Brake upgrade for Canyon Nerve

KernowCB

Hi,

Had a Nerve for a couple of months now that came with Elixir 3's as standard which, to be honest, feel pretty useless. Looking for a decent upgrade and am considering the SLX's? ANyone have experience of these and whether they are able to be easily fitted to a 2013 canyon nerve?

Other suggestions welcomed!

winter_zombie

hi

well i have the Elixir 7 and they feel and work great.

with you saying they feel useless, are you sure its not just the break pads ??

KernowCB

Yeah pretty confident. I've changed pads twice (superstar kevlar) and bled the brakes 3 times and still pretty awful!!

stubs

Anything by Shimano they are all awesome brakes. I have the XT ones on my Canyon and they really are 1 finger braking I have never run out of brakes. Avids are unpredictable you can get a good one or a crap one and if you have a crap one no matter how many times you bleed, change pads or tweak they will never get any better.

Clank

SLX are just amazing. To be honest, the Deores are damn fine stoppers too, if you want to save a few pennies. They are a doodle to fit, but check if your current disks are compatible. I've got older series XTs on my hardtail and they're mighty fine too. Two years and I haven't even had to touch them yet, save for changing pads.

My experience with Avids has led me to beleive that Shimano simply make much better brakes - more reliable and easier to service.

KernowCB

Great. Thanks for the input. I must say I'm really disappointed with the Avids.

Noob question: How do i know if my discs are compatible with the slx's or xt's?

I have a Nerve AL 7.0 - http://www.canyon.com/_en/mountainbikes ... tml?b=3026

stubs

KernowCB wrote:

Great. Thanks for the input. I must say I'm really disappointed with the Avids.

Noob question: How do i know if my discs are compatible with the slx's or xt's?

I have a Nerve AL 7.0 - http://www.canyon.com/_en/mountainbikes ... tml?b=3026

I think you might need an adaptor to fit the brakes. My rear just bolted onto the post mounts as I run a 160mm rear disc. I had to buy an adaptor for the front but they arent expensive http://www.woollyhatshop.com/Brake-Spares/Disc-Brake-Adaptors/Shimano-Disc-Brake-Mount-Front-Adapter-180mm/prod_4226.html

mikeysickalrigh

I put the XTs on mine as the Avids are terrible. The XTs are amazing

lawman

Xt all the way. I was a long time hope fan, until I tried the new shimano brakes and was absolutely blown away. I refuse to use anything else now, utterly brilliant, brilliant brakes, masses of power, the best lever shape ever and they can be bought really cheaply, even deores are very good.

arigold

I had Elixir 3! Bleed, replaced pads etc...still shite...got my self pair of deores and rt76 rotors

Shackster

I can see a common theme here - I've got XTs (M775) on mine too and love the silence after the terrible turkey gobble and howling of the avids (elixir CR - sold them on ebay for a fair bit too! with an honest description though).

ddraver

Never heard a bad word about Shimano brakes....even the cheap as chips ones on my old mans 400 squid rockhopper are impressive. Formula are also good, but they re significantly more expensive and I don't think significantly better in any other respect than pimpiness...

lawman

The newer shimano brakes are very good, the ones with the tiny lever blades, but older ones were pretty average, m775's for example were awful, poor lever shape, a pain to bleed, lacked power, heavy and had serious over heating issues, like wise with the old xtr m975s. New ones are much, much better

chez_m356

stubs wrote:

Avids are unpredictable you can get a good one or a crap one and if you have a crap one no matter how many times you bleed, change pads or tweak they will never get any better.

must be as above, have elixir 3's on my 2011 nerve AM, never had to touch them apart from replacing worn pads

Clank

By rotor compatability, I'm talking about diamter.

I don't know what diamter rotors come on the OP's Canyon, but Shimano rotors are typically 160, 180 and 203(?)mm diameter, and Avid claim a mid size of 185. I couldn't say how you'd have to juggle adapters to get a Shimano caliper to work with a 185mm rotor.

Last time I did it for a mate he changed calipers, levers, adpators and rotors.

Sorry I can't be more help on this one! Others will have a more definitive answer, I'm sure.

ddraver

Yes, he ll need to have the correct mounts, in all likelihood the size of the disks and therefore the mounts will change. That said, if you can find them as a set in a sale, all that will be done for you...

stubs

Looking at the link posted for the bike it says 180mm front 160mm rear they are standard sizes not the Avid 185mm that no one else used. So no adaptor needed for rear and possibly no new adaptor needed for front, if Avid still uses its stupid tri-align washers then a new adaptor is needed like the one I linked to.

Avid why on earth did you use them they are for rim brakes you idiots. I managed to stop my Avids warbling by dumping the tri-align washers and fitting solid spacers I got off ebay. Not something you should have to do on a relatively expensive brakeset.

The Rookie

Use the original discs and adaptors, the avid callipers are a different shape to allow for the CPS effect, so remove caliper with CPS and fit new caliper - simples!

Mojo_666

Elixr's are not much cop, I swapped my 7's for M4's.

KernowCB

Cheers for the help!

Ordered the SLX M675's today from bike discount.de - £113 for the pair.

Hopefully will get away without the adapters as my discs are 180 and 160mm.

ddraver

Superstar are you friends if you need different disk's or mounts...

MDobs

bikediscount.de were doing formula RX for £85 delivered for the pair (F+R separately), with adapters.

eddiefiola

Did you get your XT's?

Any issues mounting?

I'm a bit of a noob and just ordered an XT front for my Yellowstone 5.9, has Elixir 1s 180 fr 160 back and wondering if I need to buy any kind of adaptor or whether it will fit as is?