cable pull on scram apex vs 105

scottarm

I have a boardman CX with apex however the apex levers don't seem to have enough cable pull for the disc brakes avid bb5s, in order to get enough stop the levers are hitting the bars and at times sticking thanks to the scram tab at the bottom of the lever

would 105 have greater cable pull if I was to swap to shimano???

Monty Dog

Cable pull lever ratio for all road brakes is pretty well the same. Sounds like your BB5 calipers need adjusting/ winding in the pads a bit. It's quite an easy job - should find instructions/videos online. Changing levers wouldn't make any difference if the caplipers aren't aligned/adjusted properly.

arthur_scrimshaw

scottarm wrote:

I have a boardman CX with apex however the apex levers don't seem to have enough cable pull for the disc brakes avid bb5s, in order to get enough stop the levers are hitting the bars and at times sticking thanks to the scram tab at the bottom of the lever

would 105 have greater cable pull if I was to swap to shimano???

I've recently made this exact change, my perception is less lever movement with 105 but then I also ditched the additional brake levers which I felt contributed to the problem.
Another benefit is that the shifter paddles on 105 don't interfere with the bars under braking like Apex does.

Also my shifting is 200% better! (Again unable to provide exact data )

scottarm

did you also change the front and rear mechs?

just cant seem to keep the sram indexed, I heard the cables with apex are rubbish and stretch like a rubber band which might be the issue

napoleond

Wtf is scram?

scottarm

its like sram but faster

arthur_scrimshaw

scottarm wrote:

did you also change the front and rear mechs?

just cant seem to keep the sram indexed, I heard the cables with apex are rubbish and stretch like a rubber band which might be the issue

I did, the front is optional as works with Shimano or SRAM but it was a horrible microshift unit so swapped it for a 105 FD ages ago. If you change the shifters to Shimano you will need to change the RD as well, with a standard short cage 105 mech you can run up to a 30 cassette (I am) and understand some run 32 with no issues.

(Edit - before anyone picks me up on it, I know the cage length has no bearing on the cassette you can use :!: )

scottarm

cheers that's what i had in mind, how's the bike after the change much improved???

Monty Dog

You could DuraAce levers on your bike, but if the calipers haven't been aligned/adjusted correctly it'll still have rubbish braking....have you actually tried adjusting the brakes?

arthur_scrimshaw

scottarm wrote:

cheers that's what i had in mind, how's the bike after the change much improved???

My experience is that it transformed the bike. I prefer the action of shimano, much lighter downshifts. I always found Apex heavy in this respect and as you experienced, hard to keep indexed, despite changing cables, rerouting the cables and straightening the hanger. After fitting 105 the shifting was spot on from word go and has remained so for over 2000 miles. I'd say the braking feel is better too but hard to quantify that.