Going Disc Brake on Drive Wheel

Abbott Smith

Abbott Smith

Guru
So since I have to replace the drive wheel anyway, I've opted for a Shimano hub that accepts a disc brake rotor. Going with a 160 rotor and a mechanical caliper.

Anything to watch out for when I install this? This will be my first disc brake. I'm going this route because my calipers cannot stop me on very steep slopes. Had to walk down a 15% grade Sunday. Having to walk the downhill you just earned blows.
 
Abbott Smith

Abbott Smith

Guru
Robert Holler said:
Abbot,

What calipers are you using out of curiosity? If you want a great feeling brake the TRP hybrid cable/hydraulic is a great break with good modulation.
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Robert I haven't decided. CX77 was one option though it's only a bit cheaper than the hybrids. A Hybrid with a 160 rotor runs $120 on Amazon. Because of my budget, I'd really like to find a solution that's about half that cost. I need to get this bike dialed in for the season so it quits nickle and diming me to death. Long term upgrades I can budget for. But having to buy multiple chains, extra wheels, another cassette and an extra RD is really putting me deep into the doghouse with my wife.

Oh, and how do I order a couple extra RD hangers? I destroyed one when the chain snapped and took out the RD. And the other is usable, but not perfect.
 
ratz

ratz

Wielder of the Rubber Mallet
Abbott Smith said:
Robert I haven't decided. CX77 was one option though it's only a bit cheaper than the hybrids. A Hybrid with a 160 rotor runs $120 on Amazon. Because of my budget, I'd really like to find a solution that's about half that cost. I need to get this bike dialed in for the season so it quits nickle and diming me to death. Long term upgrades I can budget for. But having to buy multiple chains, extra wheels, another cassette and an extra RD is really putting me deep into the doghouse with my wife.

Oh, and how do I order a couple extra RD hangers? I destroyed one when the chain snapped and took out the RD. And the other is usable, but not perfect.
Click to expand...

IMO, Get the TRP Hybrid; the swearing it will save you in the future for tuning will be well worth the $70. Remember you already have RIM breaks if you new rim happens to have a braking track then you don't have to do the full upgrade on day one; Wheel now brake a few months later .
 
Abbott Smith

Abbott Smith

Guru
ratz said:
IMO, Get the TRP Hybrid; the swearing it will save you in the future for tuning will be well worth the $70. Remember you already have RIM breaks if you new rim happens to have a braking track then you don't have to do the full upgrade on day one; Wheel now brake a few months later .
Click to expand...
Thanks Ratz. I made sure my new wheel can use rim brakes for precisely this option. Was trying to see if there was a good option that made sense now or if I should go with a delayed option.
 
Abbott Smith

Abbott Smith

Guru
ratz said:
IMO, Get the TRP Hybrid; the swearing it will save you in the future for tuning will be well worth the $70. Remember you already have RIM breaks if you new rim happens to have a braking track then you don't have to do the full upgrade on day one; Wheel now brake a few months later .
Click to expand...
OK. So if I go with these and my Shimano front brifter, seems that I will need a compressionless brake cable housing like Jagwire. Never used such a thing. Seems like I remember you saying you switched to Jagwire and that they were a hassle to install. Any advice on a first time install?
 
L

LMT

Well-Known Member
Jagwire or brake housing is not a pain to install, apart from feeding the cable through the frame (which should be easy enough as you can take off the seat) it should be no hassle.

And as others have said I'd go with the TRP brakes. I did have BB7's on the bike but these are a pain to set up with brifters as only they are only single actuation and not dual like the TRP brakes. Also the TRP's come with a barrel adjuster which makes them even easier to set up as it's easier to add tension to the inner cable. Add to this you only need a 3mm allen key to adjust the pads.
 
ratz

ratz

Wielder of the Rubber Mallet
Abbott Smith said:
OK. So if I go with these and my Shimano front brifter, seems that I will need a compressionless brake cable housing like Jagwire. Never used such a thing. Seems like I remember you saying you switched to Jagwire and that they were a hassle to install. Any advice on a first time install?
Click to expand...

I switched to Jagwaire Elite-Link which is indeed compression-less and time consuming to install; but that's not the same as just plan old compression-less cable. Regular cable can be compression-less too; TRP sells a kit for $24. The big advantage of Link is it can make much tighter radius turns compared to normal compression-less cable.

So what you will find is that with all disc brakes from any manufacturing it is recommend to use compression-less cables; most this is because the fine tuning of disc brakes. Disc work with much tighter tolerances. On Disc brakes you are working with "mm" of clearance instead of "cm" so the cable has a much bigger impact on performance; so a little drift means a pain in the butt rubbing effect. That's where the TRP HY/RD come to the rescue is the Hydralic part lets them auto tune as the pads wear down.

So in the end if your brakes are setup correctly and you know how to adjust them you don't really need compression-less cable; it's just easier. I have a non-compression-less cables on our Quest with the TR HY/RD brakes. Runs just fine; took a whole 3 minutes longer to setup; and not nearly as long as Avid and it stays perfect true all the time; flipping amazing so far.

If you want to save cash; the TRP Spyre is might fine brake too at only $90.
 
Abbott Smith

Abbott Smith

Guru
ratz said:
I switched to Jagwaire Elite-Link which is indeed compression-less and time consuming to install; but that's not the same as just plan old compression-less cable. Regular cable can be compression-less too; TRP sells a kit for $24. The big advantage of Link is it can make much tighter radius turns compared to normal compression-less cable.

So what you will find is that with all disc brakes from any manufacturing it is recommend to use compression-less cables; most this is because the fine tuning of disc brakes. Disc work with much tighter tolerances. On Disc brakes you are working with "mm" of clearance instead of "cm" so the cable has a much bigger impact on performance; so a little drift means a pain in the butt rubbing effect. That's where the TRP HY/RD come to the rescue is the Hydralic part lets them auto tune as the pads wear down.

So in the end if your brakes are setup correctly and you know how to adjust them you don't really need compression-less cable; it's just easier. I have a non-compression-less cables on our Quest with the TR HY/RD brakes. Runs just fine; took a whole 3 minutes longer to setup; and not nearly as long as Avid and it stays perfect true all the time; flipping amazing so far.

If you want to save cash; the TRP Spyre is might fine brake too at only $90.
Click to expand...
Thanks ratz. Just want to take a minute and laud the time and energy you share so willingly with the other members of this forum. It has helped me so much and others as well. Thought it was time to say thank you for more than just this answer.
 
super slim

super slim

Zen MBB Master
I also want to thank "Mr Gadget man" for ALL his extremely well documented builds, with the links ( Chrome Bookmarks) of where he sourced the gear!!!
My bookmark list has expanded dramatically since joining this forum!

If his bookmark list is a well organised as his colour coded server cabling, there will be MANY layers and subsets to it!!
AND are there links back to the Cruzbike post???

AND there is always the added bonus of "Where is the Rubber Mallet" on the workshop floor!!!!!! AND what was it used for???
 
BentAero

BentAero

Well-Known Member
Abbott:
I think Ratz and I are the only two people east of Denver that have the Jagwire Elite housing; it's fairly rare -and expensive. A recumbent takes a *lot* of housing and a single jw elite kit will likely not have enough 'barrels' to do the job. Like Bob, I used it on both shifters and both brakes. It took every bit of both kits plus about 100 extra barrels I begged from the jw rep to complete.
I went to every bike shop in the area trying to buy some extra pieces and every one looked at me like I was from Mars (and/or rode a recumbent). "We can order it for you..."

I have trp spyre carbon calipers and they work well for me, but I'm a flyweight. Since you're more muscular, I'd definitely go with the trp hybrid as they have much more stopping power.
I don't think I'd use Avid's if they were free -too hard to adjust and maintain. The trp's are darn near bolt on and forget, they're that easy.
 
ratz

ratz

Wielder of the Rubber Mallet
BentAero said:
I think Ratz and I are the only two people east of Denver that have the Jagwire Elite housing;
Click to expand...

LOL, Yes but you'd never get me to take it off my Silvio; I've never had Shifters stay so absolutely dead on accurate without adjustment. Fortunately when I upgrade two bikes to Di2 I wound up with a a lot of spares so I can build Mrs. Ratz new trainer bike with them.....

And the look cool. :cool:
 
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