You are hereForums / By Discipline / Mountain (off road) / MTB Gear / front brake leaver problem
front brake leaver problem
NB: Originally posted elsewhere on the Global Riders Network and appears via syndication.
On my Avid Elixir 5 front brake
when i press the brake leaver in, it brakes fine but when i release, the leaver releases back slowly.
any ideas of what could have gone wrong?
any advice would be greatful
- Login to post comments
- Bookmark & share
Tags
Have you bled the brakes? My Elixers did all sorts of strange stuff until I bled them a couple of times, and this was with brand new brakes.
no i havent
but i will
thanks
+1 on the bleeding. I had the exact same problem with my new Giant Trance X2 (2 months old). Serviced them last week and the bleed fixed it.
i crashed
and ive found a stress fractures near the joint of the brake leaver
if you dont fix that leaver than it'll be leavin in no time
haha, its not that bad
ill see how it goes
Until that leaver leaves the rest of the bike. Then your breaks will be broken... and maybe so will you.
I'd change the brake lever just to be safe.
what ever you do dont lever it alone or it will brake
good pun right there
i was looking at getting elixer brakes for my dh bike but after reading many poor reviews on the entire avid range i went with xt brakes instead,which is dissapointing because ive had juicy 5 for 3 years now and love em.the problems you have discribed in other posts seem to be very common, some users say a bleed and change of pads, others complain about bad or weak levers too, good luck fixing your brakes tho, i think i lever you to it
yer i mostly dont believe all those reviews, until you have tried them yourself and give it a rating.
It can get expensive, but its the way to go
I have Elixirs on one bike. Fantastic braking performance, but they do need to be maintained regularly. A bleed and push the pistons right back every three months or so seems to do the trick.
After 2 years I can't say anything bad about them except that they need the bleed.
ok thanks for advice
will keep them maintained thanks
Need to clean the pad residue off regularly as well.
Was getting some intermittent horrible noises from my front brakes on the hardtail commuter Tuesday night and when I looked more closely found the entire caliper assembly was coated in sticky black grunge... obviously residue from the metallic pads wearing.
Some of this residue was on the piston sides as well, and was preventing one piston from moving smoothly, leading to the other side coming out to compensate and pushing the disc over to rub slightly on the caliper slot.
No real damage done, but the remedy involved removing pads, holding one piston in place to force the other out while I pushed the brake lever, and using brake cleaner and a cotton ear bud to clean off the side of the piston. Just need ot be careful not to let the piston come out too far and let air into the caliper.
Took a bit over an hour to do both ends, not including bleeding the rear when I let one of the pistons out just that little bit too far.