Avid Juicy Three Disc Brake System

2.76/5

(121 Reviews)

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Weight : 404 grams

MSRP : $119.99

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Product Description

The tasty looks and comfy feel of the super-light lever. Avid Juicy 3 Disc Brake so good at so many things that it's hard to even put in a category like cross country or all mountain.

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Reviews 1 - 15 (121 Reviews Total)

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Submitted by Lauren4c a Cross Country Rider

Date Reviewed: May 3, 2013

Strengths:    They worked ok for a year and a half.

Weaknesses:    These brakes came stock on my Trek Fuel. They worked fine for a while, but recently I have been having problems constantly with them: I have to frequently realign the brake pads on the front rotor - they rub and squeal a lot. And my rear brake just took a crap. It's been bled multiple times, I replaced the small parts of the lever and it can still be pulled all the way to the bars. No idea what's wrong with it and they are getting replaced ASAP. They worked ok for me for about a year and a half, but they just aren't reliable and are turning into a headache. I give up on these.

Bottom Line:

There are better brakes out there, I just know it.

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Submitted by briangelc a Cross Country Rider

Date Reviewed: April 13, 2013

Strengths:    Good when they are working correctly

Weaknesses:    SQUEAK! they make my bike unrideable. no lever reach adjustment

Bottom Line:

I struggled with these for years. squeak. They came with my new GiantXTC in 2010. squeak. They caused so much vibration, that Giant replaced the bike frame with a new 2012 XTC frame. They squeaked less on cross country trails. But when I went to the moutains they Howled, and sqeaked mercelessly all the way down the mountain, especially when using lightwieght rotors. I was told for years to get Shimano XT disc brakes to solve the problem. I finally did. I wish I had done it years ago. I do not understand why Juicy3s make so much noise and vibration, and Shimano XTs do not.

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Favorite Trail:   Kitsuma, Old Fort, NC

Duration Product Used:   3years

Purchased At:   Giant dealer

Similar Products Used:   Avid BB7 - love those
Shimano XT hydraulic disc brakes - AWESOME

Bike Setup:   2012 Giant XTC 1 frame with 2010 gear on it -except replaced Juicy3 with Shimano XT

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Submitted by Morals

Date Reviewed: February 4, 2013

Strengths:    Nice pop, look sharp, reliable

Weaknesses:    none

Bottom Line:

I love these brakes, personally. That's because I have had good luck with mine. They trump the balls off the Craplixir 5's I just replaced.

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Submitted by Joe Hall a All Mountain Rider

Date Reviewed: January 11, 2013

Strengths:    A lot of grip for your money. Work well when wet. Low maintenance. Smooth. Very easy to install new pads.
Have had these brakes for three years, and not had to service or bleed them once, and still as strong as the day I got them.

Weaknesses:    Not encountered any problems as of yet.

Bottom Line:

These brakes are excellent. I honestly don't see how they get a bad rap.
If you want a hydraulic disc break for a very reasonable price, get a pair of these. You won't be disappointed.

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Duration Product Used: 3 years

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Submitted by Nick Heaphy

Date Reviewed: September 12, 2012

Strengths:    None.

Weaknesses:    Constant rubbing.
Have to be bled frequently as in every 2 weeks.
Just plain shi*house.

Bottom Line:

Absolute crap, do not buy. I've had these braked bled 4 times in the past year and a half. They go strong for about 2 weeks then back to pulling all the way to the grip. I have changed the hoses and pads many times and still no difference. Please im begging you do not buy these brakes, get some shimano xt's on special or something similar.

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Submitted by Jimmy

Date Reviewed: July 30, 2012

Strengths:    Not mechanical, nice levers

Weaknesses:    No adjustment and constant rubbing. I found the biggest issue to be the mounting system, way too may washers and rounded washers coupled with more washers. I swear there are like six per mounting screw. Getting these things aligned is a miricle. Getting them to stay aligned is a whole separate miricle. I nearly went nuts trying to get them to stop making noise. My bike came stock with a 203 in the front, made for a horribly noisy combo. I feel bad selling these to someone! Needless to say, these were my first disc brakes, so I was impressed by the stopping power. Now I've tried several kinds, and they are just ok. Wet, forget it.

Bottom Line:

Decent hydros, nothing special, super noisy.

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Submitted by ericrox

Date Reviewed: July 26, 2012

Strengths:    Solid brakes for first year.

Weaknesses:    On a ride they blew a seal in the lever and locked on. I flipped the calipers around and went without front brakes. Pain in the ass to find parts to rebuild.

Bottom Line:

Overall it's an okay brake. I liked there stopping power and seemed easy to maintain until the seal slipped or broke in the lever. Only $10 online but shipping times are all a pain in ass and bike was out for 2 weeks.

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Submitted by Wade

Date Reviewed: June 13, 2012

Strengths:    Low maintenance and very easy to install and maintain. No performance change in the cold (5 degree F Christmas ride)

Weaknesses:    They don't stop me as well as cable driving Avid or Juicy XX. When I hammer the brake I mean to skid to a stop and these do not do that See Summary about squealing.

Bottom Line:

I have a carbon hard tail I built from scratch. I ride in the Midwest and I'm hard on bikes to begin with. I like downhills, hard turning and jumping. I'm not a light rider at 290lbs but other brake systems have been able to stop me. These are good for the price but I need to upgrade so I can feel more comfortable going faster. Yes, mine squealed early on. I loosened the mounting bolts, squeezed the brake and held it while I re-tightened the bolts and they self align with no squealing now. My guess is they are being installed at a slight angle for them not to self align, just a thought anyway. I put 1200 miles on the first set of pads before I had to change them. I think they will work fine on my 10 yo sons Trek and that's where they are going.

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Price Paid: $109.00

Purchased At: blueskycycling.com

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Submitted by GT Edinburgh

Date Reviewed: April 21, 2012

Strengths:    cheap, look good, once they are set up correctly and properly maintained they work great, had mine for two years,bled them once,no brake squeel,one finger braking no problem, look after them and they will look after you.....

Weaknesses:    none so far mine have been great

Bottom Line:

good enough for most but if you are a serious downhiller then go for something more powerfull

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Submitted by Anthony a All Mountain Rider

Date Reviewed: April 20, 2012

Strengths:    They worked fine for the first week.

Weaknesses:    Noise, fade, weak front response.

Bottom Line:

I just bought a 2010 Trek fuel 7 new two weeks ago from this post. The first week on hydros coming from BB7's on a hard tail and my first thought was this is different. The BB7's had plenty of adjustability, the Avids don't. From day three on these brakes I started to get rub. Took the water bottle and gave them a shot and the noise went away for about a mile them came back. Ok, no big deal. I do ride everyday, weather permitting, so this might be to much for these things. Makes no sense to me they should start to falter so soon. I ride the bike like it was designed to be riden. Today I really took a ride from dirt, tacky mud, sand, and some paved trails and holy loud ! I literally called a turkey out of the woods ! To keep the cost down on bikes is the thing to do, but the brakes seem to be a bad chioce on a bike that is'nt top dollar but sure was a expense to me. Needing to stop right now is essential to my riding routine, and I can't recommend "upgrading" to these unless your enjoying leisurely riding. I will be shopping for a more reliable set of brakes before i have a complete failure and I get dead.

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Favorite Trail:   Carver lake, Battle creek

Similar Products Used:   bb7

Bike Setup:   trek fuel ex 7

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Submitted by Mrbvoytilla a Racer from Houston tx

Date Reviewed: April 8, 2012

Strengths:    These are a great entry level brake system. When I purchased these not all brake systems came ready to use out of the box. I was in college at the time and didn't have the time or money to pay someone to set them up so that was nice. The initial setup lasted for about 1 year before I needed to take them into a shop to get aligned.

Weaknesses:    Noise is loud and not what I would expect. Hard to service even after time. They seem to collect sludge easily in the system and the pistons seems to be almost struck now. I would expect a product to last a fair amount of time before i needed to replaces it.

Bottom Line:

Good for the entry level money but it sounds like you can buy some better quality stuff these days for around the same price.

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Favorite Trail:   Ho-chi-min

Duration Product Used:   More than 3 years

Price Paid:    $125.00

Purchased At:   QBP

Similar Products Used:   None do far. This was my first Mtb so the brakes are my first other than cross brakes.

Bike Setup:   Singlespeed krona unit 2-9 with these brakes.

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Submitted by Nick a Cross Country Rider from SLC, UT

Date Reviewed: April 3, 2012

Strengths:    Decent performance, CPS alignment system works well.

Weaknesses:    Experienced turkey warbling, and squealing as others have said on both front and rear. Rotors are prone to noise. Sticky pistons are a very common problem, this causes significant rub that can actually be felt while riding. I have aligned the caliper, changed the pads, bled and lubricated the pistons to no avail. This all started very shortly after getting the bike.

Bottom Line:

Constant messing with my brakes to get the tire to spin freely only to have it squeal and rub during a ride has taken a lot away from my overall experience. The brakes are so loud it's embarrassing. After I finally got sick of everyone having flawless maintenance free experiences with their stoppers I upgraded to the new 2012 Elixir 7s and haven't had any problems yet. Avid has a good system with CPS and the brakes did stop well but they sucked so bad for so many people they honestly should have been recalled.

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Favorite Trail:   Gooseberry Mesa

Duration Product Used:   More than 3 years

Purchased At:   New Mexico

Similar Products Used:   2012 Elixir 7

Bike Setup:   2008 FSR XC Expert

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Submitted by guitarjohn21 a All Mountain Rider from West Hills., CA U.S.A.

Date Reviewed: March 5, 2012

Strengths:    great stopping power when clean, and maintained.

Weaknesses:    A little harder to bleed than Hayes.

Bottom Line:

I think learning how to repair ad maintain you stuff is the key to happiness for most products out there. Obviously, after many years of being on the market, they must have done their homework at AVID, even for a budget brake. I hear a lot of reviewers complaining about squealing brakes and I just don't get it. I clean mine, they squeal for about 10 minutes, and its over. Just get them real hot. Learning how to bleed the things yourself might take as much time as typing those 600 word bad reviews I have seen. At least take as much time to clean the things once in a while and you might just find yourself liking what you have! Or not, and keep paying someone else to do it. They won't mind. .

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Favorite Trail:   Sheeps Corral & Overlook/Backbone trail

Duration Product Used:   3 months

Purchased At:   Came with bike

Similar Products Used:   Hayes Nine`

Bike Setup:   '07 Yeti 575 Mavic wheelsets for Downhill and lighter set for XC. stock Fox RP3 and Vanilla RL fork. Carbon Raceface bars. Shimano XT shifting, Raceface Evolve XC Cranks, SRAM PG990 cassette, Thompson seatpost. Light & Motion 750 for night rides w/ Nightrider Mininewt for helmet.

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Submitted by cascademtnbiker a Weekend Warrior from Myrtle Creek, OR, USA

Date Reviewed: January 4, 2012

Strengths:    Good modulation
Seals robust and don't leak
Rebuild kit and parts readily available online
Cheap price, good quality

Weaknesses:    Contact point is not adjustable
Reach adjustment is limited
Bleeding is difficult and requires an over-priced avid bleed kit to get the part you really need
Have to remove the caliper from bike to replace pads

Bottom Line:

I'm writing this review to offset all the bad reviews these brakes are getting here. I'm not giving these brakes 5 stars because I'm sure that there are better hydros out there, but price to performance ratio is probably as good as it gets. I have two sets of Juicy 3's one is the '08 model on my Enduro, the other '11 on the Reign X. I've been using them for two seasons and I have never had any problems with mechanical failures. I used Dot 4 and Dot 5.1 fluid and there's not really any difference in performance, except 5.1 has a slightly higher boiling point. The one time I had brake fade I was running Dot 4 and I've since moved to Dot 5.1 (which is what Avid uses). I weigh 200lbs with all my gear and water. I run 203mm rotors in the front and 185mm in the rear on both bikes. The '08 set was used and needed to be bled when I got them. I replace the hose with Clarks Hydraulic hose, which is very high quality BTW. The '11 set was new but I wanted orange hose so I replaced the hose and never experienced the factory feel on these brakes. I first replaced the hose with Jagwire hose that suuuucked, I could feeling the hose expanding under pressure. Jagwire was kind enough to give me a redesigned replacement hose but I don't think it's as good as Clark's. I can't get the '11 set to feel as firm as the '08 set, which, after many bleeds, has to be the hose.

Modulation: I used Avid Ball Bearing brakes prior and the modulation with those brakes was poor at best. The Juicy's modulate well enough that I can keep the back wheel rolling on the steepest trails I ride (several pitches exceed 50%). The lever feel is firm at the pad contact point but feels a bit soft when modulating under heavy braking, though this might be a good thing. I never tried other hydros on the trail so I can't give an accurate comparison nor do I know what is typical for lever feel. The Juicy's do work so well I can lock up the front, especially going into corners, if I'm not careful.

Overheating: I've had the brakes overheat on one very steep, long downhill run leading to a bit of fade but it didn't compromised my safety as I could feel it happening so I slowed down. I was running Dot 4 then and have since changed to Dot 5.1 so I hope this may not happen again. I not a racer but I destroy wicked descents faster than anybody else in my riding group.

Noise: None except when the rotor is wet. If you ride in the rain or snow rotors are always going to squeal. Once the rotor dries the silence of Juicy's is exceptional. I think brake noise when not wet is due to poor caliper alignment with the rotor. Avid Tri-Alignment system makes caliper alignment a breeze. Pad type and condition of the pad can effect noise and performance. Make sure the pads are properly broken in and that the rotors are kept clean. I clean my rotors with alcohol after every few rides to get the brake dust and other contaminants off.

Bleeding is a PITA. This is the major weakness/complaint I have with the brakes. It takes several times to get proficient with the bleeding procedure but once you get it it ain't that bad. I'd suggest bleeding on a warm/hot day as it helps the air bubbles move through the fluid a lot easier. You've got to get all the air out of the caliper and the lever otherwise the brakes feel spongy and really don't work at all. The bleed kit cost ($40-50) is way to much for what it is; 2 syringes, 1/8" tubing, special threaded and barbed has adapters, bleed blocks. All you need really is the threaded/barb adapters the rest is off the shelf parts. I use an old rotor as my bleed block.

Adjustments: Another weakness of the design is the limited reach adjustment, and no pad contact adjustment. I always wear down the front pads faster than the rear so after awhile the contact point on the left gets closer to the bar than the right. When I start to feel the difference I switch fronts pads to the rear and the rears to the front. With a pad contact adjustment this wouldn't be necessary. I run the reach adjustment set as close to the bar as possible but I would like them closer still in the ideal world. My fingers aren't short, but I don't like having to reach too far either.

Bottom line is that you've got to be reasonably mechanically inclined to maintain hydraulic brakes. All the weekend warrior posers complaining about noise and drag have gotta learn that any disc brake can experience these problems if abused, neglected or not setup properly. With a proper bleed and normal maintenance Juicy's perform well in nearly all situations (except extreme downhill). I know that each brake off the assembly line is slightly different and manufacturing flaws can happen but over all I have two sets of really good brakes.

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Favorite Trail:   my trails

Duration Product Used:   2 Years

Price Paid:    $130.00

Purchased At:   Used from mechanic a

Similar Products Used:   none

Bike Setup:   Specialized Enduro 6" travel mod
Giant Reign X - 2x9 drivetrain, Joplin 4 post, Fox Float 36, Cane Creek double barrel, Syncros DH rims

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Submitted by Jeharris44 a Cross Country Rider from Waco,TX

Date Reviewed: December 19, 2011

Strengths:    You can't beat hydraulic brakes and these are great bang for the buck. I have thoroughly enjoyed them. I ride hard and these brakes have never failed me. They are worth the upgrade if you want more stopping power and more sensitivity than mechanical disc.

Weaknesses:    They get out of line a little to easy.

Bottom Line:

I would recommend them and buy them again.

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Favorite Trail:   Vortex and Powder Monkey

Duration Product Used:   2 Years

Price Paid:    $100.00

Purchased At:   Jensonusa.com

Bike Setup:   2005 Tassajara

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Avid Juicy Three Disc Brake System

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