XT brakes vs Juicy 7s

supermonkey

I'm just about to purchase a GT Zaskar which comes with LX discs. I think I may want to upgrade the brakes while at the shop which will help keep the cost of the upgrade down.

The two options I'm considering (because the shop in question can supply them) are XT and also Juicy 7s.

First question is whether it's worth upgrading the LX to either of these and if they will be a significant improvement in performance and the second question is which one would be the better option. Bike will be used for XC and general trail use.

Cheers,

SM

omegas

If you’re an experienced rider you will see the benefit of upgrading otherwise buy the bike run them into the ground for a season and then think about upgrading if needed.

You can have the best brakes on the market but you have to know how to use them to get the full out of them, a upgraded brake from LX to XT will not make you ride faster and harder.

Ask yourself why you need to upgrade ?

nicklouse

you should also look at the brake levers are they combined with the gears?....

dav1

From what i have read LX is fine but many would want a 185 front rotor.

The new XTs have the servowawe system which I am told is very good, very powerful and look the dogs!
Avids have a very nice leaver feel (yes im an avid fan), buckets of power, also look pretty good.

I think both of these will be better then the LX but the LX are still a good brake! how much is this likley to cost you? if it is a lot you may be better off putting it into a higher specced bike rather then an upgrade.

supermonkey

I'm looking to upgrade quite a lot of stuff: Shifters, rear mech, cranks and brakes. All are currently LX and will be upgraded to XT. The shop has quoted £150 to upgrade the lot, which sounds pretty good to me. If I wait for a year the upgrades will cost me more as I won't be able to get the trade in on the LX stuff. If I was to buy the higher spec bike in the range I would be looking at an extra £600. This would obviously have higher spec in other areas as well but I don't want to spend another £600.

The Big Cheese

If you want to upgrade to Avids, do you think you will use the bite-point adjuster at all, tbh I never used it on either my Carbons, OR Juicy 7's....

If not, you can get a set of Juicy 5's from CRC for £150 which is a bargain.

supermonkey

TBH it's quite hard to know without having had any previously.

The Big Cheese

... fair point actually....

It's a red dial that appears on top of the lever, it changes the point in which the pad contacts the rotor by turning +/-

In short it offers more adjustability on the set up, if you wind the bite point lever to the '+' setting the pads hit the rotor with less lever travel and vice versa

Mine was fine from stock/new so never changed it

That (and the colour) is the main difference between 5 and 7

Not worth extra dosh imo, but that's because I have had the sevens, you ma use it all the time to fine tune your setup

The Spiderman

£150 sounds reasonable for the upgrades if the fitting is included.No doubt they will flog all the redundant bits on eaby,and make themsleves a bit of money back....