trick to getting disc wheel back in ?

Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.

cyberknight

As long as I breathe, I attack.
I have just done a puncture repair and it was a very fiddly job getting the rotor set in the brakes , it was sticking to the inner brake pad even when the brakes were released.It seems that only the outer pad moves , is htere a trick to getting it back into the brake pads without a lot of jiggling about?
 
Don't press the brakes at all when the wheel is out, line it up well when putting it back in!

That's it really - by the nature of brake pads there is very little clearance so you have to be accurate.
 
OP
OP
cyberknight

cyberknight

As long as I breathe, I attack.
Don't press the brakes at all when the wheel is out, line it up well when putting it back in!

That's it really - by the nature of brake pads there is very little clearance so you have to be accurate.
I was doing that , the inner pad seemed to be actually sticking to the rotor.I only pumped the brakes to see if it released the pad afterwards.I ended up loosening off the cable tension to open the pads up .
Bit of a bloomin faff compared to calipers :cursing:
 

Levo-Lon

Guru
After re fitting the wheel ,undo the caliper bolts half a turn so it moves a little then apply brake and nip it back up with brake applied. Usually sorts it...or do it by eye so you can see light between pads and disc.

ahh I se its cable..you may need to adjust then
 

Globalti

Legendary Member
Something must have moved when you had the wheel out. Are you sure the wheel is in straight?

Is it a BB7 cable brake?
 

Rohloff_Brompton_Rider

Formerly just_fixed
The inner pad usually has a set screw and is really easy to set. When I had BB5 and 7's I found it easier to just back off the inner pad before taking the wheel out and re adjusting once the wheel was back in. The ones I had could be done by hand and didn't need tools and was easily done on the roadside.

Tbh I found cable discs far easier to maintain than any Hopes I had, the hopes needed stripping once a year due to the brake fluid crystallising on the pistons.

Edit: I did like to have the pads set quite close though.
 
Last edited:
I've got both hydraulic and cable, never had too much of an issue with either, but fiddly sometimes but nothing major. I find my bb7's cables the easiest too. If you have bb7's and it's a mare, I guess you could wind the pad out a bit, but I've never needed to?

Are your rotors perfectly true? A slight buckle could cause issues, maybe try turning the wheel through 90 degrees in case that side of the rotor is slightly askew?
 
OP
OP
cyberknight

cyberknight

As long as I breathe, I attack.
Its in now and running smooth, just fiddly .
Its cable discs fitted to a subway one, : TEKTRO NOVELA BLACK MECHANICAL DISC BRAKE according to the blurb , i will have to have a look at adjusting them but hopefully should not need to do it too often although it could be a beggar to do on an unlit country lanes if i have to do a tube change .
 
I find if you can see the gap between the pads as you feed the wheel it, it is easy to feed the rotor straight into the slot.
 

ianrauk

Tattooed Beat Messiah
Location
Rides Ti2
When I had a Subway with Tektro disc brakes, they did seem to be a faff and a pain in the arse to get right. All hail BB7's for none of the faff.
 
Location
Loch side.
On some cable disc brakes only the one pad is mobile. The other one is fixed. These are difficult to adjust, especially if the disc is just slightly out of true. Are you sure yours are not that type?
 

raleighnut

Legendary Member
Is there a little wheel to set the centralising (there is on my Saracen MTB with cable discs) as well as the allen key to allow for pad wear. I also think they're a bl00dy faff and won't be getting owt else with disc brakes on (and they ain't any more powerful either :cursing:)
 
These are brilliant things.
image.jpg


It keeps the chain under tension, and the metal plates stop the pads from moving when the wheel is out. It fits in the backpack easily as well. It saves a lot of faffing about in the long run.
 
Top Bottom