best strategy for braking hydraulic disks

[philcr]

hi guys i bought a BTwin Rock Rider 6.5 while over in France. And i love the bike. Today i went for a ride with a mate and we came across a 2km downhill measured at 20% according to local signage. Now i used to ride plenty of cross country many years ago with v brakes and never had brown stains as big as todays because i never came across such a long descent. After reaching about 35 miles an hour the fun started to wear off and i started to feather my brakes to kill my speed which didn't go particularly well.

it felt like my bike was attempting to buck me off and also not slow down. After getting home it appears that my rear disk is blued which suggest that it got hot and i now need at least some new pads.

can anyone offer advice on the best braking strategy for such a descent.

my brakes are tektro auriga comp, 160mm rotors.

many thanks in advance.

phil

 

[Somewhere]

Front brakes work better than rears and the rest is just getting used to it.

Sintered pads are longer lasting if you are changing them. Disc brakes aren't the best on long, steep road descents due to overheating, but 2km does not sound far so maybe use them less!

 

[philcr]

I would love to use them less. 35 mph is a scary speed for me on a bike.

my rear brake has always seemed spongy in comparison to the front also the bike is French setup so brakes are back to front making me less inclined to use the front, its almost like left foot braking in car all or nothing.

thanks for the pads tip. I will see what i can buy pad wise in decathalon over here tomorrow.

maybe i will just have to lose three stone and pedal less on big hills.

:-)

 

[MikeW-71]

Don't drag the brakes. If you need to control speed on a descent, brake so you will slow down, then release the brakes again.. repeat as necessary. If you drag the brakes all the way, they will overheat whether they are discs or rim brakes.

If you can see the road on the whole descent and there are no turns you would need to brake for, just let the bike run and take the line of least resistance. That's what I could do on this descent on the isle of Arran with some CycleChatters. (click the link, not the embedded video to skip straight to it. Apologies for the cheezy music )

View: http://youtu.be/T4u9lLBFZ3s?t=2m18s

 

[philcr]

I do agree having watched your clip with brake slow line of least resistance, I think I pulled rear brake and not a lot happened so went into brown trousers mode and kept hold trying to get something out of it. I didn't think that brake technology or technique had changed that much in 10 + years.

Maybe I need to go get my rear brake looked at.

p.s. your vide looks amazing fun.

 

[MikeW-71]

It was a rather focussing descent that one. I don't have anything like it local to me, so when I found I had reached 50mph, it was a bit I didn't know at the time, I didn't dare look down at the speedo!

Did the lever go to the bars? If so, something is definately wrong, the rear brake needs bleeding. The Tektro hydraulic brakes on my MTB are very strong indeed and they are also 160mm discs.

 

[philcr]

The lever didn't go to the bars just held about 50% of the travel to the bar I would have expected some sort of lock up at that particular position whilst the rear suspension was trying to buck me off. But if I pull front lever I can stoppy, just didn't fancy that at 35. Maybe that rear needs bleeding a bit,

Interestingly it works/locks up at low-ish speeds up to 15mph after that I don't get a lock up.
Confusing I know, I don't speak enough French to try and explain in the shop I bought it from.

 

[MikeW-71]

Sounds like you'd just taken up the slack to get the pads to bite point, if the disc is not absolutely true, they would then have been grabbing and releasing very rapidly and the rear sus freaks out. A little more pressure would have done the trick. The front would be far more effective though and would not get the rear suspension involved. I don't use the rear brake very much on road.

 

[philcr]

Good point i'll get my rear brake bled before I go out next and change the pads see if there is any difference,

Many thanks for the pointers