What calipers to buy ??

Matt_89

Hello,

I have a Trek 3900 Disc which i bought last year and unfortunately i have been forced into buying a new front brake caliper as the spring has warped. I was advised by a repair shop technician to buy shimano calipers instead of the Tektro Novela ones which came as standard on my bike.
Im not a massive bike person so im not 100% sure on which ones to purchase. He mentioned something to do with Shimano 465 but after researching this i think he was on about the pads.
If someone could advise me on which calipers to look at then that would be appreciated. I know that only certain shimano calipers will fit on my forks

bikaholic

What does, "the spring has warped" mean?

Are you saying it works but that the caliper does not return to the open position?

jimothy78

Matt_89 wrote:

If someone could advise me on which calipers to look at then that would be appreciated.

All depends on how much you want to spend - you can pick up a Clarks CMD-8 (probably the cheapest you'll find)for a tenner, and Shimano BR-m416 (middle of the road) for £20 or BB7 (about as good as mechanical brakes get) for about £40. Of course, for this sort of money, you could buy a very decent Shimano BR-m615 hydraulic brake, so that might be worth considering, too:
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/shim ... prod108802

I know that only certain shimano calipers will fit on my forks

not sure about that - it looks like a standard post-mount fitting, and most callipers are similarly a standard size and should fit. If you're using a 160mm rotor you shouldn't need an adapter, but if you want a larger rotor you will.

Matt_89

Thanks for the advice. I think im going to go with the BR-M416. I have been looking at them on ebay and the only ones i have found say "without adapter".
Will i need an adapter or will they fit straight on ?

This is the bike i have ...
http://www.trekbikes.com/uk/en/archive- ... /3900_disc

cooldad

If your current brakes are post mount, yes.

Matt_89

My current brakes (the broken ones) are the factory fitted brakes. Tektro Novela brakes

cooldad

Presumably yes, but if you can't look at the mounts on your fork, I certainly can't.

97th choice

Google post mount and IS.

Matt_89

cheers... it would appear they are post mount.

jimothy78

Matt_89 wrote:

Thanks for the advice. I think im going to go with the BR-M416. I have been looking at them on ebay and the only ones i have found say "without adapter".
Will i need an adapter or will they fit straight on ?

As I said above, post mount brakes need an adapter ONLY IF you're using them with a rotor larger than 160mm. As long as you're using them with your existing rotor, then they'll either fit straight on (if it's 160mm) or fit to your existing adapter (if the rotor is a larger size then the existing calliper will be mounted with an adapter already).

You only need to get a new adapter if you change rotor size or if you are trying to fit a calliper with a different mounting standard to the previous one.

bikaholic

Probably a redundant fix now that you were intending to go down the route of buying new calipers, OP, but I thought I'd just include it anyway as the fix cost a just few pennies to do (a box of springs costs about £4 from Maplins).

There are also little tips and tricks that can be used in order to maximise braking performance even for the cheapest of the cheap mechanicals.