Upgrading mechanical disc brakes to hydraulic

levarg
levarg Posts: 14
edited October 2018 in Workshop
I've got a Pinnacle Arkose 1 with Tektro Mira mechanical disc brakes and Sora shifters. I'm generally happy with the bike except for the brakes, which are absolute pants.
Can anybody recommend the best way to upgrade this setup to hydraulic brakes? Is it even possible? And what would be the best brakes to go for?

Comments

  • imposter2.0
    imposter2.0 Posts: 12,028
    Depends how much you want to spend. Cheapest hydro option would be to fit something like TRP hy/rd calipers to your existing setup, while the more expensive option would be to be to go for a full hydro groupset, or at least the shifters/mechs/calipers.

    Having said that, there are far better mechanical options than the Mira - and cable discs can actually be pretty good when set up correctly, so another option is to simply upgrade the cable calipers without going hydro.
  • davem399
    davem399 Posts: 269
    I've just fitted some Juin Tech R1s to my winter Boardman CX Team, replacing some Avids. These are similar to the HyRds in that they are cable as far as the calipers, with the hydraulics in the calipers. First ride was a bit sketchy, but they improved on the second ride as they bedded in. Only these two shortish rides so far; it will be interesting to see how they perform over the course of this winter. I paid just over £150 for the set, and this included rotors as well as bolts.
  • timothyw
    timothyw Posts: 2,482
    Giant conduct is probably the best conversion option, £120 plus £10 or so for a compatible stem to make it look neat.

    Although even that is starting to look a bit pointless now that you can get a set of RS505 shifters and brakes for £240 ish from chainreaction and a few other places - although obviously that entails an 11 speed upgrade for you also.

    With that said, if the braking is pants, you might do better just learning how to set the brakes up properly. Properly set up cable disk brakes are practically indistinguishable in stopping power from hydraulic brakes (although you do have to pull a bit harder at the lever).

    The likelihood is that you need to adjust the inboard (static) pad of your brakes. Cheap mechanical brakes only move one of the pads, which deflects the rotor into the other (static) pad. If this hasn't been adjusted for a while, braking will feel awful as you are having to bend the rotor a long way to get it to bite into the other pad.

    I suggest looking up the old avid bb5 business card trick as the steps to adjust your Tektro brakes will likely be identical.
  • levarg
    levarg Posts: 14
    I hadn't actually considered just upgrading the caliper to a better quality cable type or hybrid system. So thanks everybody for the suggestions. Think I will investigate more the hybrid (Juin/Acor, TRP) option. My bike wasn't so expensive so spending much more than £150-200 is not really feasible.

Categories