Juicy 3's are they just not very good ?

dav1

I have juicy 5s on my bike and love them, Masses of modulation and power.

If they are set up wrong I find the performance drops off but mine are perfectly bedded in and aligned and are working flawlessly.

As far as i know the juicy 3 is very similar to the 5, but the 5 has a better clamp and slightly more adjustability.

andyxm

They are a budget brake and they perform as you would expect from a budget brake, they still stop you though, but Hopes they aint.

supersonic

Perform better than some Hopes...

pypdjl

supersonic wrote:

Perform better than some Hopes...

In what way?

supersonic

Everybody assumes that Hope will be the lightest, strongest, bestest brakes. But not always. I'd say the Juicy offers more power than the mini.

nicklouse

my Juicy 7's blew my Mono M4s away.

pypdjl

supersonic wrote:

Everybody assumes that Hope will be the lightest, strongest, bestest brakes. But not always. I'd say the Juicy offers more power than the mini.

I'd be surprised if everyone assumed that! Most modern hydro brakes work perfectly well if they are properly set up. Keeping juicies working, on the other hand...

nicklouse

pypdjl wrote:

Keeping juicies working, on the other hand...

is very easy.

pypdjl

Not in my experience. Just changing pads is bad enough...

welshkev

pypdjl wrote:

Not in my experience. Just changing pads is bad enough...

changing the pads is quite easy, i had problems first time until my mate showed me how to and it's a piece of wee wee now

Atz

Pad changing is a bit awkward but takes me at most 10 mins if I'm cack handed and that's for both ends of the bike. Not had any problems with maintaining any of the three sets of juicys I've got.

bluehelmet

I've got 2 bikes with juicy 3's on and never had any complaints. Reliable, never needed bleeding, easy enough to change the pads as long as you use a flat bladed screw driver to push the pistons back before trying to swap them and they make you stop. Which is nice.

dav1

as long as you look after them they are maintainance free.

Looking after them is the same for anything though, keep it clean and give it a once over ocassionally.

I clean my bike thouroughly, use meths top clean up the rotors and brake body and put it away. When its pad change time Ill clean it up insode before putting new pads in.


If you leave your brakes coverd in crap and are agressive with them when changing pads you will have issues, but this is the case with anything.

Ill give you that pad changing can be a faff, but once you are used to doing it it becomes quite easy.

JayKingFunk

I had juicy 7's for a year, I changed the pads once and never bled them. They were excellent after riding countless miles off road.

I have since changed to formula oro K18's which do feel a bit better but if I'd have bled the juicy 7's I don't think there would be a huge difference apart from the awesome pimp factor of all formula brakes I've ever looked at!!

ESHER SHORE

something to realise with Juicy 3s is they come with stock Organic brake pads, which always made the brake feel "soft" and somewhat underpowered

IF you fit sintered metal pads, bleed the brakes properly and set up the brakes properly over the rotors, Juicy 3s are just fine

weeksy59

ESHER SHORE wrote:

something to realise with Juicy 3s is they come with stock Organic brake pads, which always made the brake feel "soft" and somewhat underpowered

IF you fit sintered metal pads, bleed the brakes properly and set up the brakes properly over the rotors, Juicy 3s are just fine

Interesting point.

I may actually just buy a set of pads anyway just to save the messing about and the debate about me not bedding the 1st set in properly.

It's only £6 for a pair of pads so cheap enough to do a quick test.

welshkev

yeah, i changed to superstar sintered pads and that did make a difference

richg1979

i dont like any avids as they tend to be very over powerd, wich is not a good thing on a mountain bike as you have to stop on mud, dirt and gravel ect.

what you want is a brake that is hard to lock up but will lock if you pull hard enough.

a lot of people rate a brake as being good when it locks the wheels with very little effort, this is a bad mountain bike brake charicteristic.

i hear people keep on about avids being more powerfull than hopes ect, yes they are that is why hopes are better as you have so much more control and ive never cooked my hope m4s where as ive had my juicy7s smoking a few times and turned the discs blue and then needed a bleed.

weeksy59

Bought some sintered pads, will make sure i check out the correct bedding in procedure

Johnny Napalm

I have Juicy 5's on one of my bikes, and have always been impressed with their stopping power. Had some issues with the rear pistons sticking (even from new), but they stop me when I want them to. That said, I think that they are pretty much on their way out, so I may just shove some AJ3's on there when I get some spare cash later this year.

I have Hayes Stroker Trail on my other bike, which are good, but I didn't see a massive difference to be honest.

And, I'm just about to (eventually) start my new-build, which will use Formula Oro K18's, so I'll see how those fair!

tompug

They aren't amazing on 160mm rotors, or standard pads in winter or standard dot fluid . However I still have them on my commencal and are fine for trail riding. I even had them on my Bighit for 2 years with 203mm rotors. They are a basic brake that need to be setup properly, once bedded in though they work well if not lacking in modulation and adjustment.

richg1979

Johnny Napalm wrote:

And, I'm just about to (eventually) start my new-build, which will use Formula Oro K18's, so I'll see how those fair!

you wont be disapointd formula brake are awesome, super controllable and very consistant braking i was in a throw up between the tech m4s and formula THE ONES but m4s just piped it purly for the bling factor, even the low end k18's kick the elixir cr's into fits.