avid juicy 7: early review

lots of people were asking about this disk set up a while ago and now that i finally got the set i ordered (no joking) over a year ago. this is by far the best brake i have ever owned. i hate to say that because such an early preliminary type review shouldnt ever include something like that but this brake seriously did blow me away.

this brake is for: anyone who likes their avid mechanical but wants the "feel" of a hydro brake, anyone who hates the fact that every single maggie disk in the world ends up leaking, anyone who wants disk but hates that whole crap of non-independent throw/reach adjustments.

this brake is not for: the poor (ok, budget impared, whatever), the UBER weight savy (its not the lightest brake by any means, not a lard ass but not an hfx plus or marta sl or mini)

pros- the speed dial pad adjuster is AWESOME. i love to run my levers in close but in doing so my lever throw has always been all out of wack with other hydro brakes. this is the main feature of this brake i love so far. not only can i now have a lever reach where i want it but i can have it match my rear lever in throw. its surprising what you can get used to when it comes to out of balance bike parts but levers are not one of those things for me at all. the feel of the brake is surprisingly nice for a factory bleed. most factory bleeds are shite- this one works but i will bleed it nicer when i shorten the line. the caliper is small and clean looking. the lever is goofy looking but it grows on you and it is designed better than any other lever i have seen.

cons- cost? like i said, the brake is not for the tight budget types but if you save up this brake will pay off big time. it isnt all that light, just mediocre weight. they are working on an "SL" version that will be lighter and have ti hardware and stuff but i dont want to wait for that to come out.

the new rotor is really cool but unfortunately i recieved a 6 inch instead of a 203mm one so im still on my hayes rotor for now. the new rotors are really cool looking and are also quite functional. im not using the stock pads but they work fine once they are really well broken in.

overall this brake is killer-bot 5000. please feel free to ask any questions or comments or whatever. i will post a more in depth review after i get in some serious time on the brake.

 

by the way, retail on the juicy is 250 USD per brake.

 

shop around, you dont have to pay msrp on stuff... mojo wheels in denver has them for 180ish right now i think...

 

haha, good point elan... yes, it is early to tell about leaking or any other long term dependability of the brake- my first impressions are all sorts of good. these brakes are going on my dh bike for sure this season...

the pads i have are avid prototypes. i dont think they will make productions but they are mad-dog-killer style with their grip. i bet i could catapult small children thirty yards off my bike with a one finger tap on the lever. the standard pads work great though, especially ona big honkin' rotor.

if and when the brake ever leaks or fails, i will be sure to post about it and it will be out in the open not tucked away in some dead thread so no one has to complain or worry about that.

 

i didnt think i said anything about the avid's being resistent to leak did i? i said that maggura disks suck because all of them leak but that doesnt necessarrily mean the avids are super duper outer space leak proof.

seth- the pads are some early prototype versions that avid made for the juicy brake. i guess they were trying to make a pad more resistant to oil contamination than the other compound was or something... they abandoned it for cost reasons- no reason to have two pad compounds when one works fine- after all if you dont bleed your brakes like a special ed student you wont have to worry about small oil contamination. they probably also ditched the pads becaus ethe scream in the wet and also start to loose performance when they get too hot. for xc that would suck but for trials it doesnt ever really come up.

i dont know if they will do it but i am going to try and get them to make at least one batch of these pads for the trials market. im not sure about this but if i get any word about it i will be sure to pass it on. lots of trials riders are super happy with their avids and would love to get an even better brake with these pads.

 

what problems have you been having brett? i have not really ever had any beefs with it. i heard of pads falling out when they are way worn down because the spring doesnt have anything to hold on to and they work of wiggle out but other than that i havent even heard of anything else going wrong with them :?

 

i gotcha, luckily avid is really cool about giving people extras of those springs. i clal em up about once a month and just ask them to send some to our shop and about the next day they get us a dozen or so. if you say you lost the spring on an xc ride or some crap they will generally send personal customers a few spares.

lots of companies use the spring idea. shimano's use it, i think hope does, or at least did (dont qoute me on that though, im not certain). its not the best idea i agree but i guess i never even considered those issues to be problems because they are so monsterously drowned out by the amazing aspects of the avid brakes as a whole.