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Are caliper cup and cone adjusting washers required?
Installing a set of Tektro HD E350 hydraulic disc brakes on a New Surly ECR frame and there are no cup and cone adjusting washers in the hardware kit. Are they required or only needed if there is an alignment issue? My Soma B-Side with Avid BB7 mechanical brakes has them, but my Niner Jet 9 Shimano XT bike doesn’t ( bought second hand). The XT hydraulic brakes are by far the best I have used to date; power and modulation control is wonderful. This makes me think the adjusting washers are only needed if there is an alignment issue. What do trained bike mechanics say? Thanks. |
Most disk caliper brands don't use spherically adjusting mounting washers, Avid was the first (IIRC) and nearly the only one who does. Adding these washers to a caliper not designed around their presence can change the pad/rotor contact. The pads can move outward on the rotor and not have complete overlap. Andy
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A good idea on some post mount brakes immediately under the head of the screw, but not under the caliper. If the manufacturer thinks you need them, they will typically provide them, fwiw.
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* Don't use these cup and cone washers underneath a brake that wasn't made to use them.
The brakes that use these washers have a different spacing to brakes that don't use them. The brakes that use these washers, need the extra spacing of these washers provide. If you use these washers underneath a brake that doesn't need them, the pads will overhang the rotor by about 5mm, the brake will have less stopping power and the overhanging pads could eventually lead to brake failure if the unworn parts of the pads touch. https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...7c4642cf0b.jpg https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...06369a2809.jpg With some brake adapters, you need these washers between the bolt head and the top of the caliper so the bolts can tighten down on the caliper properly. https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...9dacd84cbb.jpg |
Thank you all for your quick responses! What you all say makes sense. The Avid BB7’s are a SRAM product, so that could be why the adjustable washers are on both sides of the caliper on that ride. The Shimano XT’s have nothing in the rear, but adjustable washers under just the heads on the front. I will install the E350’s without any at all and check pad alignment. The new 2018 Surly ECR has their unique Gnot-Boost rear horizontal drops and a sliding front/back caliper mount slots for pad to rotor surface matching to avoid misaligned pads, so I have adjustment there and the right/left slot on the caliper itself. If all the brackets are straight, I think I will be fine. Cheers all and thanks again for your knowledge. |
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