Brakes and chainset

rolf_f

My MTB is really annoying me! Or rather the crappy Avid Juicy 3 brakes which always drag no matter how hard I try to push the calipers in (leave them a few weeks and the gradually lock on). This evening, on the way home from work the front brake was making the whole frame buzz and I couldn't even loosen the caliper bolts as I discovered I'd left the multitool at home! One of my local bike shops won't even touch Juicy 3s other than to bin them so I think I need to replace them with something non Avid (Avid being a firm I intend never to support again!!).

Also, the large chainring is looking a bit ropey so new chainrings aren't far away so I'd appreciate thoughts on the following.

I can get a Shimano Deore lever and caliper from Action Sports for €35 (M535) and an SLX crankset from the same for €100 - probably about £145 for two caliper sets and the crankset which seems reasonable. I think I want to stick with the Shimano as the rest of the groupset is Shimano and has been fine. Please don't mention Truvativ - the bike originally had a Truvativ bottom bracket so you can guess how much I like that company!

Any other ways of doing this I might have missed?!

Please help as every icy day now I'll be worrying about the long uphill commute home and having to twitch the front brake every hundred yards to stop it squealing! Knackered me this evening.......

bennett_346

No love for SRAM here then

rolf_f

It's a bit unfortunate but the two most useless bike products I've purchased happen to come under the SRAM umbrella. If it were road bikes, I'd favour SRAM over Shimano but anyway, as far as my MTB goes, the mechs are Shimano so it makes some sense to carry on that way!

cooldad

Nothing at all wrong with Deore brakes and SLX cranks. Good stuff.

Shimano fan though. It works.

The Rookie

I buy whatever works, SRAM or Shimano - in fact the MTB is SRAM shifters and Shimano mechs.....nothing wrong with my (quite old) Juicy5's (old enough they are all but identical to the newer 3's) - no binding and stop the bike well, not as progresive as I'd like I'll admit though.

Simon

bennett_346

The Beginner wrote:

I buy whatever works... my (quite old) Juicy5's

does not compute

rolf_f

bennett_346 wrote:

The Beginner wrote:

I buy whatever works... my (quite old) Juicy5's

does not compute

Glad it isn't just me then

To be fair on SRAM, I'd not object to using their shifters and mechs but those aren't the problem.

Any other likely places that might be better than Action Sports? I haven't found any better UK prices but I'd probably favour them if they were close.

Anonymous

The problem here are Juicys.

Nothing wrong with Elixir stuff. The 'X' series brakes are generally fine. Liking my X0 sets at present, yet I hated Juicys. X0 and XX can be had for around £100 each at present.

Truvativ BB - GXP? Was it old? The old BB wasn't so good but they've improved it a fair bit. Thing is though the BB cups are £20. They wear out, replace. Dead simple to fit the BB and cranks. Can also get GXP compatible BBs that are supposedly much better, and then can use any GXP cranks (nothing wrong with the cranks. Just a big spindle with arm really. Not so keen on cranks that bolt arms to the spindle. Another thing to loosen and fall off).

But yeah, whatever works. I'm just used to SRAM stuff but have had Shimano stuff mixed with SRAM. Don't really care as long as it works and is easy to maintain.

Northwind

For cranks, you need a very good reason to buy anything but Shimano- they just work. Truvativ get double pelters for having crap bottom brackets, but also not being compatible with anyone else's bottom brackets without adaptors and such. Now to be honest Deore cranks also have fairly poor BBs- only about twice as good as Truvativ- but at least they're compatible with everything else.

Brakes, well, Shimano are crazily cheap now- wouldn't be my choice, I'd go up to Formula Oros for around £130. But the performance of Shimano at the price is fantastic.

delcol

i always liked raceface cranks.. yeah the bottombrackets were crap but they seem to of sorted this, well my turbine one is ok... i paired my raceface dues xc with a hope bb and it been fine...

only gripe i had with my old shimano lx crank was the pinch bolts coming loose and having to keep tighten them..

rolf_f

The BB was indeed a GXP from 2008.

I don't actually need a new BB now as I replaced the GXP with a Hope one but I presume there are no gains to be had by buying cranks without BB? And I presume the adaptors can just be whipped out when I do replace the cranks?

As for alternatives to the Shimano brakes - my only real requirements are reliability and no squeaks/binding etc; I'm not heavy so power is never going to be much of an issue.

delcol

i'm yet to find a brake that does not squeek when it gets wet..
up to now i had
hayes
hope
avid
formulas
magura.

i found formula the worst for sqeeking when wet, but for performance and reliability they are amazing..

hope are probably the quietest they do sqeel when wet but they soon stop after afew seconds... but hope known as hopless by many.. i aint had any problems with mine yet.. but they do lack power compaire to the formula...

rolf_f

delcol wrote:

i'm yet to find a brake that does not squeek when it gets wet..
up to now i had
hayes
hope
avid
formulas
magura.

Going to a lot of trouble to avoid Shimano there!!

Possibly thinking of going for the SLX brakes now. About €60 inc mounts and rotors. Question is though - do I need to change the discs which aren't heavily worn - presumably if the width and diameter are match, they'd be fine?

delcol

i have nothing against shimano (even if all my bike have sram. )

it's just the hayes brakes were on my rocky mountain when i got it,, avids came on my demo plus i had juicy 5s on my heckler. (not an avid fan i find them a little wooden in feel)
i choose the formulas based on the reviews they got.
and hope i got a deal on them i wanted formula but could not afford them at the time..

i would go for the new shimano xtr brakes if i could,

as for your discs as long as they the same size ie 180mm you should be fine.. just be sure they match like shimano hope ect 180mm avid are 185mm...

The Spiderman

Rolf,having previously seen your advice on the road forum it`s good to be able to return the favour!

I can completely sypathise with the Juicy 3 problem.I have spent a fair bit of time tweaking a mate`s bike with Juicy 3s trying to get them to run right.

In the meantime,I have never had a problem with my old Shimano XT 765s in terms of reliabilty or mudulation though they are lacking the power of newer Shimano barkes.

The new Deore 596 get good reviews,though if you can stretch to the new SLX M666 they are meant to be very good indeed.

This is about as cheap as you will find them: http://www.rosebikes.co.uk/article/shim ... aid:516013

I`ve never tried Avid rotors with Shimano brakes.I`m led to believe that they will work,but you can pick up 6 bolt XT R75 rotors pretty cheap too.

iljs

I might have this wrong being a novice. I got bit with doing the same sort of thing. Once you change the front, you have to look at changing the chain as it is worn into the old rings. After which you have to change your rear cassete as it will slip with a new chain. Just thought this might be worth considering when it comes to prices. As I said I tried to changed the front and ended changing the lot just to stop the chain slipping. (Cost a bit more than I thought it would in the end).
Still, a good excuse to get loads more new stuff though!

louthepoo

The Spiderman wrote:

In the meantime,I have never had a problem with my old Shimano XT 765s in terms of reliabilty or mudulation though they are lacking the power of newer Shimano barkes.
.

i've heard they're a bit woof!

Pudseyp

Personaly I like Juicy brakes and had them on my Marin and they are on my XTC...they work fine no squealing...if you look after them and clean them they are good brakes...

Though on my Tomac I have XTR trail brakes and they are the dogs nuts..so if I was ever to upgrade the XTC it would have to be shimano...you can get good deals on the older SLX and XT at the moment..

Cranks would have to be SLX or XT

rolf_f

The Spiderman wrote:

Rolf,having previously seen your advice on the road forum it`s good to be able to return the favour!

Nice to know I've probably said something useful - however, please note I am not legally responsible for the consequences of anything I have said on Bikeradar

So, now then. I think I need to make a decision on this. The weather looks like I may be able to avoid using the MTB until the new year so new year and new brakes look good!

The options from Action Sports are as follows.

M596 Deore for €68 inc adaptor and rotor
M575 Deore pair for €129 but that has 160 front and rear whereas the P7 has 185 front at the mo.
M595 Deore for €60
M665 SLX for €60
M666 SLX for €95

Tbh, the M666 is more than I think I need to pay. Currently I think I'd favour the M665 SLX but is older SLX better than new Deore? I need help - I can't make decisions!

The Spiderman

I think I`d be tempted by the newer design,and go for M596.The reviews here are very favourable.

The Rookie

bennett_346 wrote:

The Beginner wrote:

I buy whatever works... my (quite old) Juicy5's

does not compute

As I can put the bike up on it's front wheel, I'm not sure having better brakes will stop me any quicker.....

Simon

bennett_346

The Beginner wrote:

bennett_346 wrote:

The Beginner wrote:

I buy whatever works... my (quite old) Juicy5's

does not compute

As I can put the bike up on it's front wheel, I'm not sure having better brakes will stop me any quicker.....

Simon

I love how people assume that a brake can be no better if it can lock the front wheel up.

Modulation? Weight? Reliability? Power delivery?

These are all features i found really really poor on juicys. Sure, i could lock the front wheel up with them but they dealt with heat very poorly, the pistons always messed up or didn't retract, changing the pads was a complete nightmare and until you had the lever almost fully pulled the power didn't come through.

Oh and this wasn't because they needed bleeding or anything.

rolf_f

A nice box arrived today containing the stuff below!

ie the M665 brake levers and calipers with XT discs and mounts. I went for the older SLX in the end as the prices I'd dug up for the newer Deore didn't include the discs and mounts. So the lot in the picture came in at just over £100 which seems pretty good to me.

Of course, that assumes it all fits together OK. Might leave the discs alone for now as the existing ones probably have plenty of life in them.

Thanks for the advice - much appreciated. Will post again when I've installed it and it's all working (see you in 2013 )