My brakes perform poorly. Almooost no effect when braking while riding. I’ve changed the rear wire, changed rear brake pads. Sanded the rotor bc of pad replacement.
I’ve used brake cleaner to remove any dirt or grease. And still no effect. I’ve also adjusted the wire so its not loose of course.
The only thing i can think of that ive read a bit about is the spacing between each pad and the rotor? Can this cause the problem? And to be fair both the front and the rear brakes perform bad. So i’ve dont got a clue what to do. Wanted to come here to get some knowledge before sending it to a bike shop.
Any help here? 🫠
by ringkvist03
5 Comments
You should get a good idea by how they feel. If you can grab a lot of brake and don’t have a lot of resistance they it might just be adjustment. The spacing you are talking about.
If the brake leavers hard stop well before they meet the bar then it’s more likely that there isn’t the friction needed. Something is contaminated or the pads are glazed.
But I’d always start by doing an adjustment. It’ll take a little longer if you haven’t done it before it’s a useful skill to have. You can have it setup pretty quickly and eliminate that as the problem.
Did you break the new pads in gradually?
ETA – is the cable in the picture a bit slack? First thing I’d do is take that out with the barrel adjuster.
Do your brake calipers have a dial that allows you to adjust the pad spacing? If the cable (and housing) have been replaced and it’s not a tension issue, try that.
Crap outer cables really turn mechanical discs into mush.
Using some compressionless outer cable such as Jagwire KEB-SL will improve braking performance. That and setting up the calipers as best you can.
I don’t know how much it will help, but the inner cable has quite a lot of bend in it by the cable clamp bolt, that means a bit of pull is wasted straightening it rather than applying force to the brake. Is the calliper arm bottomed out?
Try the compressionless housing that others have suggested.
If that doesn’t help I’d maybe try pick up some hydraulic brakes. Shimano mt200s are cheap and pretty decent. Or maybe check your second hand market places