Dot 4 fluid / 160mm (£99.99), 185mm (£109.99) and 203mm rotor options / Weight: 223g (203mm rotor) 315g rear brake including mount
Contact: Fisher Outdoor 01727 798345

The Juicy Five is basically the Avid Juicy Seven brake without the bite point adjuster. So you still get the excellent lever shape with its low X-factor (distance from the centre of handlebar to pivot), wavy rotors and symmetrical brake levers, all for a considerably lower price. The two-piece caliper features Avid’s Tri-Aline mounts and, while it is debatable if more adjustment when fitting a caliper is actually a good thing, there is no disputing that the side-mounted rotating banjos guarantee a direct cable routing, regardless of the frame or fork it’s fitted to. Our only niggle with the Avid set-up is that it is not as straightforward to bleed as other systems — that said, we’ve been running this brake for six months and haven’t touched it. Incidentally, that’s why our brake has a silver finish, and not the all-black look of the ’06 units. Yes, this is last year’s!
The Juicy Fives are as powerful as Hayes, offer as much modulation as Magura, and are as reliable as Shimano. They never pumped up or faded, and there is still plenty of life left in the pads. In fact, these brakes impressed us so much we couldn’t sit on the fence — for the money the Juicy Five is the best hydraulic disc brake on the market.

MBR RATING: 10/10