Rotors for Avid Juicy 3's...

goldeneyedmonkey

Hello all,

Recently the bakes on my Carrera Fury have been giving me a bit of grief. I bought the bike 2nd hand and they felt nice and solid, only use it for XC, lately I've noticed a fair bit of squealing from them and they don't seem to be stopping me in the same manner as they did.

There was no debris on the pad or rotor so I've acquired some sintered pads and will swap them in. But the rotor seems to be scrubbing on the pads as well so I'm going to upgrade the rotors at some point. Not sue if the front one is slightly bent.

Do all rotors fit all brakes? I was just going to get some higher specced Avid ones, but other makes seem to get better reviews. What would you recommend?

And can I go up from a 160mm to a 180mm without changing loads of stuff? Is it worth getting bigger ones?

Sorry for all the questions, not very clued up on brakes yet!

Cheers _Dan.

cooldad

All rotors are pretty much the same, so if yours aren't warped you are wasting your time/money.
You need to adjust the pads if they are rubbing.
And sintered squeal more than organic, so that won't solve your problem.

cooldad

Bigger rotors you just need new adapters.

goldeneyedmonkey

Yeah I know that the sintered ones are noisier than the standard ones, but the standard ones weren't noisy until recently. I read somewhere that sintered are slightly better performing, but but the trade off is that you have to put up with a bit of noise.

I'll check the rotors to see if they're still sound then.

Cheers _Dan

cooldad

Nope, sintered are harder and give slightly less performance. They last longer in muddy conditions though.

goldeneyedmonkey

That's what I meant by better performing, I live in the Peak District so there's plenty of water & mud about. Sorry, I should have made that clear. Am I right in thinking they are slightly better in gritty conditions? There's loads of sandstone round here.

_Dan

cooldad

Not better in terms of braking, softer pads will always be better at stopping than hard, but the sintered will last longer. I've managed to trash organic pads in a few hours of nasty Wales weather.
For your conditions I would be using either sintered or kevlar (which are softer than sintered but last longer than organic, and are a bit more expensive). But sintered would be recommended for wet griity conditions.

goldeneyedmonkey

Thanks for the advice, much appreciated. I'll fit them and see if I can live with the extra noise. Wrecked some pads in a few hours? Sounds like you must of been nailing it about.

Cheers _Dan.

cooldad

Nope I'm just a rubbish scaredy cat and probably use my brakes too much.

Try hosing the brakes out using lots of water after rides - get all the grit and mud out. Can help with noise.

apreading

cooldad wrote:

Try hosing the brakes out using lots of water after rides - get all the grit and mud out. Can help with noise.

+1 - both my wheels were making sooo much noise after a ride at Swinley last weekend - even after washing the bike, so I took the pads out and there was still gunk on them and inside the calipers where they sit - dunked them in water and rinsed out the brakes while they were out - all good now!

YeehaaMcgee

Actually, sintered do offer more instantaneous stopping power, since they build up heat faster than resin pads.

Anyway, I'll bet anything that the problem is the Juicy 3s themselves.
Instead of faffing around trying different things, just save up for a bit and get some brakes that actually work.

cooldad

I'll agree to differ on the resin/sintered debate, although I'm a convert to Superstar kevlars - amazing.
On the Juicy 3's - so many people seem to have issues that's probably not a bad suggestion.

Anonymous

The better Avid stuff do have higher spec rotors but all I can see is they have a bit more venting, but really not going to make much of a difference to the vast majority.

That said if you want the better ones and were planning on getting new brakes and want to stick with Avid, just get the better Avids (X7, X9, X0 I'd recommend) - they come with rotors.

Or, keep the brakes, change rotors if you like, but if they're not bent, no reason to change them unless you want to change the size. Maybe change the pads. Could do a proper clean of them.

And yeah Juicy 3s - spongy and problematic at times, though rotor noise isn't the main problem with them. That's normal on any brakes. Except pad alignment issues, hence rubbing on the rotors, but fix is wheel out, push the pads back and pump the lever with wheel in and/or realign the calliper. Better Avids self adjust and have bite point adjustments.

goldeneyedmonkey

Well I had a look at the brakes and tried changing the pads, but I couldn't do it without getting loads of rubbing. I put in some A2Z Organic ones in the end. But one of the convex washers snapped so I had to order some more (I took the caliper and mount off so I could properly wash it out), then after that I couldn't get the brake set up properly without getting mahooosive rub.

So took it to the LBS and had them bleed the back brake and sort the brake pad/ caliper alignment for me out. They're working fine now. Although new brakes are up there on the list. Not sure what to go for really though, I'll be getting them 2nd hand.

Not sure what's what in the world of brakes really, are Hope well rated? Or should I just go for some newer/ better model Avids? Either way I'm gonna splash out and get some bigger slightly better engineered rotors, if only for the fact that they're bigger n shiny .

_Dan

YeehaaMcgee

Shimano brakes are the top of the tree recently in my opinion.
What do you mean by "better engineered rotors"?

goldeneyedmonkey

YeehaaMcgee wrote:

Shimano brakes are the top of the tree recently in my opinion.
What do you mean by "better engineered rotors"?

Better @ shedding heat.

YeehaaMcgee

The difference will be unnoticeable between rotor designs.

cooldad

Best designs are the basic Shimano style with plenty of metal. Avoid stylie flame/sawtooth/other weird designs with more spaces than metal.