I'm building a bike to kick about the neighborhood with, rails to trails, etc. I'm going to install mechanical disc brakes for ease of not having to bleed them (bike will be in a 4-season garage).

It'll be flatbar and currently I already have a set of both Shimano linear brake levers (XT) and a set of Shimano road brake levers (R780). With that said, is there a "better" option in terms of mechanical calipers when it comes to mountain vs road? For example, if I'm buying BB7's would I be better off with the road or mountain versions?

Thanks.

Seems to me you're better off sticking with the cable pull that is more "natural" for the type of bars you're using. So for flat bars, I would stick with the mountain version. That way if you ever want to use different brake levers in the future (or the ones you have get damaged), you'll have more options. Same reasoning goes for drop bars. I don't think there's much difference in performance or feel between the two BB7 versions as long as you're using appropriate levers. One of my bikes has BB7 Roads with Shimano STI brifters, but I've also used the mountain version with linear-pull drop bar levers (Cane Creek, IIRC) and I can't say I noticed much difference.

BB7 mountain calipers work much better than BB7 road calipers. I don't know why, but most users agree.

+1

The road version of the BB7 has this odd feature where the first little bit of cable pull moves the pads away from the rotor. I have no idea why they do that, but if you don't use a barrel adjuster to "pre-pull" that bit it's almost impossible to keep them from rubbing. They also don't respond with as much power (relative to the same hand force) as the MTN version, but that may be due to the inherent difference in leverage between the levers (that is, unless you are pulling the tips of the levers from the drops, you will be applying force close to the pivot point). You wouldn't have to worry about that with the R780 levers.

I haven't used BB7's with the XT levers, but I would say BB7's paired with Avid Speed Dial 7 levers (which are pretty inexpensive) is far better than any other combination I've used and the Speed Dial's let you fine tune the cable pull to get the feel you want.

I was also looking at not only the BB7's, but if I went road I was thinking of the Shimano R517's or the CX77's. But if mountain versions of mechanical discs are inherently better than their road cousins, I'll stick with Mountain.

I've used a lot of mechanical disc brakes and none of them have been better than the MTN version of the BB7. Look no further. That's the brake you want.

BB7 mt with a flat bar. Really nice are the avid speed dial levers for fine tuning adjustments.

I'm also using the speed dial lever with MTN BB7.. on Trekking Bars.. (22.2 | 7/8" like MTB bars)

One difference I glean from the Avid exploded parts diagram .. is the actuating ring, that turns the rotary motion

into the sideways pressure that pushes the pad against the disk, the ring is crown like , a number of ramps, that do the pushing.

Road version, the ramps in the crown ring are steeper angled than those on the MTB version..


Paul's USA made "Clamper" mechanical disc caliper , uses a different length of actuating arm but the internals are all the same.

Go Avid Mtn BB7 Disc Brakes (Long Pull)