Cycling UK Forum

I'm thinking about building up a road bike with disk brakes, cable type, and I'm aware of a few folk who i ride with that have them, mainly it's the Tri-cross and CdF owners Getting them set up well with drops is a bit of a pain and you do need a special levers that pull the correct amount of cable. Funny that the one's i notice that are speced on bikes are the ones other riders and forum members say don't work?!


whats your thoughts

I've no direct experience yet, as I'm mid build myself but I was going to go for avid bb7 as they have road specific calipers, they seem to get good enough reviews from what I've seen.

http://www.sram.com/avid/products/avid-bb7-road-sl

Laurence

If you want to run drop barred STI's then buy Avid BB7 road calipers(the silver coloured ones)as they're the right cable pull,these calipers can be run with Tektro RL340 levers,you need either d/tube or barend gear levers though.
If you want to run flat bars you need the black MTN BB7's.These calipers can be run with drop bars and Tektro RL520 levers but again you need either d/tube or barend gear levers.

been looking at the Ultegra CX75?

I've been eyeing up this bike:

http://www.kinesisbikes.co.uk/bikes/crosslight/pro6

It has Shimano 105 5700 STI levers and TEKTRO Lyra disc brakes.

Universal opinion of the Tektros is unprintable to the point that they get sent back to the shops etc. Many have tried but few have managed reliable braking. I stuck with mine for near 2 years before biting the bullet and going for BB7's.These are on drop bars and in my case with Campag Ergo's.
the Lyras would be ok for a short while but soon run out of adjustment. Bite even when set up prefectly was not reassuring. what was scary was their tendency to reach a point (couldn't work out what that point was but probably pad wear/cable adjustment) where they would come on poorly the sort of clunk and feel as if they had gone over a cam and all braking failed. Releasing the lever brought braking bake but it was poor. They were ok when they were set up well but even then any road rim brake was better.
I am sure that any shimano stuff would work well with their levers but knowing them I bet they would need a shimano lever to work at their best.
Nope, if its drops and STI/Ergo then its currently BB7 road. Flat bars ? dunno but never Lyras'

I have had two previous bikes with Tektro disc brakes. They were fine, simple to adjust and maintain with powerful progressive braking performance. My new off the peg Salsa Vaya 3 has Avid BB5s. It came unassembled and I had to mount and adjust the brakes. It was very simple. A small adjustment to the adjuster knob after 5 miles and then trouble free performance over hundreds of miles since then. I do have another bike that has hydraulic disk brakes, its a Cannondale Mtb with Shimano stuff. I cannot detect any difference in modulation or power between hydraulic brakes and my Vaya, the third bike I have had with cable operated disc brakes. BB7 s are supposed to be easier to adjust, but I have had no problems with BB5s which are the same as all the other Tektro brakes which had only one adjustable pad. The other adjustment is made on the cable. Keep everything clean and lubricate regularly and they will be trouble free. People try to adjust these brakes not following the proper procedure which is why so many hamfisted people slag off single adjustable pad type disc brakes. You must loosen the whole brake, clamp it onto the disc and then tighten the Allen screws which aligns the brake assembly perfectly, backing off the fixed pad afterwards. Finally, adjust the cable. Badly aligned pads will bend the disc so proper alignment of the brake assembly is vital.

I feel more comfortable with cable operated disks on a tourer.

Al

My bikes are hybrid commuters with flat bars both have hydraulic disc brakes which I really love for the light touch needed for predictable reliable braking in any weather. I can't see me ever going back to rim brakes.

I wonder if disc brakes are the future.

Who invented brakes?
What brakes were first on bikes?
How have bike brakes evolved?

Perhaps disc brakes are the best system so far.

Very deep Mick.

The first wheel brakes were fitted to carts and the like and worked by pressing on the tyre or rim - very like conventional bike brakes. They didn't work well in the wet - very like conventional bike brakes...

Then came both drum and disc brakes at almost exactly the same time - around 1900 - by Renault (drums) and Lanchester (discs). There were earlier examples but these two productionised them.

mattsccm wrote: the Lyras would be ok for a short while but soon run out of adjustment. Bite even when set up prefectly was not reassuring. what was scary was their tendency to reach a point (couldn't work out what that point was but probably pad wear/cable adjustment) where they would come on poorly the sort of clunk and feel as if they had gone over a cam and all braking failed. Releasing the lever brought braking bake but it was poor. They were ok when they were set up well but even then any road rim brake was better.

quite a few cable operated 'road' disc calipers including lyras and BB5s have limited travel to the brake arm before they run out of cam action. 'Road' versions have a shorter arm travel than MTB versions. As Al says, if you adjust them correctly, they work rather well. If you adjust them badly, they will not work at all well. Al said it in reference to BB5s but it applies to many cable discs.

The single most common error on road discs is to try and set the brake/adjust for pad wear by adjusting the cable instead of the fixed pad; this is fatal, you just run out of arm travel. Arm travel can be as little as 45-60 degrees, i.e. the arm is out of travel when it looks like it should be about half-way through its stroke. As soon as you know this, and act accordingly, you don't have the same 'running out of travel' issues any more.

Cheap brakes often come with cheap brake pads, too. This can stop your brakes from working at all well. Lyras are far from the best disc brakes out there, but they can be made to work reasonably well with decent pads and correct adjustment.

cheers

Am I right in thinking you can run the longer throw black mtn BB7 version with normal levers, if you use problem solvers' 'travel agents'?

http://problemsolversbike.com/products/travel_agents/

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/problem-solvers-travel-agent/

Or similar, which I'll assume are out there. Though Problem Solvers' has to be one of my favourite websites. The geek in me...

There is a shiny new SL (Superlight?) version of the road BB7 though, with black adjusters, which look quite nifty, though I still prefer my black bodies- if I could find some black adjusters for my black bodies I'd be a happy bunny.

Maybe if you want to use STIs and you're really clever you could mangle together some Magura HS77 (hen's teeth hydraulic road rim brakes) levers with hydraulic disc calipers. Or splash big bucks on new SRAM red hydraulics- http://www.bikeradar.com/road/news/arti ... ook-35887/ Sooo ugly though. Or get a cable to hydraulic converter such as Hope's, USE's or TRP's.

As to the original Q, yes, I have BB7 Mtn cable discs on the Vaya, SLX hydraulics on the Malt 2 and a 2nd set of BB7 Mtn on way for the P7 because I far prefer them.

I have a Revolution Country Explorer (Touring bike from Edinburgh Bicycle Cooperative) which comes with Avid BB5s. I've read a few adverse reports of these brakes but apparently the latest version are a significant improvement (the bike is the 2012 model so I assume they are the latest).

So far my experience of these brakes is positive, although until I found out how the adjust them properly, they were noisy at times. Braking is excellent in all weathers and fine control is no problem. So far I'm still using the original pads so I don't know how easy they are to replace, but I can't imagine its too difficult.

I can see one disadvantage of disk brakes (particularly if you have a large gear cassette, mine is 9), they significantly shorten the distance between the hub flanges and make the front wheel lob-sided (although they reduce the lob-sideness of the rear). This must significantly weaken the wheels' resistance to buckling.

mrjemm wrote:Maybe if you want to use STIs and you're really clever you could mangle together some Magura HS77 (hen's teeth hydraulic road rim brakes) levers with hydraulic disc calipers.

RT8 TTs????

I've got the Lyra's and I'm a bit OCD about setting my bikes up. They are currently perfect. There is no rubbing or noise and they stop well with good feel at the lever.

It took me some time to get there however. The mounting tabs on the fork must be a bit out of line as I had to take a little bit off the top bit of the braking material on the static pad to stop it rubbing. Without this, no amount of fiddling, realigning or adjusting pad clearance would result in silent running. On my MTBs, I ignore any noise as the pads wear so quickly, they are usually quiet within a very short period.

I'm going to persevere with the Lyra's and see how we get on.