Brakes upgrade on a budget

[User76022]

I have mechanical disk brakes on my mountain bike. So far they've never failed to stop me, but they're not great.

The issues I face are:

1. It takes quite a bit of force to brake hard. Not too much force. But on a fairly fast downhill trail I need at least two or three fingers on a brake lever, meaning of course I have less of a grip on the actual grips.

2. On the road, on a longer downhill, the brakes quickly get hot and then start making an awful noise, although thankfully I have never noticed any loss of braking ability yet.

The brakes are 160mm disks with cable actuated calipers.

I want to upgrade them on a budget of under 100 quid.

I'm considering :

Upgrade disks from 160 to 180mm, but keep same calipers for now.

Keep the disks, but upgrade to entry level hydraulics.

Or bigger disks and hydraulics but I'm kind of reluctant to do that because it may be unnecessary for my needs.

Any thoughts?

 

[ianrauk]

What brakes are they?

I run BB7's and they are very good.

 

[ColinJ]

The front disk brake on my CX bike was making an awful racket until I noticed that the rotor was not located mid-way between the pads. I moved the calliper over to correct that and the brake is 90% quieter now, and also works when doing moderate braking.

I wouldn't consider needing 2 fingers a problem; a whole handful, yes!

 

[User76022]

The front disk brake on my CX bike was making an awful racket until I noticed that the rotor was not located mid-way between the pads. I moved the calliper over to correct that and the brake is 90% quieter now, and also works when doing moderate braking.

I wouldn't consider needing 2 fingers a problem; a whole handful, yes!

This is interesting because when the bike arrived, the gears were terribly badly adjusted. It took me quite a fair bit of tuning to get them just right. I didn't realise you could adjust disk brakes, being new to them. But knowing that now it wouldn't surprise me one bit if they are way out.

 

[User76022]

What brakes are they?

I can't see any branding on them. The disks look identical to my mate's Hayes disks. Defo the cheapo ones. The bike is in the Rockrider range from Btwin. I believe they use Tektro or something, which again I believe are at the very budget end of things.

 

[ColinJ]

This is interesting because when the bike arrived, the gears were terribly badly adjusted. It took me quite a fair bit of tuning to get them just right. I didn't realise you could adjust disk brakes, being new to them. But knowing that now it wouldn't surprise me one bit if they are way out.

See if this video helps?

 

[ColinJ]

Oh, I should add that my brakes don't have a static pad - both move, so that's why the rotor should be central. Follow the instructions in the video for systems that have one fixed pad and one moving one.

 

[User76022]

See if this video helps?

That looks easy enough. Thanks.

 

[I like Skol]

Perhaps just try cleaning up the rotors and fitting new pads first. IME even basic mechanical disc brakes can perform adequately when set up correctly with decent pads.

 

[Deleted member 23692]

For £100 you should be able to pick up a set of Shimano Deore 6000 Hydro calipers/levers and dump the cable ones.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-Shim...Rear-1400mm-/192344200671?hash=item2cc89b95df

I'd consider 180mm to be the minimum an MTB front end so would look to sort that at some point too.

 

[Drago]

A couple of issues.

Entry level hydraulics won t automatically provided more braking effort than a properly functioning mechanical system.

Not all forks are able to safely go up a disc size, although the bulk can, so you need to check.

I'd try decent pads, degrease the discs, and high quality compressionless cables, maybe £25 Or so. That may well do it.

If it doesn't I'd look at the bike and decide if it was worth the expense of upgrading to SLX hydros - I've had the Deore ones, and while they performed fine they were unreliable, and once I'd finally identified the seal at fault within the master cylinder Shimano couldn't get me one, so I've an aversion to them. Keep a wide berth of "cheap" hydros, the real bottom end stuff from Avid, Tektro etc.

 

[User76022]

Thanks all.

On the point about cleaning the brakes, the issues first presented themselves when the bike was still brand new.

 

[Jody]

Shimano hydraulics are well worth it. I replaced my Avid Elixir that came standard with Shimano SLX and have had no problems in the last 4-5 years.

Looks like you can still pick them up for about £100.

 

[Drago]

Thanks all.

On the point about cleaning the brakes, the issues first presented themselves when the bike was still brand new.

...when the bike will have been the 50th off the assembly line that morning and the operators gloves will be nicely greasy. It costs nothing to decrease them, and is such a fundamental thing to do it would be daft not to.

The other thing, if it's a new bike have you gone through the pad bedding in procedure? New disc set ups of all flavours can be pretty poor until bedded in correctly.

Follow this advice exactly, it may cure your woes, although you may be too late for your existing

https://www.bikeradar.com/gear/article/how-to-bed-in-disc-brake-pads-31337/

BTW, there's no proven benefit to control using one finger braking over 2. The grip on the outside 2 fingers isn't quite as strong, but recruits muscles and tendons down the outside of the forearm, which are stronger when it comes to moving a handlebar. The NET effect is little, if any different. Cue 101 different opinions, but for my sins I'm an MTB trainer, so take it or leave it as you see fit.

 

[User76022]

The other thing, if it's a new bike have you gone through the pad betpdding in procedure?

Almost certainly not. Because I didn't even know there was such a procedure. I found out there was some time after I noticed problems. Ironically I found out via the website of the company that I bought the bike from, while browsing replacement pads. They mentioned it in the product info for the pads but not for the bike. Being new to disk brakes I had no idea there was such a procedure.