Avid BB7s, Performance before and after bedding in?

[PaulSecteur]

Hi,

Just been with a mate to have a look at a genesis Croix de Fer which has BB7s, with the new 10 speed tiagra levers.

The bike was nice, real nice, but the brakes were underwhealing to say the least. To put that into perspective if I didnt know they were discs I would have thought they were cantis. The chap in the shop said they were poor to start with and need a few proper uses before they bed in.

Anyone confirm this? Im thinking of a change to but would be put off if the brakes stayed like that.

Is the performce decent when they have bedded in?

Cheers, Paul.

 

[smokeysmoo]

I've only tried mechanical discs once, and I vowed never to again, (irrelevant now as I only own road bikes). IIRC the ones I had were Avid's, but this was about 5 years ago, and what ever they were they would have only been basic ones.

They were used, (so well 'bedded' in), the pads were in in good nick and they were set up correctly, but honestly they were absolutely crap. (I was previously used to hydraulic discs brakes at the time though).

Perhaps the newer stuff is ok once it's 'bedded' in, sounds feasible from a pad point of view. Perhaps they would upgrade the pads for you to seal the deal?

Sorry this is not much use is it

 

[byegad]

I have had them on my Kettwiesel for three years and just bought a Trail with them. I ride out of town and descend quickly, recumbent trikes do, the new trike's brakes are bedding in nicely and still improving after 100 miles or so, the first ten miles they were only indifferent but improved rapidly after that.

If the ones you tried have covered over 50 miles and underwhelming then they either have the wrong levers for the type of calliper, (They come in road and off road versions.) or have lousy cables, or are badly set up.

 

[Moodyman]

As Mr Paul.

I have three lots of discs - 1 x Shimano Deore Mechanical, 1 x Shimano Deore Hydarulic and 1 x Diatech Nifon.

All three are great, but the pads need bedding in and must be as close to the disc without touching. You can speed up the bedding process by lightly sanding the pad surface.

 

[PaulSecteur]

Hi, I should have made it clear, it was a new bike with zero miles on it.

So its normal for discs to be poor from new and take 100 miles or so to bed in and get to their normal performance?

 

[_aD]

My Avid Code 5s are crap. I only get about 80-100 miles between having to sand the pads (tried isopropyl on the rotors and allowing bed-in time) and a new set of pads but they still lose most of their braking power far too quickly. I've heard several people say they're fab but that's quite contrary to my experience.

 

[gb155]

Hi, I should have made it clear, it was a new bike with zero miles on it.

So its normal for discs to be poor from new and take 100 miles or so to bed in and get to their normal performance?

I've had "sloppy" disks for the first 30-50 miles on brand new bikes before but even 3 years ago with budget cable no named disks and weighing 30+stone the stopping power was awesome

Hydro disks and weighing 13 is of course, something else

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Hi, I should have made it clear, it was a new bike with zero miles on it.

So its normal for discs to be poor from new and take 100 miles or so to bed in and get to their normal performance?

If they are setup up correctly they are great. Very few bikes come with them set up properly from new as setting them up is a faff. Here are the instructions I follow, to the letter. But I went down the Full Metal Jacket route as well and now they are superb.

even when well setup with new pads and discs they will be a bit dead at first.

They are great brakes but I once wore out both sets of pads over a wet weekend of sustrans path type touring. (and had to ride, fully loaded, cross london with no rear brake as a result)

 

[ufkacbln]

+1

Ditch the pads and get the Sintered ones.... also shorten the cable run as far as possible.

On my Gekko I upgraded to the BB7s, but the performance was no where near as good as on the Catrike.

So I halved the length of the cables, and removed the noodles especially the flexible one and the performance was transformed.

 

[CopperCyclist]

Hi, I should have made it clear, it was a new bike with zero miles on it.

So its normal for discs to be poor from new and take 100 miles or so to bed in and get to their normal performance?

I use BB7's they need bedding in like any disc brake. Do it in one trip, don't simply ride as you can 'glaze' the pad and effectively ruin them. Heres how I do it:

Get in a decent gear that you can start in with difficulty but get to some speed. Get to speed fast, then brake hard with just the front brake. Lean back to ensure you don't go over the handlebars. Repeat 10-15 times. You WILL notice tje braking go from rubbish to hyper-effective.

Repeat same procedure for back wheel 10-15 times. Try not to skid.

Repeat same procedure with both brakes five times to marvel at new braking ability.

This is the 'why?'
Brake pads get hot, surface melts and fills the porous parts of the metal discs.

You'll have to do this once whenever you change the pads or discs. Disc braking is fairly crap until you've done this.

 

[Saundie]

Ditch the pads and get the Sintered ones....

Does the type of pad really make that great a difference? From what I understand, the sintered pads last longer at the expense of braking power. I swapped the standard "organic" ones for sintered ones, and I've not noticed any difference in braking power. That said, they seem to make a lot more noise, especially when wet.

 

[PaulSecteur]

From the user reviews I have read many people say the original pads are as good as the aftermarket stuff.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Does the type of pad really make that great a difference? From what I understand, the sintered pads last longer at the expense of braking power. I swapped the standard "organic" ones for sintered ones, and I've not noticed any difference in braking power. That said, they seem to make a lot more noise, especially when wet.

certainly they last longer.

 

[ufkacbln]

The reply was triggered by previous posts which mentioned short pad life

Again - no notable difference in performance, but longer life

 

[Fiona N]

I just put BB7s on my old mtb and went through the bedding in process as per Coppercyclist (more or less - instructions come with the brakes) yesterday when I finished the fettling. I'd already been out for a ride on my lovely Hewitt so rather than do a mtb test ride then I waited until today - of course, today it's pouring down and blowing a gale but at least the brakes work well

So I've no complaints either. I noticed quite a bit of difference during the process yesterday but part of it's also my increasing confidence that I'd got the installation right and everything done up suitably tightly - I replaced V-brakes which were good except in the wet and we get a lot of that hereabouts. I also use the shortest cable run possible - I can never see the point of a metre of spare cable flapping around the front forks when the handlebars and forks turn together so it's not like you need to leave slack and I use right lever/front fork so the cable run is pretty direct.