Colin_P
Guru
For no reason at all, I thought I'd share my experiences of the afore mentioned brake system.
But first of all some context;
I like tough simple bikes and firmly believe that low to mid range components are tougher than the more exotic stuff. The exotic stuff is fine but for me is too fragile. I've many bikes but this is about my main go-to and use anywhere bike, my trusty old Giant hybrid which has about 7,000 miles under the various sets of wheels that have been on it.
I say various sets of wheels and mean exactly that. The bike left the factory with V rim brakes which tick the simplicity and toughness boxes for me. However the downside for me and the sort of cycling I do is that of rim and brake block wear, muddy, wet and gritty. Also being a 'larger' chap, I'd be lucky to see 500 miles out of a set of blocks and between 1,500 and 2,000 miles out of a set of rims until I was down to the wear line.
So, one day I thought, why not utilise the disc mountings the frame had. And so I did. After extensive research for about ten minutes I said nope to hydraulics and settled on a set of Avid (SRAM) BB7's. And off I went, I fitted them roughly this time last year and have done about 1,800 miles in that time.
The shame, the shame. Had a bit of a grind which ignored for a bit too long, thinking a bit of grit was stuck. Wrong, I had been grinding metal on metal for ages. Talking of which, in the film Aliens when they are in the armoured personel carrier and Reece says like this to Ripley, "Ease off your grinding metal on metal in thetransaxle." I've never understood that bit, if I was trying to get away from those aliens I wouldn't give a hoot about grinding metal on metal. It is fine, for a while...
Anyway the shame...
As part of the pad change I though it would be a very good idea to clean and fettle the calipers. The BB7's split into two halves when two 5mm allen bolts are undone and once in bits you can clean everything. You can leave one half attached and dangling off the brake cable still on the bike. On this bike despite its very hard life and sometimes extreme use, I jet wash it frequently and was concerned that this may have led to things seizing up internally despite me blowing everything out with an airline afterwards.
Inner adjuster is a very fine thread. Once the caliper is split, you can simply wind it out of the housing and clean it. It was in perfect condition with no signs of water penetraton.
Once the caliper is split the outer or moving piston comes out. This has suffered a slight bit of corrosion.
This is ceramic grease. It is a dry grease and amazing stuff. I lightly lubed the piston stem and the edges of the pads with it, just a very fine smear.
The main part of the caliper body hanging off the bike via the brake cable, again clean, clean, clean it!
As an aside these are Swalble Land Cruiser Plus tyres, fitted at the same time as the discs a year ago. I've rotated them front to back and they tread has about 1,000 to 1,500 miles left but more worrying are these splits..
Anyway, cleaned.
Lubed piston back in
This is the inner side of the caliper with the adjuster wound out of the housing
And being wound back in. I didn't put any lube on this.
And back in
Pads in, ready to fit. You could of course just leave everything on the bike and simply swap the pads. I actually installed the pads when the caliper was split in half as I found it easier to fit them into the spring clip. As above I also gave the spring clip and edges of the pads a smear with the ceramic grease.
As another aside, I cut down a length of plastic conduit I happened to have laying about so as to provide a mounting for an additional pair of be-seen lights. Very pleased.
And I also treated myself to an out front bar extender thing which has given me room to fit a matching pair of be-seen fronts, the super bright headlight for off road and freed up room for me to re-fit the bell to the bike which came off of it ten minutes after getting it home all those years ago.
Anyway back to the BB7's. They are very good, if you are thinking about cable discs and this goes for roadies as well, get some, they are very good indeed and mine have stood up to a years worth of abuse nicely.
But first of all some context;
I like tough simple bikes and firmly believe that low to mid range components are tougher than the more exotic stuff. The exotic stuff is fine but for me is too fragile. I've many bikes but this is about my main go-to and use anywhere bike, my trusty old Giant hybrid which has about 7,000 miles under the various sets of wheels that have been on it.
I say various sets of wheels and mean exactly that. The bike left the factory with V rim brakes which tick the simplicity and toughness boxes for me. However the downside for me and the sort of cycling I do is that of rim and brake block wear, muddy, wet and gritty. Also being a 'larger' chap, I'd be lucky to see 500 miles out of a set of blocks and between 1,500 and 2,000 miles out of a set of rims until I was down to the wear line.
So, one day I thought, why not utilise the disc mountings the frame had. And so I did. After extensive research for about ten minutes I said nope to hydraulics and settled on a set of Avid (SRAM) BB7's. And off I went, I fitted them roughly this time last year and have done about 1,800 miles in that time.
The shame, the shame. Had a bit of a grind which ignored for a bit too long, thinking a bit of grit was stuck. Wrong, I had been grinding metal on metal for ages. Talking of which, in the film Aliens when they are in the armoured personel carrier and Reece says like this to Ripley, "Ease off your grinding metal on metal in thetransaxle." I've never understood that bit, if I was trying to get away from those aliens I wouldn't give a hoot about grinding metal on metal. It is fine, for a while...
Anyway the shame...
As part of the pad change I though it would be a very good idea to clean and fettle the calipers. The BB7's split into two halves when two 5mm allen bolts are undone and once in bits you can clean everything. You can leave one half attached and dangling off the brake cable still on the bike. On this bike despite its very hard life and sometimes extreme use, I jet wash it frequently and was concerned that this may have led to things seizing up internally despite me blowing everything out with an airline afterwards.
Inner adjuster is a very fine thread. Once the caliper is split, you can simply wind it out of the housing and clean it. It was in perfect condition with no signs of water penetraton.
Once the caliper is split the outer or moving piston comes out. This has suffered a slight bit of corrosion.
This is ceramic grease. It is a dry grease and amazing stuff. I lightly lubed the piston stem and the edges of the pads with it, just a very fine smear.
The main part of the caliper body hanging off the bike via the brake cable, again clean, clean, clean it!
As an aside these are Swalble Land Cruiser Plus tyres, fitted at the same time as the discs a year ago. I've rotated them front to back and they tread has about 1,000 to 1,500 miles left but more worrying are these splits..
Anyway, cleaned.
Lubed piston back in
This is the inner side of the caliper with the adjuster wound out of the housing
And being wound back in. I didn't put any lube on this.
And back in
Pads in, ready to fit. You could of course just leave everything on the bike and simply swap the pads. I actually installed the pads when the caliper was split in half as I found it easier to fit them into the spring clip. As above I also gave the spring clip and edges of the pads a smear with the ceramic grease.
As another aside, I cut down a length of plastic conduit I happened to have laying about so as to provide a mounting for an additional pair of be-seen lights. Very pleased.
And I also treated myself to an out front bar extender thing which has given me room to fit a matching pair of be-seen fronts, the super bright headlight for off road and freed up room for me to re-fit the bell to the bike which came off of it ten minutes after getting it home all those years ago.
Anyway back to the BB7's. They are very good, if you are thinking about cable discs and this goes for roadies as well, get some, they are very good indeed and mine have stood up to a years worth of abuse nicely.
