strong front break for about a year

Noise, sponge feel, need bleeding every 4 months in humid climates

Rear break never worked well. When we moved from Italy to Guam things went from bad to worse. The humid climate caused both breaks to pump up. Been hear less than a year and have to bleed them 3 time. Am switching to XT after this next bleed as I am tired of this junk. I hope SRAM reads these as I will never by there mountain products again and have talked 3 friends out of bying there cheap junk.

None

Horrible modulation, serious shutter and noise. Just plain bad!

Nothing new with this review after looking at all the others. SRAM should be embarrassed to offer these things to the public, especially as a "high end" product. Just plain garbage that should be OEM units on Walmart Huffy's. That is exactly what type of quality you get with them. Tried everything to make them work half decent, no luck. Terrible modulation and shutter until they just lock the wheel up. Racing with them is damn dangerous.

Purchased a very high end XC bike that came with them, now further investment must be made to get the thing to slow/stop properly with a proper brake set.

Come on SRAM/Avid you guys can do better than this.

look nice, lightweight, integrated with XX shifters

2012 model, came stock on my Scott scale SL. Pressure drops after few hours of use.

After bleeding them twice, I was done. Bike shop told me these brakes are crap and give trouble all the time. I am back to my 2008 Hope Mono mini X2 pros which are perfect (except for the squealing in wet conditions).

Look Great
Feel nice
Lots of adjustments can be made

Super noisy
Lots of chattering

Got these things to replace some Shimano XTR's that I had, got a sweet deal on them. I had Avid brakes before and I knew they were noisy but didn't expect their top of the line (at the time) brakes to be noisy and chattery and feel awful when going down a hill. The rotors never stay true and I'm constantly playing with them and adjusting them, and trying to get them back to being nice, which I don't think is possible...

Bottom line, I think that the callipers and brake levers are fine, but their rotors are so F#@$%^G awful! But you pretty much have to use them, it seems!

Similar Products Used:

Shimano XTR

It's light, looks cool, reasonably progressive.

Mechanically it's garbage. Doesn't provide much stopping power especially during wet conditions, squeals, grinds, shudders and makes other sounds we don't have words for wet or dry. The shop has working on them at least 50 times, adjusting, bleeding, whatever, I can't watch them anymore. Out of the box the pads barely worked at all and needed 10 mins of bedding in to provide safe braking. I've had it. I'm taking them back today and getting XTRs.

The worst part is they won't stay adjusted, free of air bubbles or work without problems consistently. They are by far the highest maintenance item on the two high end frames I have them on (Orbea Alma Carbon, Santa Cruz Blur LT Carbon). My other Orbea (Occam Carbon) has XTRs and I can leave them for a year and they work flawlessly without needing any work, all the time every time. This is the fourth set of XX brakes I've had and they all have the same problems.

Weight

Bloody noise and shudder.

I have 2012 model and its a shame that these xx brakes are not up to the same standard as the rest of the xx range, consistently they need bleeding which is a long drawn out process and even then you can have a worse brake than when you started, very anoying. Based on their brakes of which I have two bikes with similar setup, I will now switch back to Shimano for next bike as I know there equipment works.

Lite weight
Carbon
Adjustable
Good looking

Expensive if purchased new
Need a lot of adjustment to get correctly dialled in

Been riding these on my giant trance x29er (customer build).

Used to riding shimano hydraulics for ever, and wanted to try Avids product. So far I have mixed reviews. I love their clean lines, weight and adjustability. But am having problems building up pressure to get the fast stopping power I enjoy. Need some more fine tuning to get them right I guess. I try not to mess with the callipers as they are very finicky.

Thanks

Similar Products Used:

Shimano XT

Light, Sleek styling, Carbon Lever

NOISE!!!

I have had 2011 XX, 2012 XX, and the new 2013 XX. All replaced to the newer year under warranty. I cannot keep these things quiet. When you ride a $10k carbon bike and people look at you like you are a turkey herder, there is a problem. Recently told by SRAM tech staff "I shouldn't have switched to the organic pads as a replacement without also replacing the rotors, as the other material will make noise." Really? Publish this stuff online or in manuals. Officially tired of SRAM and AVID. After the terrible attitudes by their mobile team at Dirtfest in PA, only interested in selling new, not helping a customer who has an entire XX build, I am stripping my S-Works Epic 29er XX edition and making it a Shimano XTR bike. Thanks for wasting my time and money SRAM, but you just lost a loyal customer. Everyone who may want a good deal. Look for my stuff on ebay.

Similar Products Used:

Shimano XTR

These brakes look really great. They came stock on my S-Works Epic so they go with the entire XX package that came on the bike.

Adjustments galore, but painful to get them dialed in. I wont remove my front wheel from the fork ever once I get the front to ride rub free or it take me 15-20 minutes to get it back aligned. The pistons appear to stick and are not rugged.

Maybe I am spoiled. I had Magura SL on my S-Works Stumpjumper. They were the best brakes ever, although the XTRs on my 2004 Stumpjumper were also troublefree for 4 years. The XX disc brakes are horrible. I took the rear brake to my LBS and $90 later they returned it to me and said "sorry, we bled the brakes and the rear brake is still spongy". They bled it 3 times and the brake pads will not release when you let off the brake lever. The piston is stuck. Th eLBS said it would be less expensive to buy a whole new brake (lever, hose and caliper with pads) assembly versus trying to rebuild it. So I bought a brand new assembly and 1 year later, same problem. SRAM wont replace it under warranty either. I am going to throw them in the garbage and buy some Magura SL. Magura cost a lot but only $100 more than these silly things. Stay away from XX brakes folks. Go with XTR or Magura. That's my opinion.

Similar Products Used:

Magura SL, XTR brakes

Avid warranty- They acknowledged issues with this run of brakes a replaced them with 2013 XX model at no charge. They are nice!

Weak seals led to fluid loss

Buy from a company that stands behind thier products, good, bad or in this case excellent.