You are hereForums / By Discipline / Mountain (off road) / MTB Gear / Bleeding Avid Elixir's
Bleeding Avid Elixir's
NB: Originally posted elsewhere on the Global Riders Network and appears via syndication.
Well i am about to change my brake lines on my avid elixir cr/sl's, i am putting goodridge lines on it, only problem is i have been warned that the elixir's are very hard to bleed and been described to me as an art form??..i have had a massive amount of experience with bleeding shimano brakes very successfully over the years, but this has got me worried, any hints from anybody on what makes these so hard would be very much appreciated!
- Login to post comments
- Bookmark & share
Tags
I serviced and bled my Elixir brakes for the first time a few weeks back, in fact it was the first time I had bled any MTB hydraulic brake system. It wasn't to hard, just go with the SRAM videos online.
http://youtu.be/IoaPUw5DliA
http://www.pinkbike.com/news/tech-tuesday-bleedi...
I found that you can easily suck air past the piston reservoir?? seal. So go easy on the top lever bleed. Giles has more knowledge and has just done the same, so he might expand on my comment.
These images may not be 100% correct for your model, but they give you a good way to visualise the piston, could find the same for the caliper but they seem just as simple.
http://www.pinkbike.com/photo/4397805/
http://www.bikerumor.com/wp-content/uploads/2011...
Article here.
http://www.niteodesign.com/dev-bikerumor/2011/03...
And wash any brake fluid off asap.!!
As Chuck says - easy as, if only a little fiddly.- I just completely pulled mine down - lines, levers and calipers.
Bleeding was simple - take your time and take it easy on the lever end. Keep a spray bottle full of water handy and hit any drips with it once you have replaced the bleed port screws. If you need a hand Todd, give me a yell.
As an aside, I was disapointed in the general build quality/finish of my Elixir 5's compared to another well know brand.
Thanks Giles and Mike, i will be installing new goodridge lines a little later, BTW, the XO shifters with gore rideon cables have proven to be a wonderful upgrade, shifting is flawless!
Are those cables the ones with the full length teflon tube?
Yep they be the ones Giles, teflon(ptfe)inner, with a stainless outer!
Thanks Giles and Michael, Jeff and myself got our act together and put together my new brake lines and shifters and shift cables!
Ride Report..to begin with the XO shifters feel a lot more precise than the previous X9 shifters, they have a crisp feel to the shift, and not as much effort to shift itself, i also noticed the shifting itself is much more accurate, before i could never get it to shift properly between 5th and 6th gears, now its no problem.
I put on some Gore ride on cables, at first i thought these were very expensive and might not be worthwile, alas, no problem whatsever, these improve your shifting by 25%, which makes them worth it in my opinion, they also keep out grime and water, very nice indeed!
Lastly we put on some goodridge brake cables, these are some very nice bit of gear indeed, not only do they look good, they make some good little improvements over standard connections, they do away with little compression rings and torx screws etc, they have a one piece fitting that just bolts on to a slip on fitting, making it far less fiddly, next step was to do the bleeding, thanks to Giles and Mike for your input, Jeff and I got into it today, after the first go we got it spot on, so it was time to go out and test ride to see if any gains were made with the new lines, i think it has probably gained about a 10% improvement, it feels very solid at the lever, absolutely firm as a rock, and still with plenty of modulation, there is no noticable fade, but they didnt before as standard, they just have a better feel about them, less effort to get them pulling you up!
Overall the bike feels a lot better than it did standard, even with little mods like brake lines and shift cables!!
Bleed for a six pack of chosen brew? or wine?
I'll prob be up for new pads again in a couple of months and could do with a bleed.
All of us Elixir owners should put in a bulk online order for brake pads.
Yeah.
I'm not sold on organics, but I'd rather a pad that wears quick and brakes well. Its a 2 min job to change pads, unless you somehow destroy the guts of your lever while doing so (like I did on my front).
I agree Ian, i have sintered, this is my 3rd set, the type of riding we do takes its toll as well, lot of hard braking on steep technical areas and long fast downhill runs, the sintered last half as long, gut you will never get any fade, my brakes were working even better at the bottom of cox's than they were at the start, but they dont last a long time, as long as performance is up there i dont really care how long they last, i do think shimano's brake pads( sintered xtr pads ) are as good as it gets though!
Was thinking of giving kevlars a go.
If you do Wes, give us a ride report, i think we all should give ride reports for stuff that we use that isnt very common, it would be invaluable info!
Will do I have loaded AMXC[710mm] bars on the Reign and love them.
I went 740 and love em, Jeff( bushpilot ) went 760 and 50mm stem and it changed the bike into a AM weapon!
Don't forget this......
http://bmorc.com/node/16946#comment-54557