Monday, June 05, 2006

I just can't stop

I'm having a few problems installing my new brakes. When I had the old Kona Cinder Cone frame I was limited to Discs on the front, and V's on the back because of mounting constraints. So I opted to get levers that could handle both systems at once - leaving me with mechanical rather than hydraulic discs on the front. I went and got myself some Avid Ball Bearing 7 Mech Discs for the front, and some Avid V-Brakes for the rear. However, I then went and swapped the old Cinder Cone for the Blast frame and was suddenly given the option for discs on the back. Rather than send back the entire Brakeset I opted to just replace the rear V's with Rear Avid BB7's to complete the set with the front.

Now here's my problem(s):

  1. The front brake doesn't seem to sit too well. For some reason the caliper mount versus the disc mount on the hub gives an end result that the disc only just fits between the caliper jaws.... and when I say only just, I mean that I had to work damn hard to stop the rotor from rubbing against the caliper housing itself - let along the brakes. But the worst part of this is that it means that in order to pinch the rotor between the pads, I need to bend the rotor as I apply the brakes so that it can reach the already maximally extended pad the other side. I'm sure this isn't right.
  2. The rear brakes sits perfectly - no problems there whatsoever. The problem with this brake is the cable routing across the frame is designed for hydraulics - so instead of having appropriately located cable stops, I have rather useless oversized cable guides. Some of these are half open, and some are merely just raised seats for the cable to rest on. This is absolutely no good when it comes to cable brakes as when I pull the levers the cables just want to flex all over the place - or anything else that takes up slack and means that no force is applied at the braking end.
  3. What makes the above problem worse is that at the moment, the Transfil Flying Snake Brake Cable Set that I purchased to go with my brakes did not come with enough cable housing to reach the rear brakes. With no cable stops the next best solution is to run a full outer casing from lever to caliper - but after fitting the front cable, I was left with housing that was about 4 inches too short.
That's how my bike currently stands. For the rear I'm left with the option of buying new cable housing (which apparently Transfil don't do separately!) and running the full cable, and then using zip ties or some other tacky device to keep the cable in place along the frame. Alternatively I could buy some clamp-on cable stops, but I'm worried these will look even more out of place, add weight, and also scratch the hell out of the frame.

For the front I have no idea what to do.

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