The Avid Elixir is no more!

oxocube1

It has probably been like it for a while but I only just noticed that they have removed the Avid Elixir brakes as a product from the SRAM website all together.

I didn't realise the Guide brake was replacing the Elixir series, I thought they were just adding them. Even the newish Trail X7 and X9 have gone.

I guess they thought they are falling behind on the Disc Brake Market?

Feel free to discuss!

supersonic

Just a rename. Like Deore m525, 575, 590, 591, 595, 615!

Kowalski675

supersonic wrote:

Just a rename. Like Deore m525, 575, 590, 591, 595, 615!

Not according to the info from Avid.

mattv

Let's hope quality control has improved at the same time as the name change. Elixirs are better than juicys, but still leave alot of room for improvement.

Briggo

mattv wrote:

Let's hope quality control has improved at the same time as the name change. Elixirs are better than juicys, but still leave alot of room for improvement.

What quality issues, I've had my Elixir R SL's for 3 years from new on my bike, had to bleed them twice and that's it.

poah

Briggo wrote:

What quality issues, I've had my Elixir R SL's for 3 years from new on my bike, had to bleed them twice and that's it.

based on people reading the internet and not actually owning them

Cqc

What's wrong with juicys?

mattv

Avid brakes are very light and very powerful. When they work. The problem is, they are almost never bled correctly from the factory, either OEM or after market. I have drawn entire syringes of air out of new elixirs. The design of the master cylinder is very clever with its circular reservoir, but seems weak. Seals are often faulty from the factory or fail and stop the pistons retracting correctly. Juicys are prone to leaking from the reservoir cap, and the calipers seize very regularly. This is only from around 10 years experience working in the trade, so think what you want.

rockmonkeysc

Cqc wrote:

What's wrong with juicys?

Terrible brakes, but I think Elixirs are worse. Even the X0's I had aren't as good as the Deores I replaced them with even though they are three times the price of the Shimanos.

JBA

Over the last 5 years I have had various bikes in the family using Avid brakes - Juicy 3, Juicy 3.5, Elixir R (on 2 bikes) and Elixir 1 and have not experienced any trouble at all. They all work well and none of them has suffered from trapped air or seized pistons. Apart from routine cleaning and pad replacements the only thing I have ever done is bleed the Juicy 3's once.

Kowalski675

No problems so far with the OE Elixir 3s on my Boardman. Powerful enough for me, plenty of feel and no reliabilty issues so far (and the lever shape is much nicer than some). Certainly no bleed problems from new - nice firm lever with short travel, definitely no air in mine.

I'm replacing them with XTs, but only 'cos I wanted some hydraulics for my Kraken, and CRC were doing the XTs so cheap that it made more sense to buy those and swap my Avids over onto the Kraken than to buy a set of Deores for the Kraken.

rockmonkeysc

I have had good Elixirs and bad ones. The elixir 1s on the wifes bike are fine but my old elixir 7s and X0s were terrible. They needed regular bleeds and I had various leaks and power was poor.
Considering the X0's were nearly £400 for the pair they were sh1t. I replaced them with Deores for £65 for the pair and they are more powerful, have a better feel, are more consistent, easier to bleed and more reliable

WindyG

I have 3 sets of Elixir's the OEM 5's on the Anthem have been perfect from day one and I've not had to do anything to them, 2nd hand set of 3R one caliper needed the piston to be freed up and bleed and now is perfect, a brand new set of 3's have been total crap and feel horrible these will end up on the commuter.

kajjal

My Elixir 1's were fine with no real problems but swapped them for XT's which have more power and better feel with the matching rotors,

russyh

Kowalski675 wrote:

No problems so far with the OE Elixir 3s on my Boardman. Powerful enough for me, plenty of feel and no reliabilty issues so far (and the lever shape is much nicer than some). Certainly no bleed problems from new - nice firm lever with short travel, definitely no air in mine.

I'm replacing them with XTs, but only 'cos I wanted some hydraulics for my Kraken, and CRC were doing the XTs so cheap that it made more sense to buy those and swap my Avids over onto the Kraken than to buy a set of Deores for the Kraken.

You actually ridden it with the new frame yet then kowalski?

felix.london

Briggo wrote:

What quality issues, I've had my Elixir R SL's for 3 years from new on my bike, had to bleed them twice and that's it.

Those quality issues! ^^

I have to bleed mine every year and they still never feel 'right'. I have a set of 8 year old Deores, they've been bled once and a set of 2yr old SLX which haven't needed to be bled yet.

Can't wait to get shot of the Elixir R's on the Session....Zee's'll soon come to my rescue!

Thewaylander

I have to admit rode a set of the trail 9 i believe and they were great lovely level feel.

Shimano are great but i find them far to grabby and cant modulate the power well. love my formula the one.

felix.london

supersonic wrote:

Just a rename. Like Deore m525, 575, 590, 591, 595, 615!

I think it's a bit more than that...they are ditching the Avid branding altogether and putting SRAM up front and centre. Their marketing bods obviously think this'll sell more brakes which says to me the Avid brand is soiled.

oxocube1

I certainly agree with what has been said about the Elixirs being shoddy as OEM parts. From all the Boardman bikes i've sent out over the last few years, only a handful of them came in with both brakes feeling the same/not spongy. I imagine they will still be seen as stock on many bikes to come though as there is probably a lot of them still around.
The Juicy 7s I used to have were very good imo but the pads were a pain in the a*se to change. I preferred them to the Elixir 5s i used to have on the HT.

Now though I'm too used to the short lever of Shimano brakes and can't ride with longer levers like on Avid brakes.

felix.london wrote:

Their marketing bods obviously think this'll sell more brakes which says to me the Avid brand is soiled.

I think you're right. Looks like they are trying to 'start fresh' by branding them with SRAM.

lawman

Funny if they are rebranding considering the rep "SRAM" road hydraulic brakes have ATM. Like all sram stuff avid brakes are just under engineered

Chunkers1980

What goes 'right' in Rockshox then?

stubs

If you get a good set of Elixirs they are superb and easily compare to the best brakes. Getting a good pair is the trick I have had 2 sets of Elixir of the 4 brakes 1 was excellent, 1 was good but needed bleeding every 3 or 4 months, 1 was okay 9 times out of 10 but that 10th made your sphinter pucker as the lever came back a lot further than you expected before biting, 1 was a shocker how it got past quality control and out of the factory I will never know the master cylinder assembly was full of swarf and the caliper piston seals were twisted.

stubs

Chunkers1980 wrote:

What goes 'right' in Rockshox then?

Nothing wrong with SRAM design I think its the production side that lets Avid down. Not 100% sure but I think SRAM contract out there manufacturing unlike Shimano where the better quality stuff is made inhouse or by companies that have worked for them for years.

The Rookie

If it's not designed to be able to be made to work reliably, that is a design flaw!

Thewaylander

well the elixirs i had were fine,

The trail x9 was superb to use, so some of this sounds rather biased against all the brakes when its a few models of elixir, the trail brakes from what i have heard and experienced have been great!

Sounds like a lot of shimano fans bashing brakes when the trails are nothing like the elixir and these new brakes are nothing like either when you go find out more about them.

mattv

SRAM effectively blamed their sub contractors for out of spec seals which caused the road hydro recall. I wonder if this is the cause of many of their problems? Outsourcing components and maybe even assembly to the lowest bidder. Or, launch an unfinished product to the market just to be first and use the public as guinea pigs and lumber their warranty dept with picking up the pieces.

Daz555

Cqc wrote:

What's wrong with juicys?

Exactly.

Mine are still perfect after 4 years of abuse.

The Rookie

mattv wrote:

SRAM effectively blamed their sub contractors for out of spec seals which caused the road hydro recall. I wonder if this is the cause of many of their problems?

I work in the automotive industry, supplier mistakes do creep through, but it's exceedingly rare for something like that to happen, stinks of them passing to a sub contractor with no proper oversight!

rockmonkeysc

The Rookie wrote:

mattv wrote:

SRAM effectively blamed their sub contractors for out of spec seals which caused the road hydro recall. I wonder if this is the cause of many of their problems?

I work in the automotive industry, supplier mistakes do creep through, but it's exceedingly rare for something like that to happen, stinks of them passing to a sub contractor with no proper oversight!

Don't SRAM inspect components from their suppliers? They may not have manufactured the components but they are responsible for making sure they are within tolerance before fitting and selling.

coulddobetter

Elixer 9 never bled just changed pads. I couldn't find any fault.

Briggo

Take what you read with a pinch of salt, too many people clearly get drawn in my the internet hype.

5 people had bad experiences with Avids, therefore all Avids are bad*, ignore the thousands of users who don't have much of/no issue.


*this figure is made up