my Elixer 7 but after different rotors and than different pads, I could not like them the way i like my XT on the other 2 bikes and they were sold on Sat and my XT came in this morning. Now I got XTs on all three of my bike. Can't go wrong with them. 100% satisfied!!! =)
I tried to like my Elixer 7 but after different rotors and than different pads, I could not like them the way i like my XT on the other 2 bikes and they were sold on Sat and my XT came in this morning. Now I got XTs on all three of my bike. Can't go wrong with them. 100% satisfied!!! =)
I'm in the same boat as you: I've not liked since day one the Elixer 7's that were stock on my Cannondale 29er and I'm in the process of upgrading that bike to XT M785's; I recently upgraded my old 2009 Cannondale F3 with the Shimano brakeset and like many of us, found them to be far superior.
My question: for how much did you sell the Elixer 7's???
The rest of my bike is XTR and I have wanted to change to XTR brakes but I just can't make myself change for no reason.
Ha. My bike is mostly XX and - even though I'm historically a Shimano guy - I kind of wanted to keep it "pure" SRAM. But a few rides on those XO brakes, I was over that.
Mountain bikers who don't road ride are usually slow.
Roadies who don't mountain bike are usually d***s.
I'm in the same boat as you: I've not liked since day one the Elixer 7's that were stock on my Cannondale 29er and I'm in the process of upgrading that bike to XT M785's; I recently upgraded my old 2009 Cannondale F3 with the Shimano brakeset and like many of us, found them to be far superior.
My question: for how much did you sell the Elixer 7's???
Gave up on the Avid XO brakes... XT Ice Tech on its way
I brought my elixir 3s back to the shop 3 times. I switched pads, rotors, cleaned, sanded, and prayed. They would not be quiet, and the shop where I bought the bike didn't seem all that interested in helping. Went to a new shop, and they called SRAM who gave me all sorts of experiments I could try to make it stop, but I was done. I just wanted to ride the bike.
I've got SLX on there now, and I'm so much happier.
^ Not the lowest price but considering its retail and from backcountry.com, can't really complain. The rotors only cost me $85 for the 1st set and $45 for the 2nd set.
I picked up the bike Wednesday of last week... headed to the mountains for three days Friday morning. I rode 76 miles this weekend (Fri-Sun) and the new XT brakes were GREAT! Not a single sound out of them the whole weekend. They are smooth, quiet, powerful, easy to modulate - pretty much everything the Avids were not.
Mountain bikers who don't road ride are usually slow.
Roadies who don't mountain bike are usually d***s.
Is there a breakin routine for the brakes/rotors or just go riding!? I'm still waiting on my brakeset and rotors to come in the mail, ARGH.
The mechanic who installed the brakes asked me to brake 5 or 6 times - with moderate force, but not to a full stop and not 100% force (which of course would be a complete stop as far as the pads/rotors/wheels would be concerned). He didn't seem overly specific, e.g. didn't tell me to increase 10% each time or anything like that. Got the impression he just wanted the brakes to seat a bit before being locked up.
NOTE: I have no idea what he did before I picked the bike up. It's possible there was a seance, an Avid rep' was sacrificed...
Mountain bikers who don't road ride are usually slow.
Roadies who don't mountain bike are usually d***s.
Break-in is more or less doing some moderately hard braking runs without coming to a full stop. Once you have a decent amount of braking power, hit the trails and have fun. Most brakes these days only take a few stops to hit an acceptable level of power for use on the trail, they'll continue to improve during your first few rides but a half dozen or so stops is usually enough to get them settled in.
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Originally Posted by Cotharyus
