Mechanical Disc Brakes

[Blammo]

I had been mulling over replacing the Marta SLs I've been running since my weight weenie days with a pair of Shimano XT hydraulics brakes.  Saturday morning finds me in dire need of drastically stepping up the timeline.  The main reason I was set on the XTs was that presumably you can find them or parts for them in any reasonably sized town.  Apparently the 8th (or so) largest city in American is not big enough to have a single set in stock ...I called about 15 bike shops before settling on the Avid Exler R found in the clearance bin (literally) at Performance Cycles at 75% of the already marked down price.

Sooo ...with the goal being to maximize reliability and, secondarily, available of parts I'm now thinking Avid BB7s.  They have been recognized in the "reliable parts" thread elsewhere on this forum.  What else should I be looking at and which levers?

[AZTtripper]

I have had 2 sets of the BB7's the first set are from 03 the second 05 both are still in use but I traded on set away for Avid Juicy 3's. My buddy had the Juicy 3's and needed something that would work better for swapping wheel sets. He got the better end of the deal at this point as the hydro's need an overhaul. The BB's are way easier to work on myself.

I have the Speed Dial levers but never use any of the adjustments. I bet the FR 5's would be just as good.

Hope that helps
Tim

[DoctorRad]

Avid Speed Dial levers allow you to set up the lever 'feel' to be the same front and rear. With a longer cable run, the rear brake will almost invariably feel slightly more 'spongy' than the front, and Speed Dial levers allow you to tune the front to match, should that be important to you.

I have a set of BB7s on my main MTB, and picked up two more sets used for spares and/or other projects. Wouldn't use anything else.

[Blammo]

That's what I needed to hear.  Thanks guys!

[raybum]

Been running BB7's with SD7 Levers on my Lynskey SS for several years.  Super simple, plenty of power, and easy to fix trailside. 

[Flounder]

Avid Elixers might be the worst bicycle product I've seen in 25 years. Our shop is constantly working on Elixers. We also warranty a boat load every season. Let me put it this way. We literally ware out Avid bleed kits we use them so much.

On the flip side, BB7s are silly simple and very reliable.

[Adam Alphabet]

I've ran the same set of BB7's with Paul's Levers since 2008. My main hill is Mount Seymour in North Vancouver BC. Wet, sloppy, mucky, gritty, etc. I've never owned hydro disc brakes, so I can't compare but these things seem to work just fine in some pretty demanding terrain/conditions.

[Flounder]

I would also add that Shimano's latest generation of SLX, XT and XTR brakes are nothing short of amazing. I am putting XT brakes on my new bike and have no worries they'll perform reliably.

[krefs]

I will second Flounder's praise of the latest XT brakes. I've been using them a ton since the middle of last summer. They blow the Avid Elixir (X0, CR, R) out of the water in both performance and reliability. I had can't count the number of times I've been out bikepacking and Elixirs on my or friends's bikes unexpectedly and unpredictably quit working as an air bubble migrated from somewhere benign to somewhere very problematic. There's nothing worse than being deep in the rugged backcountry with only one working brake. Bleeding the XT brakes is also pretty simple, especially compared to Avid's contrived procedure that still only seems to work half the time. Now we have XTs on three of our bikes, and sitting on my work bench are two more sets to replace the last two sets of Elixirs in the house.

Anyone want to buy some Elixirs? I'll sell 'em real cheap!

[Flounder]

Hey Krefs,

This is Christophe (Flounder) here in good old Prescott. To pile on the un-praise of Elixers, I actually had to work at giving my last set away. One friend said, "free is too much for Elixers."

That you would not hesitate to ride XTs into the remote hinterlands of the Tour Divide route speaks volumes.

See you around P-town.

Christophe

[adelorenzo]

IMHO, mechanical brakes are nowhere near as good as hydraulics in terms of performance, and the risk of problems is overrated. You need to have both brakes fail, and if you have riding partners a lot of brakes have to fail before you get to a situation where everybody doesn't have at least one brake.

My Marta SLs have been good but have developed some issues in the past, so far Shimano XT and Saint brakes have been brilliant for me and they are very simple to maintain.

[krefs]

Ha, hey Christophe. Good to see you on here. Yup, I'd trust the XTs on the TD, on a DH bike, or on a tandem. My only concern with them right now is that they seem to be a bit more popular than Shimano expected, so Shimano seems to be having trouble keeping up with demand for the pads!

[mattyp]

i also use bb7s with paul's levers.  i would also go with good housing;  i'm using jagwire ripcord; which is compressionless.  i also have the road bb7 on my la cruz but regular housing and they are not as good. (force levers).  the set-up is very easy for the bb7 and you could do it camping; where my xx are more fickle and you need a clean place to service them.

[JF-mtnbiker]

BB7's and no worries.

[DoctorRad]

@adelorenzo - Have you actually tried Avid BB7s? I've not ridden a huge number of hydraulic disc brakes, but I've never found BB7s to be at all lacking in power, especially in comparison with pretty much every rim brake I've ever used.

[Flounder]

@adelorenzo - Have you actually tried Avid BB7s? I've not ridden a huge number of hydraulic disc brakes, but I've never found BB7s to be at all lacking in power, especially in comparison with pretty much every rim brake I've ever used.

I'm a big fan of BB7s and have them on a couple of my bikes. However, they don't hold a candle to the newer generation Shimano hydraulic brakes. Not even close. The new Shimanos are also as reliable as a hammer. A year into my XTs, not a single day when they didn't perform to perfection.

[adelorenzo]

@adelorenzo - Have you actually tried Avid BB7s? I've not ridden a huge number of hydraulic disc brakes, but I've never found BB7s to be at all lacking in power, especially in comparison with pretty much every rim brake I've ever used.

Yep, I ran them on my 29er for a couple of years and then later on my winter bike (Pugsley), which I recently swapped out for hydraulic. They are quite decent brakes, no doubt. IMHO, there is no comparison to hydros in terms of feel and modulation, and good hydro brakes (like my Marta SLs or my Saints) are definitely more powerful. I've tried all different cable setups including Avid flak jackets and Nokon housing.

Interestingly enough, after all of this discussion I am actually putting my BB7s on the Kona Unit that I am building up for a bikepacking expedition. Trying to see about routing the cables out in front of my handlebar bag instead of behind it. I'll likely end up using them as I don't foresee wanting to buy new brakes and then having to possibly lengthen the hoses.

[Velek]

Traveled 8,000 miles on BB7s.  Not even considering swapping them but only had to use them fairly lightly - it was a road tour.  I wouldn't use hydraulics on a tour.  Too much of a pain in the butt to work on and the BB7s work great.