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MountainBikeReview.com's Forum Archives - Brake Time
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Sparticus, what is your opinion on this? (5 posts)
|  Sparticus, what is your opinion on this? | mtbmon
Sep 21, 2001 9:54 AM | | OK, youve used em both and Ive read your posts (actually still laughing my a@@ off at the Julie "review" and glad to hear you mounted her with no problems! bwaaaaaaaaa). Anyhow. For the same price, would you buy Avid mechs, or Magura Louise? I have gotten an opportunity to think on this a little more and Im still on the fence. FYI, I have been "doing" Louise for about 2 years now. Lever feel and engagement is great. Modualtion and stopping power too. I havent been real happy with keeping them dialed. Seems they need bled often and the manual pad adjustment isnt my favorite either. Still, you have the hydro vs mech thing to think about. Thus, I turn to the pros - help Sparty! |
| Not SparÝ¡, but... | shiggy©
Sep 21, 2001 10:26 AM | | ...I ride with him often.
If you really like the lever feel of the Louise the odds are that you will not like the Avid's lever feel. You can turn up the return spring in the caliper to make the feel firmer (Sparݡ and I both have ours backed out it the minimum setting.) The only tuning needed to keep the Avid's "dialed" is adjusting the pads for wear. No tools are needed and it takes just seconds to do. I occassionally need to reposition the rear caliper but that is because I ride a singlespeed and removing the wheel all the time changes the alignment.
-shiggy, NADS #69 |
| If you held a gun to my head.... | Spar¡cus
Sep 21, 2001 11:22 AM | | ...and told me I had to say one way or the other, I'd choose the Avids. But keep in mind
i I've never used the Magura Louise brake
-- only the Julie.
When I posted my comments about Julie it was after riding my V brake equipped singlespeed for a couple of weeks rather than my Avid equipped Sugar, which had been out of commission for a short spell due to the necessary replacement of its shock. I got the shock back on it last night and took her for a spin around the neighborhood and rediscovered just how strong [I'd apparently forgotten that] the Avids really are. I stand by what I said about the Julies, but must say that the Avid is quite a bit more powerful by comparison -- at least the way I have them set up. (Ultimate levers dialed to the max leverage/min cable pull position.) I know two other riders who do not like the Avids set up this way because they complain that the brakes are too powerful (grabby). Those two riders have since adjusted their levers to a lesser leverage position -- what I call "detuning" the brake. (One of them is a women of about 120 lbs who just doesn't seem to need all that much power to slow her down, the other is a guy about 200 lbs who is simply not used to the power of the Avids -- he came off Hopes he'd been riding for the past 2.5 years.) FWIW I weigh 190 lbs.
The Julies have plenty of power it's just that you have to pull the levers harder (in comparison to the Avids) to apply it. I never had an ounce of trouble with Julie on Wednesday night's ride and I'm looking forward to putting her to use in the future under all sorts of riding conditions. I'm also going to attempt to modify the levers to make them engage closer to the handlebar -- Mike T offered me a tip on doing this.
Also keep in mind that I prefer the feel of a cable brake; that is to say I
i guess
I do. It really doesn't matter to me whether I'm using a hydraulic brake or a cable brake but I like a low friction, light touch feel at the lever. I have no problem with an extremely powerful brake as I have trained my brain to disengage my previous ham-fisted tendencies.
Good luck in your decision. I sincerely doubt you'd be disappointed going either way.
Ta ta,
Spar¡cus, NADS #2, THUG #2, NADS #2, MCM #20
¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡! |
| oooooh.......tough one...... | heff®
Sep 21, 2001 8:59 PM | | Like Sparticles, I would have to choose the Avids, and I HAVE ridden Louise. They're both fine brakes, and I put the Avids on a performance par with the Louise, no problem. I also prefer the feel of a cable brake, we were having a discussion a few weeks back about the pivot point of a hydraulic lever being in a different spot compared to a cable lever, and that might be part of the reason. Either way, with my 2mm Aztek cables lubed and clean, I can't feel a noticeable difference between the two.
I like the Avids for the no-brainer setup, easy adjustment, and no bleeding or maintenance beyond what is normal for V brake cables.
heff® |
| re: Sparticus, what is your opinion on this? | Charles Coker
Sep 22, 2001 6:36 PM | | I have had the Louise and prefer the Avids with the Ultimate levers (big plug for them over "standard" levers)
Charles
hammerheadbikes |
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