Ditching Disks

cprice2437

OK I've had enough....they have been re-shimmed, flattened, straightened, bedded-in, pads changed and sworn at but the discs on my Stumpjumper Pro just keep rubbing on the rotors and I am sick of it! :evil:

I do all my own maintenance and can build wheels and such like - but these darned discs are a pain in the rear end. Nothing sounds as bad as scraping discs just converting my effort to heat instead of forward motion.

I am going back to V-brakes - simple, powerful and so much lighter and (aside from downhill racers) perfectly good for MTBing.

Question - I can "V" the front end easy enough as the Fox forks have capability for bosses to be bolted in to take the calipers.

The back end has no frame mounted bosses.

Does anyone make an accessory bolt-on boss? Or would this be a trip to the welders?

Thanks

Clive

nicklouse

sell the bike and get a new one. the back end is not strong enough for the new forces you will put on it.

Or take the bike to some one who can set up the brakes and then dont touch them.

keeps21

Have you had the disc mounts faced?

if they're not faced, you'll never get them setup properly.

cprice2437

Sell the bike sounds like the best option.

I can shim these things up perfectly and in the middle of a 3-hour ride they start rubbing again. I stop to see if there anything has entered the pad/rotor gap. Nope. Just the stupid discs rubbing again. These are Shimano XT Hydraulic discs and calipers. I have tried locking out the forks to see if this helps - no. New pads - No.

This has nothing to do with facing the mountings - or I would never be able to get them to work in the workshop - there just seems to be an in-built uselessness to discs on bikes as evidenced by the number of forum posts. If the discs on the car drag then I guess with 170 bhp to pull them round it's less of an issue.

With 300watts the issue is a nonsense.

Sorry - rant over. Seems there isn't an answer to this.

Clive

dave_hill

You'll never get any disc brake on any vehicle to be completely drag free. It's the nature of the beast. Methinks you complain too much.

Wouldn't go back to rim brakes for off-road if you paid me.

supersonic

My Avid Arch rivals with cool stop pads and SD7 levers make mincemeat out of my LX hydros. Quite frankly, some disc brakes are sh*t.

Rockhopper

Odd that, the disks on both my bikes have been 100% fit and forget. Infact i'd say that disk brakes have been the biggest improvement in mountain biking for many years.

Thermo1

Rather than changing bikes, perhaps just try some different disk brakes like a mechanical disk with pad adjustment (Shimano or Avid)?

I have Shimano M465s on my bike and while they aren't as flash as an Avid BB7, they can lock the wheels under my 135kg mass. And they don't drag at all.

steelo

I used to have a similar problem.

Loosen the bolts between the caliper and frame, squeeze the brake lever to centralise the caliper over the disc then slowly nip each bolt up in turn. The only other thing that may cause the pads to rub is if they are not seated correctly in the caliper body.

Apart from that advice, if you've already done it then I would say new disc brakes. Don't go back to v-brakes, as soon as the get wet and muddy they are nothing compared to discs!