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New Four-Piston Avid Elixir 9, Elixir 7 Trail Brakes Debut

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Avid Elixir 9 Trail Brakes - four piston disc brakes for mountain bikes

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.

Drop in for video, weights, pricing and more…

Avid Elixir 9 Trail Brakes - four piston disc brakes for mountain bikes

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).

Avid Elixir 9 Trail Brakes - four piston disc brakes for mountain bikes

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.

Avid HS1 disc brake rotors family

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14 Comments
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Bayard
Bayard
11 years ago

Ohh the design might be proved but the word association is not.

captain derp
captain derp
11 years ago

great… just what the world needs, more avid brakes to break

bin judgin
bin judgin
11 years ago

seen great experiences with the new generation of avid brakes. 2012 xx and on have been solid. the redesign seems to have actually worked. or someone’s building them right. either way, woop! elixir 7 4 pistons to make that swrorks hardtail sqonk.

ccolagio
ccolagio
11 years ago

i went from hayes mags to hope mono m4s to avid juicys to xts and now im on current model avid codes (use this style lever body/caliper). these are BY FAR my favorite hydraulic disc to date. i personally have never had an issue (although i know thats not the case with every owner) with them and the power/modulation/feel has been incredible compared to all the brakes ive owned/ridden. its really great to see avid trickling down their brake technology.

but a 170mm rotor? 20mm jumps seemed perfect to me…

Bob Loblaw
11 years ago

Do the X9 and X7 level trail brakes mean that X9 and X7 level 1×11 trail groups are on the way? Pleeease?

bc
bc
11 years ago

Had the avid’s w. carbon lever and mg rotors… they had a flawed lever design. Good luck getting help with SRAM customer service! Went with Shimano XTR… no comparison.

Mindless
Mindless
11 years ago

@bc: absolutely right. SRAM hydraulic brakes are not reliable.

Shane
Shane
11 years ago

I used a set of avids once and they were rubbish -> all AVID brakes are rubbish = logic fail

I’ve used/tested several sets from both Shimano and AVID and they’ve all had their quirks. XTRs are an undoubtedly excellent brake but am currently rocking the X0 Trails and they are superb too. These X9/X7 trail brakes should be very solid performers but am in complete agreement with Bob, I sincerely hope SRAM are working on X01/X91/X71 groupset options.

nameresu
nameresu
11 years ago

Well… I ordered x0 trails recently, and now this. But… I don’t care. More good brakes.
BUT, if they SUDDENLY introduce WHITE X0/X7/X9 trails…there WILL BE butthurt.
But not now.

Dan
Dan
11 years ago

Having owned older avid brake and some current ones (X9 and XO trails). I can tell you that the new trail brakes are in a world of their own. they are much better than the XT’s that they replaced which had incosistant lever pull issues (Sham on you Shimano you older brakes never did that!). The XO trails have more power and better modulation, yes I know I’m compairing a 2 pot brake to a 4 pot brake but it is a good comparison because they weight about the same.

For me XO trails are like Code mini’s. all the awesomeness in a much smaller lighter package.

TJ
TJ
11 years ago

Shimano XT all day!

Zach D
Zach D
11 years ago

I’m pumped about this!

Been running a set of XX levers to code calipers, now it’ll be easier to swap to a “normal” set of brakes.

nick
nick
11 years ago

white brake + DOT fluid = fail.

c’mon, remember the juicy’s? My Elixir 3’s aren’t bad, but don’t have power. Not terribly impressed by last year’s Trail’s nor am I here. They look the same!

simon
simon
10 years ago

Have used Hayes, Hope & Avid. Now I am gonna swap out my JUICY 7’s for Elixir 7 or 9’s. Good news is the Elixirs use SAME caliper mount therefore I can continue with my AM$ hope 4 bolt 185mm discs! so the cost of the breaks is all I need to pay!! The JUICY’s have been great but after about 5 years, many thousands of k’s, god knows how many pad changes they are finally ready for a rest. They just will NOT set up correctly any more work perfectly but bind, they are just old.

Purchased today so will let you know how good they are in a few weeks….

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