Avid Juicy 3 brakes - excessive lever travel

[caiss4]

I've got a Marin Nail Trail with Avid Juicy 3 brakes. I've noticed that the lever travel on the rear brake is such that it almost reaches the handle bars.

A friend suggested that the brakes need bleeding but I've just done a bit of reading on line and the SRAM site suggests that maybe the pads need advancing (by removing the rotor and wheel and gently closing the pads to 1mm). Has anyone tried this?

Also as I have a broken spoke I've removed the rear wheel and took a closer olook at the caliper. How thick should the pad be? My bike's done about 1500 miles from new and it looks like less than 0.5mm of brake pad left. Should I replace the pads?

By the way how do you get them out? Short of brute force they didn't seem to inclined to come out. Any hints and tips eagerly awaited.

[caiss4]

Thanks for the information. I think I'll put a new set of pads in anyway and the advice above means I'll just be a bit more confident when I try to remove the old pads.

I'll wait and see before attempting to bleed the brakes.