Brakes :)

LEWINS1998

Hi, I have v brakes on my bike, I want disc to replace them, how much would this cost? Cheers
Ps. My v brake levers are on my gear triggers, and I have a cube aim 2011

KevChallis

Do you have disc caliper mounts on the frame and forks? Do you have disc mounts on the rims?

You will have I budget in new shifters as well as brakes and discs, nobody can say how much it will cost, it depends on what you need, and what spec you choose

LEWINS1998

Hi, I have mounts on the folks but not on the rims, and I know this sounds stupid but the cheapest

jimothy78

You could save a bit of money by fitting mechanical (cable-operated, rather than hydraulic) disc brake callipers which would let you use your existing levers/shifters, but you'd still need to buy a new wheelset with disc-compatible hubs. Most importantly, you still need to check the frame for disc-brake mounts - if it doesn't have them, then disc brakes are not going to happen on that bike.

If the frame does have mounts, then you can do it, but in terms of cost, the cheapest you could reasonably hope to do this for woulld be:

Wheelset - £50-60
Mechanical brake callipers - £30-40
Rotors - £20 (unless you can find some brakes with rotors included).
Adapters - £10
Total - £110 +

If you want to use hydraulic brakes, then it's more like:

Wheelset - £50-60
Brakeset (Deore hydraulic) - £70
Rotors - £20
Adapters - £10
Replacement gear shifters - £15-20
Total - £165 +

rickbst170

Hi Lewins1998. It really depends on what quality you're looking for. You could get an old set of disk read wheels off of ebay for £20, buy some older hydraulics for £20, some rotors for £5, brake fluid for £5 and set them up, off you go. You'd have discs, but they'd be old and on what will probably be heavy or buckled or wobbly wheels. You can get something like Avid Elixer 5's for about £40 now. Older XT models for £80. Or chainreactioncycles have a deal on brand new Hayes Stroker brakes for £90 a set. Hope hubs will be about £80 each and then you'll need rims, spokes and a wheel lace machine or a guy who can do it. Or buy some nice disc ready wheels for £100-£300 a set. Keep away from hope hubs if you want to keep cost down.

I reckon you could do it all for £50, but really probably want to spend closer to £200. You can spend upwards of £1k if you fancy it. Wheels are the key IMO. Most hydraulic disc brakes will stop you in pretty much the same way but some "feel" better. Crappy wheels will make a much bigger difference to your ride than lower quality brakes (note that "lower quality" is still better than "top spec but cheap because they're faulty". You need to haev confidence they'll stop you and not fail on you).

hope that helps.

jimothy78

rickbst170 wrote:

You could get an old set of disk read wheels off of ebay for £20, buy some older hydraulics for £20, some rotors for £5, brake fluid for £5 and set them up, off you go.

You missed the point that he has integrated brake levers/ shifters, so if he goes hydraulic, he has to buy new shifters as well.

Cqc

Just stick with v brakes, they're not that bad

KevChallis

Cqc wrote:

Just stick with v brakes, they're not that bad

This^^^^^^

I have just set some up on both lads bikes, set up properly, they are pretty sharp to be fair

LEWINS1998

I have Mach 1 exe rims on my bike, would I still need to buy new rims? Because I think but I'm not sure that these rims can accommodate both disc brakes and rim

Antm81

Take a pic of your hubs and post it up, should show if they can take the rotors for disc brakes, non drive side if you can

cooldad

The rims don't matter, the hubs do.

LEWINS1998

Could you tell me how to post pictures? Many thanks

Antm81

I use a flickr account, upload the image there then if you click the share button, select bbcode and copy and paste the urls in to this thread

cooldad

LEWINS1998 wrote:

Could you tell me how to post pictures? Many thanks

FAQs up there ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^