I have a cheapish mountain bike just assembled and had an issue with the disk scraping on one side of the calips, realigned it but only one side seems to be closing, is that normal?is there a way to loosen the other side? It's brand new
Are disk brakes supposed to only close on one side? (New bike just assembled)
byu/SlickySmacks inbikewrench
by SlickySmacks
4 Comments
For mechanical disc brakes like you have, yes.
Cheap mech brakes… that’s what you get.
Some are. Probably this one.
It depends on the specific disc brake. So to give two examples, Avid BB5 and Avid BB7, the BB7 can be adjusted on both sides while the BB5 only has adjustment on one side. It’s fairly common on mechanical disc brakes and you only get away with it if you use some of the higher end options. A no-name brand will likely have even less adjustment. SO, yes, normal.. you’ve got to work with what you go. Best you can do is maybe stick a business card or some sort of spacer on the fixed side and loosen the caliper fixing bolts, square the brake, realign.. then remove the spacer.