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forum
Mechanical Disk Brakes
Hi folks,
I've got a Genesis CDF 10 with mechanical disk brakes. I've never been too impressed with the stopping power. Recently it seems to have got worse. Somone suggested getting good quality cables would improve this.
Has anyone had any experience in doing this simple upgrade and noticed improved stopping power or are mechanical disk brakes just generally rubbish!? 
Cheers
If you're new please join in and if you have questions pop them below and the forum regulars will answer as best we can.
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15 comments
Its not the cables. Cables are either pulling or not. Its the pads and it is the correct adjustment. Make sure the pads are plenty close to the rotor by using the pad adjustment on the caliper. Make sure your pads are clean and align well and are not too worn, and have even wear. And make sure the piston or mechanical system moves in and out correctly. Do not grease them, under any circumstances. Some mechanical discs are just not great, some are really good.
Manange to nurse a set of cable avid bb7s for many years, always had decent power after switching to sintered pads, and making sure the pads are worn in properly when new. If the brakes are lacking bite, then ime its down to the pads, every ride they need a few hard brakes from speed to get them biting again.
Also I recommend trying to work a bit of grease into the pistons every six months so they don't get sticky. They work much better then.
I never get through a Winter of commuting without contaminated pads.
Riding through soggy Glasgow every day results in huge amounts of crud landing on rotors and pads.
Cleaning the rotors and breaking the pads in again can extend their life, but I usually end up riding with differential brakes come Christmas... Which doesn't bother me too much as I'm used to them from rim brakes!
These are the ones I used.
I swapped from early Avid BB7s to TRP Hy-Rd with Yokozuna Reaction cable housings.
The TRP Hy-Rd are a massive improvement and silent most of the time. I did have to swap the levers on the calipers due to using older STI levers. The Hy-Rds are designed around the current Shimano 11 speed cable pull ratio. Older Shimano and all Campag and SRAM need the mod.
The Yokozuna Reaction cables are great too. Compressionless outers make a huge difference. Other cable outer options include Nikon and Jagwire.
There are post on this and other forums on hese brakes.
Recomended!
Disco pads are good for rim and disc... one thing with Disc brakes whatever the flavour, mechanical or Hydraulic.. they need to be used hard ...around these parts ....we have very few hills and users never get to brake hard enough to make use of them properly and as a consequence many customers of mine come in with contamination....of course if you are in a hilly area they are fine...
Interesting. Most of the use mine get is on the flat. So clearly not getting good use.
Yeah, it's a different style of braking, easily picked up though. Rather than dragging the brakes I find discs to be more effective to put the anchors on relatively hard and then release to modulate your descent on a hill, or just get used to braking later and harder on the flat. I came to road from MTB, so it was already second nature. If you swap to hydros, the on-off method on a olng descent also helps prevent fade, but it's very rare on a road bike that you'll be on the brakes that much for that long downhill.
Hills? Can't think why. Little use on the way up, of course, going slowly. Used when stationary to stop rolling back. Going down, body flat to the handlebars to see if I can hit 50 and to get a good run up for the other side. Now roundabouts... Cars going off at random, in the wrong lane, indicating one way and going the other or not indicating at all, pulling out without looking. Once had to brake so hard on a roundabout that the handlebars rotated in the clamp and I had to stop to sort it out.
Iirc, Disco brakes. Google them, they're a quarter the price of brand name pads and just as good.
I've been using Disco Brakes' sintered pads for commuting with Spyres, Avid Elixir and Juin Tech R1 brakes for years.
Absolutely no complaints.
My Giant Had TRP Spyres and it improved enormously when I replaced the stock organic pads with semi-metallic.
Thanks. What brand did you go for?
This. The stock pads are soft and wear very quickly, and on the rear of our new tandem meant a few white knuckle descents and mid ride adjustment stops. Swapped to Swiss stop sintered pads which fixed the problem. You may not need sintered pads, organic may well give you better modulation, but I'd certainly try new pads before new cables.