Upgrading Mechanical Discs

dhp2

I'm preparing for my second season of cross racing and I want to get rid of the Avid BB5s that caused me so much grief last year.

I originally planned to just get BB7s or Spyres but the road variations seem to have gone up in price since last time I looked (due to all the gravel bikes out there now?).

So I figured, seeing as I love the hydraulic discs on my mountain bikes I should look into it for CX

I'm running 10x2 105 so I need to find 10x2 hydraulic levers (do these exist?).

Also, can I use MTB calipers with road shifters?

I'm hoping I'm missing a trick? My bike isn't worth much but I don't want to upgrade the whole thing just for the brakes!

Any advice much appreciated!

imposter2.0

Nothing much wrong with BB5s - what kind of issues were you having? Seems a lot of expense to go to..

trek_dan

Well set up BB5s should be more than adequate for CX racing but if you really want hydraulics look at TRP HYRD or Juin Tech, both semi hydraulic and means you can keep original shifters.

If you really want full hydraulics I don't think Shimano make 10 speed hydraulic shifters anymore, so you'd have to change the full groupset, in which case if your on a budget go Sram Apex or Force.

whyamihere

I have a nearly new set of Spyres sitting around doing nothing if you want to try that route first. PM me if you want and we can work something out.

veronese68

The Spyres offered above would probably be a good starting point as they're likely the cheapest option. They seem to be well thought of, alternatively the HyRd type as also mentioned above. I fitted a Parabox hydraulic convertor a few years back and have been very pleased with that, unfortunately they are no longer available. Hope did a similar thing, not sure if they still do. Giant make one, can't remember the name of it, that fits as part of the stem I believe. Advantage over the HyRd type semi-hydraulic is that you only have cable along the handlebars and hydraulic from there. It eliminates most cable problems associated with muck and corrosion.

iron-clover

I would be wary about jumping straight to the HyRd calipers straight away. I wanted to upgrade my Promax Renders that came with my CaadX and found out the HyRd's don't allow a great deal of bite point adjustment (they need a fair amount of lever pull apparently) and more importantly, the pads can't be wound all the way in when they wear, so you have to replace them much earlier than when using other calipers. That's not such a problem on the road where pads seemingly last forever, but in mucky cyclocross it could mean lots more pad changes.

I've since got a TRP Spyre for my front brake, and it does let me adjust the bite point as much as I like, and it does seem to allow the pad to be pushed all the way in so I won't be wasting pads. I also don't have to adjust them anywhere near as much as the single sided actuation calipers. Unfortunately they don't seem any more powerful than the Promax units they replace
I would love to go full hydraulic, but the cost is still prohibitive for me.

I've heard that BB8 calipers are pretty much the most powerful mechanical calipers, but you still have to do the regular adjustments. Alternatively you could put a bigger disk on...

Good luck!

EDIT: If anyone knows anything different about the HyRd's I would love to know- I would still love to use them if they can be adequately adjusted!

ctp046

Note that if you go for Spyres it's a great idea to get compressionless brake cables.

I upgraded from the cheap jagwire stuff that came stock and it made a world of difference. Feels almost as good as my mtb SLXs. Went from hating then to loving them.

figbat

I picked up a used pair of Spyres with rotors on eBay for £50; I also looked at going hydraulic but £££.

N0bodyOfTheGoat

Would £299 https://www.merlincycles.com/shimano-rs ... 09289.html work with your existing setup?

Alternatively consider upgrading to 105 22-speed, £260 for a front and rear set of https://www.merlincycles.com/shimano-rs ... 11364.html , £33 for https://www.merlincycles.com/shimano-10 ... 72397.html and £38 for 11-34T https://www.merlincycles.com/shimano-10 ... 17086.html (a lower range cassette and a short cage rear mech would save ~£8) ?

timothyw

The problem with the rs405 hydraulic option is that it requires 4700 (tiagra) derailleurs which use a different pull ratio to other Shimano ten speed groupsets. (So you might as well get the similarly priced rs505 and go to 11 speed)

If you are already on 4700, they are probably the best option, although the giant conduct is an excellent option assuming that you can get a giant stem to match your existing setup.

Spyres are good but they aren't much cheaper that the Conduct so I can't see why you would get them nowadays.