Repair Juicy 3s or buy something new?

Kerbdog

Hi guys,

I currently have a set of Juicy 3s on my bike which are in need of some attention. The rear has a sticky piston and both ends need bleeding. The rear also rubs on the disc quite noticeably and i cant for love nor money get it to stop. I am happy enough with the braking power when they are working properly but they have been a right PITA to set up from the day i got them.

So the question is should i:

a) take them somewhere to sort out sticky piston/bleed them etc (any idea roughly how much that will cost?)
b) spend £35 on a bleed kit and try to sort the problem myself (read this can be a royal ballache)
c) ditch them and buy something that works as well or better without the setup problems

I would only have a budget of around £100 all in for option c, so would this buy me anything worthwhile?

Your thoughts/advice are appreciated.

Rob

journey_man_pro

I would spend the £100 on the new m596 shimano deore. Can't go wrong.

IBISMojoHDamon

journey_man_pro wrote:

I would spend the £100 on the new m595 shimano deore. Can't go wrong.

I'd agree with this, and sell your old ones on the bay of e....

journey_man_pro

Or spend another £40 and get the m666 slx. I have the slx and they are fantastic but the deore are supposed to be very good.

Anonymous

Bin the Juicys. Too much hassle.

£100 though for both front and back?

Managed to get a lucky deal £100 each on X0s (complete calliper, disc, hose & lever). Really nice. £200 for front & back set though (normally £400). Otherwise Shimano set I guess for cheap, else Formula. Are those prices above a full set or just getting the callipers? Shimano stuff seem to come in bits, but if you're okay in re-using existing discs and/or levers then a cheap option.

journey_man_pro

Prices I've stated are lever, hose and caliper kits.

The Rookie

The rear will rub all the time the piston is sticky - obvious really, if you can get a cheap bleed kit (ebay for about £12) bleed kit and some tools and a clue I'd suggest giving the front a bleed and stripping the rear down, just cleaning it and rebuilding and see if that works. If you don't have a bleed kit it's probably not worth it, flog them with the rear as spares or repairs and buy something else.

Bleeding them is not that hard to do, we have 2 bikes on Juicy's in the family.

Simon

Kerbdog

Thanks for the replys guys.

I dont really want to spend much more than £100 for front and back if i decide to bin the juicys, but i was under the impression i could get something decent for that - to reiterate, im not necessarily after more stopping power, just less hassle!

Also i presume the rotors i have on there at the moment will be fine with different brakes or is there some reason you cant mix and match eg. avid rotors with shimano brakes etc.

Has anyone got a link to a cheap avid bleed kit that works well - i dont mind trying to fix the juicys myself but spending a third of my budget on an avid bleed kit (plus whatever a piston and seall kit costs) with no guanantee of solving the problems seems a bit silly really.

Alternatively has anyone got any links to where i can pick up alternative, less hassle brakes for in and around the £100 mark.

Cheers,
Rob

sparky.2002

Got juicy 3's myself with a sticky piston on the front.
Quick cheap fix
remove caliper and pads.
Hold left piston in place with pliers
operate lever gently until right piston extends just past the sticky spot. Then push right piston back and hold in place with pliers. Operate lever until left piston extends past sticky spot.
Obviously, if you apply too much pressure, your gonna end up with a mess
Push both pistons back, put back together, centralise caliper, no more sticky piston and rubbing brake.
Hope this helps until you buy something else..

journey_man_pro

the m596 deore are 49.99 per brake on chain reaction. slx m666 are 69.99 per brake

The Rookie

You can use any disc with any calliper, although some have deeped pads than others so you may need a disc with a thicker (inner radius to outer radius) disc section to stop it operating on the spoke parts of the disc.

Simon

EH_Rob

http://www.rosebikes.co.uk/products/bik ... sc-brakes/

Think Rose Bikes have the best deals on brakes...

Kerbdog

Thanks for all the advice guys.

I have previously tried to free up the piston using the method posted above which did work to a certain extent (in as much as it allowed me enough room to eliminate the disc rub but the piston still wouldn’t fully retract) however after a few rides the bloody thing stuck again. I might have another play about with them next week to see if i can free it up, although even then they do need a bleed and to be honest i am a bit sick of them.

£80 for a set of Shimano M596 from Rose bikes seems a good deal. I have now learnt that i can use my existing rotors but will i need adaptors or are these standard as well? Also these brakes seem to be set up the opposite way round ie right hand rear braking, so the hoses would need swapping, and the brakes subsequently bled i presume. What kind of kit do i need to do this on Shimano brakes?

Sorry for all the questions but hopefully i nearly have all the info i need.

Cheers
Rob

The Rookie

you really need to pop the piston out and clear off any crud.......

sparky.2002

just thought I'd give a quick update to my previous advice. Again, I got a sticky piston an my juicy 3's. This time, I have extended each piston in turn so it sits about 4-5mm from the caliper - not sure how far you can go before loosing fluid. While the piston has been extended, i have meticulously cleaned the piston all the way round using a alcohol wipes and a tiny flat blade screwdriver (dont scratch it!!). As I have pushed the freshly cleaned piston back into the caliper, the difference is instantly noticeable - very little resistance, I have then exercised the freshly cleaned piston (while holding the opposing piston with pliers) about 5 times. Done this for all 4 pistons. Next, I have used pliers to open the pad spreaders slightly. Put everything back together and working a treat. Was gonna buy some slx brakes this month but TBH, had a crap wage and cant really afford it. With a bit of luck, should get a few hassle free miles out of these bloody juicy 3's

monkey_man_1

rosebike, new shimano xt m785 lever,caliper,hose kit and use existing rotors. £62 delivered for a front or rear if used with facebook voucher. could possibly get a front and rear set if you could sell you juicys on ebay for a few quid!

rolf_f

I gave up on my Juicy 3s and got a set of M665 SLX brakes from Action Sports.de for about £100 including adaptors and XT discs.

Avid fronts, irrc, have slightly different sized discs to Shimano but I think you can adjust with washers. But as I got the new discs anyway, I've just used those.

Happy enough with the transformation!

YeehaaMcgee

Another vote for ditching the Juicys and going for Shimano here.
Just remember that Shimano use mineral oil, not DOT, so if you need to bleed them, don't use your existing tools and materials!

Sheppy

I had the same dilemma, except I actually bought the avid bleeding kit. Waste of money, they were still rubbish, ended up ditching the avids and bought Shimanos SLX. Never looked back since

Guy in a bike workshop told me as Shimano used mineral oil they didn't "crust up" like avids, reckons they were less maintennance in the long run. Might be talking rubbish but then there was nothing in it for him, he knew I wouldn't be buying them off him, was just his experience. Having switched to the SLX brakes over a year ago so far I'd have to agree with him...

sparky.2002

Ultimately, that's what I want to do - switch to slx.... Problem is - bloody skint for the foreseeable future!!

Anonymous

The problem with the avid stuff is the Juicys make people think they need bleeding, when they don't. The problem with them is they're just rubbish. Once you start messing with the bleed kit you really mess them up.

Elixir type Avids (inc X brakes) are fine. They're properly self adjusting. In my experience.

YeehaaMcgee

deadkenny wrote:

Elixir type Avids (inc X brakes) are fine. They're properly self adjusting. In my experience.

Apart from the early Elixirs which had a design problem, that's now supposedly fixed. You know, the same brakes that plenty of Avid users claimed were fantastic.

cooldad

YeehaaMcgee wrote:

deadkenny wrote:

Elixir type Avids (inc X brakes) are fine. They're properly self adjusting. In my experience.

Apart from the early Elixirs which had a design problem, that's now supposedly fixed. You know, the same brakes that plenty of Avid users claimed were fantastic.

Would they be avid Avid users?



Sorry I'm bored.

YeehaaMcgee

cooldad wrote:

YeehaaMcgee wrote:

deadkenny wrote:

Elixir type Avids (inc X brakes) are fine. They're properly self adjusting. In my experience.

Apart from the early Elixirs which had a design problem, that's now supposedly fixed. You know, the same brakes that plenty of Avid users claimed were fantastic.

Would they be avid Avid users?



Sorry I'm bored.

Yes, or alternatively avid users who were avid fans of avid.

Kerbdog

Hey guys,

Quick update. So i have just changed the pistons and bled the rear brake (need the bike to cycle to work everyday hence delay in doing this). Mixed results really. Piston doesnt stick anymore, and the brakes were ok to bleed after 2 attempts, but they are still doing my nut in. So sod them, im gonna do what i should have done in the first place (unless of course they have perfectly adjusted themselves by morning) and buy some new ones.

So what to buy? My shortlist is as follows:

Shimano M596 or M666 from Rose bikes. This would involve swapping levers round so how much of a PITA is that and does it require a full bleed after?

Shimano M665 from merlin which would come the right way round

or something direct from Formula - K24, Oro Bianco or Mega-K.

My priorities are ease of maintenance, modulation and power in that order although the formulas do look nicer . I am of course open to suggestion also if something better meets my requirements for around £100-150ish

Cheers for any insight.

Rob.

YeehaaMcgee

Big Shimano fan here myself. Currently running XTs on one bike and Saint on the other.

gonga

Kerbdog wrote:

Shimano M596 or M666 from Rose bikes. This would involve swapping levers round so how much of a PITA is that and does it require a full bleed after?

Shimano M665 from merlin which would come the right way round

or something direct from Formula - K24, Oro Bianco or Mega-K.

My priorities are ease of maintenance, modulation and power in that order although the formulas do look nicer . I am of course open to suggestion also if something better meets my requirements for around £100-150ish

Cheers for any insight.

Rob.

Im wondering this having orders some XT's from rose. Will this be fairly straight forward, and do you need a bleed kit?