Last year, Avid introduced the X0 Trail Brake, a new four-piston caliper mated to their then-recently updated Taperbore levers. They were good, and our long term testing of them has been pretty positive.
Now, the design has trickled down to the Elixir 9 and Elixir 7 level. Both models share the same two-piece alloy caliper body and tooled reach adjust and banjo angle adjustments. The key differences are the Elixir 9 gets tool-free contact adjust (the bezel on the right, where the hose exits the lever) and a carbon fiber lever blade. The Elixir 7 has an alloy blade and no contact adjust. This means the only real upgrade offered by the X0 Trail Brake is a tool-free reach adjust option -something you’ll want to skip if you’re running the new Grip Shift anyway- and alloy backed pads.
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Both models come stock with organic resin steel backed pads and are offered with 160, 170, 180 or 200mm HS1 rotors. A 140mm HS1 is available aftermarket, too, but we don’t see anyone running one that small with these brakes. The lever design lets you run them standard or moto, made even easier with their Matchmaker clamping system.
The Elixir 9 Trail Brake comes in at a claimed 350g (direct mount, 160mm rotor, front brake) and come in Black Ano. Retail is $169 (€152 / £139.99).
The Elixir 7 Trail Brakes get their Storm Grey finish and have a claimed weight of 355g. Retail is $126 (€114 / £99.99). Both models should be available in June.
