The most expensive mountain bike brake you can buy, SRAM’s new XX delivers outstanding control and a meaty power-to-weight ratio for those who can afford it.
This evolution of the Avid Elixir Mag CR uses a two-piece cast magnesium calliper plus titanium hardware all round and an alloy centre floating rotor to minimise weight.
The flip-flop design can cope with left-hand front brakers and the unique two-piece clamp syncs with XX shifters and fork lockout levers.
Initial power isn’t outstanding but both dyno and trail experience shows it builds with a perfectly linear progression to out-brake all but the biggest downhill models.
There’s a bit of flex from the magnesium lever, but still loads of fine control through the bite point-adjustable carbon lever. The organic pads take longer to bed in than standard sintered pads though, and SRAM state that it’s “not for lift accessed, downhill or aggressive all-mountain use”. We’ve only run it for a couple of months so far but have had no issues yet.
