Just replaced the Avid 5's with a set of SLX brakes on my sons new Nomad.

Got em on, cut the brake lines down a bit (a first for me) zero problems…

Until… it came time to adjust them…. Been messing with them for two hours, they still drag and no matter what I do I can't figure it out. Same thing happened when I bled the Xt's and replaced he pads.

First time I'd ever bled any brakes on a bike… no problem… until it came time to adjust them, hours and hours I tried, never got the right.

Stopped in to see Mike at NOTB… 10 minutes max they were perfect. Looks like I'll be heading there tomorrow again.

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Would you like to donate the Avids to a friends worthy cause; dude is broke!

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"Just stop this walking shit and let's get this done"
Avidtesty (Arch 2019)

I think I'm going to take the Hayes off my wife's bike and but Avid's on it.

I'd donate the Hayes if I do that.

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I think I'm going to take the Hayes off my wife's bike and but Avid's on it.

I'd donate the Hayes if I do that.

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Probably not a big deal to most of you guys but after thinking about what the problem with new SLX brakes might be I solved it.

The levers were really stiff, especially when compared to the XT brakes on my Nomad.
I knew they should feel the same or at least very similar. They were also dragging really badly and no matter what I did I couldn't get them "centered".

So I thinking about it; very stiff break levers, lots of drag. The pistons must not be returning all the way. I grab a flashlight take a look and sure enough I see white, the pistons a just barely sticking out.

Turns out when I trimmed the lines I skipped a step, remember this is the first time I'd ever done this.
What I didn't do was push the pistons back in far enough after I trimmed the lines.

I got them in far enough to get the pads in and over the rotors, but I didn't get the pistons retracted far enough so the affect was there was just a bit too much fluid in the system and the pads where not retracting causing the drag.

Literally a 5 minute fix. I loosened the bleed/fill screw on the levers, reset the pads which burped no more than a couple drops of fluid, tightened the screws and…

The brakes work perfectly.

Not a big deal for most of you guys, but for me it was cool to solve that problem and learn something new in the process.

So now I'm ordering up another set of SLX's for my wife's bike.

If anyone is interested in a set of brand new Avid Elixir 5's I'd let them go for 130.00 without rotors.

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What didn't you like about the elixirs? I just got a set from chainlove friday for like 30 more than that (with rotors though). I know they'll be better than the 5 year old stroker rydes I have on there now, but I had been looking at the slx's too.

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the rider formally known as craptasticycler
http://app.strava.com/athletes/craptasticycler

I had Elixir CR's on my Trance and liked them. My experience with them was good although it was a a bit of work to them from squealing, nothing horrible just regular cleaning of rotors and occasional cleaning up the pads.

Until I got the XT's that came on my Nomad I had nothing to compare them to other than the Hayes that came on the Trance which I hated from the first ride. I'll admit for the first few rides with the XT's I didn't like them much but once the pads were ready to go it was night and day difference between the XT's and the CT's.

To me the lever feel on the XT's is far better and they are far stronger with better modulation. The SLX's now that they are working properly feel exactly like my XT's I can literally feel no difference. It'll be interesting to see how they feel once hey get a little hot, I have Ice Tech rotors on my Nomad my sins Nomad has Avid HS1's; both brake sets have Ice Tech pads.

The other thing is the Shimano's are quiet and so far there's been no maintenance to do to keep them that way.

I'll have to look at the pricing on the Avid's, the least I've seen them for in the short search I did was 147.00 with rotors. I paid 30.00 for one 6 bolt Avid HS1 to replace the center lock that came on his Nomad. I replaced the wheels on his bike with the DT Ex500's on DT 350's that came on my Nomad.

His Nomad came with Mavic EN321's on Shimano SLX hubs hence the center lock rotor.

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