Hi, my question isn’t really about a bicycle, but I think it’s close enough.
Recently, I started riding a kick scooter and I’m having an issue with my rear brake. The front brake is quite good and strong — it feels solid. The rear brake also stops me well, but it feels very mushy. It starts to bite around the midpoint, but if I press firmly, the lever touches the handlebar.
The brakes are standard Sora calipers with flat-bar Sora brake levers.
There’s about 20 cm of brake housing going to the front brake, so I assume there isn’t much compression happening there. For the rear brake, it’s around 150 cm.
Do you think that switching to compressionless housing would make the brake feel firmer and stronger? If so, would you recommend it? And is it possible to find compressionless housing in green?
by maxxximo0
14 Comments
I’m following because I have the same issue on my bike. I assumed it was just normal for hydraulic brakes. I thought the longer line allowed more fluid compression or something.
Yes compressionless housing should help with the issue that you’re describing
I always go for compression less housings by default. I read that’s probably the biggest improvement for rim brakes and mechanical disc brakes, aside of getting good braking pads (Shimano are solid enough, but there’s also that brand that makes those salmon-colored wet-weather pads… Or Swiss Stop).
Compressionless housing is probably your best chance to improve braking. I would assume the same that you do and draw the same conclusions. I wouldn’t expect the rear brake to become as good as the front because the front will always have more stoping power and less housing and cable. Over 150cm you can also lose power to friction.
I’ve and had brake pads that were squishy cause this also. Make sure it’s the same brand front and back.
Yes, it would help a bit, and Jagwire makes some in green. It’s fairly shocking that they would spec such a design, but then I suppose they’re correct in thinking you won’t be going very fast.
You might also consider switching to nicer brake pads. They tend to be less squishy than many stock brake pads, while offering more stopping power for less pressure. Kool-Stop is the brand to get.
Yes, definitely. Reinforced is exactly for that. Better force transfer, better response. Also a line itself does affect it.
i had cable actuated disk calipers on my cross bike, trp spyre, performance was atrocious, changed them to trp hy/rd it helped somehow
i also thought about buying compressionless housing, but there was no any difference in brake feel on my rear and front brakes (full length housing), and this housing is so expensive and hard to find so i ended up with switching to fully hydro r7000.
It sounds like your issue is not the housing. If you are going to the trouble of changing the housing to compressionless then you may as well try service / troubleshoot the brake first.
From what you describe, I would guess the brake pads are not properly aligned to the brake surface and are hitting it unevenly. To check, pull the brake slowly and take a look at how the pads approach and engage the rim.
Is the Sora brake lever one of the models where you can switch between long and short pull by pulling the lever and turning the little chip? Is it set correctly?
The pads need to be very close to the rim
But more importantly most flat bar levers don’t work correctly with that brake style
Most flat bar levers are long pull and those caliper brakes are short pull.
Since you didn’t specifically mention this I assume you didn’t know this
Long pull levers feel “squishy” or spongy with short-pull calipers because
the lever pulls too much cable too quickly, leaving too much slack, which causes the pads to feel weak or hit the rim only when the lever touches the handlebar. This mismatch in cable pull means the lever bottoming out before full braking power is achieved.
You mount pads closer, get flat bar levers that do short pull or get problem solver pulleys … assuming this is the problem. Id just get the correct levers
Yeah. You got to go compressionless! I’ve been using jagwire’s offering since it was first released years ago. Never looked back
Imo, compressionless should help.
But I also think it’s possible they’re currently set up a little less than ideal.
Cool bike.
Love the bike/scooter. If you fancy it or the housing swap doesn’t work, some hydraulic rim brakes would transform the feel.