Disc Brakes — Hydraulic vs. Mechanical?

[Birru]

@mstone 160835 wrote:

So I actually pondered going road hydraulic for my planned rebuild of my do-everything bike. (It needs new rings & cassette & cables & whatnot anyway, so why not take it from 8 gears to 10 and address every other possible want at the same time?) So I’m pouring over the shimano tech docs (have I ever mentioned how much I hate shimano?) and it seems like there’s a total dumpster fire right now. So shimano invented a new standard for brake mounts? And, being shimano, they even have different pads for brakes within the same family with different mounts? And the only 10 speed hydraulic shifters are mechanically incompatible with everything other than the current 11 speed (road) stuff. It’s like evil gnomes sit around a table at shimano hq discussing how to prevent people from building the bike they want. I think I’ll stick with 5700 shifters and try the hy/rd brakes rather than buying into this mess.

I bought into road hydraulic complete and new, so I’ve delayed the bike rebuild pain. Therefore, I’m pretty satisfied and haven’t hit my cynical phase yet. HY/RD sounds like a great plan for you though. Certainly the path of least resistance.

[AFHokie]

Think my front caliper was out of alignment?

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[jdricks]

Can’t go wrong with hydro. It has less maintenance.

[streetsmarts]

Replying to this thread cause of brake problems. Bike shop problems.

Have only put 2000 miles on my Jamie Renegade Exile in about 18 mos (lowest of the Renegade options).. it had Tektro Lyra mechanical disc brakes.

I’ve had to adjust and adjust them .
Had the front brake pads replaced 6 mos ago. Was surprised but oh well.

Then the back brake acted weird.. it would brake but then get stuck and not work at all.

Eventually a friend took the caliper apart and we found a broken spring. (Sheared in two)

LBS asked Tektro and they replaced the caliper for free. This was maybe 1 month ago.

Now rear not braking well…tried and tried to adjust. Shouldn’t these things just stay…all you need to do is tighten them up when the cable stretches? I tried to…but couldn’t get it to work. Thought maybe the cable needed replacing.

Went to a diff. shop this week (closer to home) where mechanic first said: it just needs an adjustment. Cable is fine. Then he took it back…worked for 20 mins and came back & said “it won’t hold the adjustment. I wouldn’t run these brakes on any bike. You need a new caliper …suggested $68 caliper (shimano).

For someone who rides as little as I do (compared to some on this forum) – why all the problems? Is this what i should expect from a good bike? replacing a significant part after just 18 mos? What would you do?
a $68 part is almost 10% of the cost of the new bike.
Are they trying to sell me something I don’t need?

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[streetsmarts]

And the rest of the story…went to the local bike shop I trust today. The mechanic showed me how he adjusted it; he said the brakes are fine though not great.
He said I didn’t need a new caliper.
This brake system is one where only one brake pad moves. He had to adjust the brake pad in more and said I’ll have to do that as it wears. I know how to do that.
Rode home with a great rear brake.

So angry that another bike shop that folks recommend couldn’t adjust it properly and tried to seel what I didn’t need.
I guess i’ll write to or call their manager or owner.
Anyone else had this type of experience?

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[honestmachinery]

It doesn’t strike me as an agressive upsell to suggest you replace a finicky disc caliper with a new, different one. Sounds like you were getting decent advice at a fair retail price. You could do it cheaper by yourself, of course.
@streetsmarts 179850 wrote:

And the rest of the story…went to the local bike shop I trust today. The mechanic showed me how he adjusted it; he said the brakes are fine though not great.
He said I didn’t need a new caliper.
This brake system is one where only one brake pad moves. He had to adjust the brake pad in more and said I’ll have to do that as it wears. I know how to do that.
Rode home with a great rear brake.

So angry that another bike shop that folks recommend couldn’t adjust it properly and tried to seel what I didn’t need.
I guess i’ll write to or call their manager or owner.
Anyone else had this type of experience?

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[streetsmarts]

@honestmachinery 179851 wrote:

It doesn’t strike me as an agressive upsell to suggest you replace a finicky disc caliper with a new, different one. Sounds like you were getting decent advice at a fair retail price. You could do it cheaper by yourself, of course.

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Even if I didn’t need a new caliper at all to ride happily and safely ? I disagree.

They didn’t suggest an upgrade. They said brake wouldn’t hold the adjustment …and did not adjust to give me good braking power. They wanted more money and said i needed the new caliper.

The other shop did fix it and braking power is fine.

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[honestmachinery]

@streetsmarts 179852 wrote:

Even if I didn’t need a new caliper at all to ride happily and safely ? I disagree.

They didn’t suggest an upgrade. They said brake wouldn’t hold the adjustment …and did not adjust to give me good braking power. They wanted more money and said i needed the new caliper.

The other shop did fix it and braking power is fine.

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What’s their margin on 68 bucks? Not enough to risk alienating a customer. Trust your mechanic.

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[streetsmarts]

$68 is a lot in my world. That’s almost 10% of the price of the bike I’ve had for less than 2 yrs.
And I don’t need the part!
Why didn’t that bike shop just adjust the brake properly ( like other bike shop did), charge me $15, and suggest I upgrade the brakes ?

Because their margin on$68 is much better than on $15.
And now I’m alienated. And I’ll tell my friends (pm me if interested) which bike shop was honest and which was not.
Not good customer service.

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[peterw_diy]

@honestmachinery 179853 wrote:

What’s their margin on 68 bucks? Not enough to risk alienating a customer. Trust your mechanic.

Greed, incompetence, does it matter?

Plenty of disc calipers only have pistons on one side, that’s not a reason to ditch gear.

[hozn]

FWIW, Tektro Lyra brakes have a reputation for being pretty bad brakes. It would probably save you some hassle in the future if you replace them (when they next fail or you reach a breaking point) with something better. There’s no comparison to hydraulic, but that is an expensive proposition with the integrated brake/shift levers. In the meantime, my recommendation would be TRP Hy/Rd which are a hybrid system (you can keep your existing levers) will auto adjust for pad wear and will stop you better than other pure mechanicals — and probably especially better than the Lyras. Or if you want to save a bit of money you could get a set of Juin Tech R1 or Yokozuna Motoko (also hybrid system, but not quite as nice since you have a screw for adjusting for pad wear) for around $150-175. I definitely wouldn’t pay money for another Tektro Lyra caliper!

[streetsmarts]

Thanks Hozn. But $150 to 175… sure seems pretty high. Not as high as some car repair but still… and that’s not including labor, though maybe I could figure it out myself.

We’ll see how the next bunch of miles go. Still, it’s hard to believe that after only 18 months of riding regularly, a major part needs to be replaced.
Of course, I suppose, an experienced person wouldn’t have left the shop with these brakes on the initial purchase.

I’ll start saving my pennies!

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[mstone]

@streetsmarts 179859 wrote:

Thanks Hozn. But $150 to 175… sure seems pretty high. Not as high as some car repair but still… and that’s not including labor, though maybe I could figure it out myself.

We’ll see how the next bunch of miles go. Still, it’s hard to believe that after only 18 months of riding regularly, a major part needs to be replaced.
Of course, I suppose, an experienced person wouldn’t have left the shop with these brakes on the initial purchase.

I think your first instinct was right: they’re not the best brakes in the world, but they’re perfectly serviceable. You do need to adjust them more than self-centering brakes, but but if you can do that they’ll work fine for years.

(I assume you’ve learned at this point that there’s two adjustments: a hex bolt to adjust the fixed pad, and a barrel adjuster+hex screw to adjust the cable on the moving pad. I’ll typically tighten the fixed pad until it starts to contact the brake rotor–you can hear it when the wheel is spinning–then back off a quarter turn. The moving pad is adjusted based on the movement of the brake lever–you don’t want the lever to bottom out on the bar, so there should be some space between lever and bar when it’s pushed all the way tight.)

[streetsmarts]

@mstone 179860 wrote:

I think your first instinct was right: they’re not the best brakes in the world, but they’re perfectly serviceable. You do need to adjust them more than self-centering brakes, but but if you can do that they’ll work fine for years.

(I assume you’ve learned at this point that there’s two adjustments: a hex bolt to adjust the fixed pad, and a barrel adjuster+hex screw to adjust the cable on the moving pad. I’ll typically tighten the fixed pad until it starts to contact the brake rotor–you can hear it when the wheel is spinning–then back off a quarter turn. The moving pad is adjusted based on the movement of the brake lever–you don’t want the lever to bottom out on the bar, so there should be some space between lever and bar when it’s pushed all the way tight.)

Yes yes , thank you! I’m learning. Also, I added a rack when I bought it (LBS installed), and so the barrel adjuster was nearly impossible to adjust due to closeness of …other metal parts for rack support. The mechanic today added an inline barrel adjuster so I can use that.

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[Brett L.]

@streetsmarts 179859 wrote:

We’ll see how the next bunch of miles go. Still, it’s hard to believe that after only 18 months of riding regularly, a major part needs to be replaced.

If it makes you feel better, the headset of my Jamis Renegade rusted out in the first two months of ownership, was overhauled, and rusted out again 2 months later….. I’ve also struggled with the rear hub on the stock wheels of the Jamis Renegade, so I really can’t speak much to the quality of components they ship their bikes with…… Amazing bike though that I’m quite happy with now that I have a quality headset and rear wheel.

[Author]

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