ed 

I just talked to SRAM Corp. about my Juicy 5 warbling and shuddering. I can't seem to get it under control. I've tried

Polygon, G1, G2 rotors
Avid, EBC, Kool Stop pads
Shimming, Chamfering, spacing, bleeding, and all sorts of other suggestions.

He said that I did everything that he could think of and I could just bring them to my LBS and they'd warranty them out. He asked me if I'd like anything different, so I asked if it was okay to get some Code 5's instead. He said "No problem."

My LBS should be calling him directly tomorrow to get something shipped out.

Guess I'll have to ride the crapper this weekend.




Code Users:

Have you experienced any Warbling/Shuddering?

Do they modulate well?

What to expect?

Thx

dirtbikedude

The rotor is warbling? The wheel is? or you are getting lots of vibration through the bars?

Is it warbling (if the rotor) when braking or just when you spin the tire?

You sure the rotor is not warped?

Anyways, I ran Juicy 3 and have had no problems even under heavy DH used. Swapped 'em out for some Code 5 (came of the DH bike), have had no issues with them, modulation is decent and I have yet to encounter brake fade.

Any of the Avids work even for extreme DH but if I was to pick one to buy it would be the Juicy Ultimate's, yeah they say they are a XC brake but they will work for Dh if you are not heavy on the brakes and know how to stay off 'em and they are super light with lots of, how you younger folks say, BLING.

ed 

Mine sound like the pads glaze over. It's definitely the rotor/pad interface that's causing the noise. The shuddering is coming from where the pad meets the little slots in the rotor. It's so bad that my fork vibrates fore and aft under hard braking to a stop. I have tried 5 rotors and tons of pads. SRAM said they suspect the caliper or pistons to be the culprit.

They were fine for a long time and all the sudden they sucked big-time.

cryptid01

No, I had some flat out squealing once, but I installed organic pads and it went away

define modulation please

Good brakes.Keep the little red spacers that come with the calipers, they make installing new pads much easier.

Just curious, in all your travails, did you ever face your brake mounts?

dirtbikedude

Maybe they did which would mean to much heat and a possible warped rotor.
I would also check the wear of the pads you took off when the problem first arose.

Unless the noise is a grinding or a definite metal on metal sound I would not worry about it. Did you reface the mounts for the caliper?

If you tried different pads all of different material AND tried different rotors, all which were brand new then it could be something with the calipers but ... if the pads were of the same material or the rotors were not new then you really can not say those were not the problem.


The fact that the fork is moving noticeably then I would be checking the fork seals, the headset, the head tube and the bearings in the front hub.

When braking, do you feel the lever "pulsing" under your finger(s)? If so then it could just be warped rotors.

I have ridden with brakes that were totally jacked and the only time it really made the fork "act" funny was when something was wrong with the fork. You could have more then one problem.

scrublover

Four sets of various Juicy brakes in the house, only one had any warble issue. Solved when I swapped to organic/resin pads rather than metallic.

Haven't heard of anyone having warble issues with the Codes. Good luck!

BFG

Gastro does that mean you finished the Scythe? AND DIDN'T POST PICS?!?!? :O

Back to your thread.

cryptid01

I've been running the 1st gen Codes for some time on my SX Trail, which is currently brakeless since I swapped them to the Scythe. But to answer your question, yes it's done, and no I didn't. Let me check with 66 - I think he may have taken a snapshot last weekend.

ed 

The vibration was occuring at pretty much every vent. If it was a warped rotor, I would assume that I would only feel it a few times per rotation. These are brand new pads. My last ones were new. New rotors too.


I worry about it b/c I have what is supposed to be a nice set of brakes that feel and sound worse than linear pull brakes. They have more power, but when you're tooling around technical sections at a few MPH, you can't be smooth b/c of the vibration that is rocking the bike fore and aft.





SRAM told me he suspects the calipers to be the issue

The fork is flexing fore and aft b/c it's getting my 190lbs thrown at it in a pulsating manner under hard braking.

New rotors don't solve it...nor does new pads.

Fork is fine.
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Even when my J5's were working what I would consider "properly"...I really had to keep my fingers in check b/c there was this braking point at slower speeds where it went from easy braking to a firm grabbing. There wasn't much of a smooth transition. Not very progressive. Doing things like nose wheelies were very difficult b/c of it. (not that I possess supa' nose-wheelie skills)







Fork, yes. Frame, no. When I get the Code 5's, I'm gonna have both redone to be on the safe side. The SRAM guy as well as my LBS said that facing shouldn't be the issue due to the "Tri-Align" feature that should compensate for any tab misalignment, but it couldn't hurt.

Either way, both ends are doing it and only one end has been faced. If facing was the issue, then I'd suspect that the end that hasn't been faced would be the noisy/jerky one.


Thx guys. Good to know that the Codes are working well for you Gastro.

cryptid01

Okay, just wanted to make sure "stoppie ability" was what you meant by "modulation." The Codes modulate pretty well - much much better than the older Hayes models, but not quite as good as the XT lever / XTR caliper combo I'm running on my 4X bike. However, I have found that setup affects the feel as much as anything else - rotor size, pad compound, inboard/outboard lever placement, reach and free play adjustment, etc. are all variables you get to play with in order to achieve that perfect feel. One thing you don't have to worry about is clamping force - Codes have that covered. You will never need more than one finger. Enjoy.