question about brakes please.

[bad boy]

Hi All,

Sorry maybe a stupid question here but im struggling a little to grasp the concept.

I have mech disks on my bike and im unsure when to tighten the cable as opposed to moving the pads closer to the rotor ?.

I mean if the lever is slightly to loose you can fix this by moving the pads closer to the rotor if possible, or by tightnening the brake cable up, I just want to know what I should be doing as opposed with tinkering with the lot.

I understand that you should not compensate pad wear with tightenening the cable but apart from this when do you do either of the above.

How do you know if you have cable stretch for instance ?.

Many Thanks

 

[02GF74]

i have hydraulic so may be wrong but the pads should be adjust so that by the time the lever has gone trough about 1/4 of its full travel, the pads are pressing well hard on the disc.

is there spearate pad-disc adjuster or just the one for the cable?

I would *guess* you adjust the pads so there is about 0.5 mm clearnace either side.

then adjust the cable as already mentioned.

google for shimano mechanicl disc - there is bound to bne better and more accurate info. on the web.

 

[bad boy]

Thanks for that,

Yes I'm pretty ok with being ale to adjust them, but dont really know when to adjust the cable as opposed to adjusting the pads if you know what I mean ?.

My callipers have both inside and outside pad adjustment dials I understand how to position the calliper and sort the pads out.

If you adjust the cable adjuster to increase the tension you take up slack and move the pads closer to the rotor and if you adjust the pads via the dials on the calliper you do the same thing, so was just wondering when to do what as the way I see it the results are the same ?.

 

[Steve Austin]

You got avid brakes?

You should set the pads to be close but not touching the rotor.
then set the cable so that they stop you.

You shouldn't need to adjust the dials on the callipers until you replace the pads. the adjustment at that end is for setting the pads only ime.

 

[bad boy]

You got avid brakes?

You should set the pads to be close but not touching the rotor.
then set the cable so that they stop you.

You shouldn't need to adjust the dials on the callipers until you replace the pads. the adjustment at that end is for setting the pads only ime.

Thanks Steve,

My understanding is that as the pads wear you adjust the dials to compensate, and consequently move them closer to the rotor.

So ive been told and according to the technical docs you should not use the cable adjuster to do this as you wont reach the minimum usage limit being 0.5mm.

I suppose aslong as there is no slack in the cable and like you say when you pull the cable does its job thats its setup sweet. I suppose you can tweak the cable tension slightly to pull the pads closer to the rotor after setting the pads via the dials to increase the lever tension ?