Avid BB7 brakes

[ianrauk]

I'm thinking of getting a new commuter bike with Avid BB7 disc brakes. Any one have experience of these brakes they can share. Good, bad, ok?
Cheers.

 

[Andrew_P]

BB7 are great, BB5 I didn't get on with. Main differnce is dual sided adjustment. What bike, I am looking at a new bike with BB7!

 

[CopperCyclist]

Bought them to replace my BB5's a while ago.

Great brakes - stopping power excellent, just as good as the Elixir 3's on my MTB, but by far the best part about them for me is the ability to easily and quickly adjust the pad on the fly on both sides - no more fiddling about if your brakes rub, or to dial in some pad wear.

You won't regret the purchase IMO.

 

[ianrauk]

BB7 are great, BB5 I didn't get on with. Main differnce is dual sided adjustment. What bike, I am looking at a new bike with BB7!

Cheers.
It's the Kona Honky Inc

Cheers also CC.

 

[NormanD]

BB5's are easy to setup and only takes a few minutes

 

[Andrew_P]

What bike are commuting on now?

 

[ianrauk]

Spesh Secteur Elite

 

[Andrew_P]

I thought it was, your experince may vary but I used a Roubaix all summer, and bought a CX bike for winter and I really didn't enjoy my rides as much as the Roubaix. I changed a few things and still couldn't get it as enjoyable. I am considering getting shot of it, and maybe even the Roubaix

Bear in mind 95%+ of my cycling is to and from work so I want to enjoy it as much as possible, on a bike I enjoy riding.

 

[Andrew_P]

Oh BTW love the Roubaix would only sell to finance/justify a another bike.

 

[ufkacbln]

These bakes are excellent if set up well and crap if not.

The big secret is the cables. Good quality stiff cables and short runs will ensure the best performance.


On my Gekko I run Nokon cables and took 6 inches off the cable runs, the difference was amazing

 

[Fiona N]

I like the BB7s that I put on my mtb - but I find the adjustment dials incredibly hard to turn. Is this just me weedy fingers ? I previously had BB5s on a recumbent and recall that the adjustment was relatively much easier (in terms of turning the dials). it was the simplicity of the BB5s that made me go for the cable disks rather than a hydraulic set-up so I'm a bit disappointed that there's absolutely no way I could adjust the dials 'on the road' as I need to remove the wheel to get my fingers on the inboard dial with sufficient grip to shift it. Clearly this makes the whole set up a lot more tedious with having to put the wheel in and out until the inboard pad is right.

Any help appreciated.

 

[Fiona N]

Sorry about the sig line - I will try to remove it..

 

[potsy]

I bought a tool for adjusting the bb5 pads, a Torx 25.

 

[ianrauk]

reason I am getting a new bike is that I am very hard on braking/wheels. Because I commute in all weathers and am usually heavy on the brakes. I just go through rims like no body's business. So disc brakes seem to be a better option I would think.

 

[MacB]

Good brakes and easy to set up once you get your head round the. Greg supplied this link originally:-

http://www.twowheelblogs.com/avid-bb7-disc-brake-set-and-tuning

I followed this, even buying a cheapo dremel tool to square off the cable outers, and I've had great braking performance. I chose to use Goodridge outer cables(CRC £4 per meter), very stiff, but I haven't tried with normal cable outers.

I tweak my own setup slightly different to the above link but that's for lever feel preference on road levers. The above was based around the lever adjustability of a Speedial.

But I found it great for understanding the concepts, basically touch lever and caliper arm should move, no lag no loss in system. Once you have that then you can mess about with them in a similar way to a hydro brake. As in loosen mounting bolts and move either pad to alter rotor position within caliper. This method favours rotor offcenter towards the centre of the bike. But I probably have it more central than that now.