Rookie mountain biker/ project Disc brake
 

hello all. My name is Kumar, hayward CA. I used to ride a bike when i was little till i was 7. Im getting back to biking now. I'm 25. To go around my fairly large college campus, bought myself a bike. Genesis v2100 (can u google it plz) for 115 $ to start with, once I know what I want & can afford that one, I'll go for a better bike. V2100 is a mountain bike, doesnt ride too bad. I realized I can do better on roads with a roadbike, so going to buy one of those soon. keeping the bike aside, biking has become a part of my daily life, and i really love it and want to take it forward.
I feel good to be here on this website. Hope I can find, know & connect with other bikers in my area and do some activity!

I have a project with my bike, need a lil suggestion.
This bike has a useless front disc brake which I want to move to the back.
front hub diameter is little bigger than rear.
What would you suggest?

I looked at video of one and I didn't see any mounts for the rear disc brake - are there mounts? They would look just like the mounts on your front fork. If no mounts on the frame and none on the wheel for the disc, options are limited at best. Why not just fix the front brakes?

Moved from Introductions to Mechanics.

Can't see enough detail, but you can't just move a disc brake any old how. You need a wheel with a hub that has a rotor mount and you need a frame that has mounting points for the disc brake caliper.
And for a bike that's currently available at $130, anything you have to buy to make that switch a mechanical possibility will also turn it into financial stupidity.
About the only fix that would make sense is to get that disc brake into decent working condition again.
Try to explain what's wrong with it wit more detail first.
You do know that brake pads need a bit bedding in before they work ok, right?

You need to realize that while your bike looks like a MTB, it isn't one.
If you still have the papers that should have come with the bike, somewhere there it'll say "for general riding only".
21-speed means 3x7 which is a fairly definite indication of a freewheel hub. Anything worse than dropping off a curb can bend or break the rear axle.

Repair the front brake, put some street tires on it, ride it and call it a lesson learned: you can't grow a good bike from a piece of crap.

That's pretty harsh but, unfortunately, very true. Trying to upgrade a basically very low quality bike is a waste of time and money. Try to get the current front brake working adequately by adjusting the pad clearances and/or replacing the pads, replace the knobby tires with smooth ones and save the money you were going to spend on it toward the purchase of a better quality bike. Also, in the future, stay away from department store bikes.

BTW: welcome to BF. Enjoy the ride. :)

Lots of good folk here who will give you straight advice. The best you can do with your bike is ride the heck out of it, learn general maintenance, and if you put forth the effort of a lot of google searches and youtube videos, you will get a lot of help here.

Why is the front brake useless?

For your front brake (on the basis that it is a disc as per thread title), as #AnkleWork what's the issue? the hub, caliper etc, for this specific issue, forgetting the rest of the bike, you can't just swap front to rear, if it's the hub, it won't fit due to different OLD's, for the caliper; the hose/cable will need to be replaced, and if hydraulic, the brake lever will be on the wrong side of the handlebar

Hello Road tire, thanks for your reply. You are right there are no mounts. I have taken a keen look today morning and realized i cannot mount it no where. or make any changes to it. The front disc is super fine. but I dont use the front brake (the crappy suspension has play) so i was referring to the disc as useless at the front... in sense that a disc brake at rear would be more precise and quick.

Hello dabac, thanks for replying. you're so right. and I realized the same while I keenly looked at it today. So making no changes. Front disc works great... I just thought it has a better use at the rear... in a month of having it, i used it just once. I dont know much about bedding, but im assuming its something similar to using a newly installed pads on disc brakes on a car ?

The front brake on a bike does the vast majority of the braking and not using it will greatly worsen your stopping distanced and control. Learn to use it and stiffen up or lock out the suspension if necessary.

hello Nigel, I like that advice. I adviced me the same thing. This bike is crap. the front suspension doesnt function properly and I hate that being a mechanical engineer. Just cant stand it anymore. Im just going to be using a little bit more to understand more about maintenance of biking parts... so I dont ruin any parts on an expensive bike... A nice bike doesnt deserve the ignorances of a newbie :lol:

HI anklework! I should have written a bit more, I meant its useless in the front while I hardly use it. Thought it has more work on the rear. Thanks for replying!

Trying to upgrade a basically very low quality bike is a waste of time and money.


No not going to upgrade it or anything. gonna save the buck for a Giant bike. Thanks!

Hayward, If there is No Bike Co Op, the BART will get you to where there is one

and joining It will get you the hands on In person Help an Internet forum cannot DO

maybe some other east Bay people will know where they are ..

You checked Cal State Hayward, ? often Student Unions have a bike Co Op in them.

It would be easy to dump scorn on your bike but really, you need that front brake. It's probably the most important component on there. Figure out what's wrong and fix it. If you just 0don't like it, .....acquire+ the taste +for 9i+t
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Typed with the help +of a
7mo chewing on the number pad

I meant play in horizontal motion rather than depressing motion. makesit very unstable during braking. could anything be done about it?

hmmm. i study at cal state.. i will check it out then. thank you;

If it was mine, there's probably like 3-4 fixes I might consider for myself. But they'd all be too unorthodox for me to feel comfortable suggesting them.
Although if you have a threadless headset you might look for a used replacement fork. At 80 mm travel, there are plenty of old, good quality forks around that'd work. Might get one for $30 or so.

Oh such similar thinking! i was giving it a thought, to look for some used fork for around 20-30.. probably gonna travel around used bike shops in berkeley when i find time... (just coz i like berkeley area better than hayward), since i now know u feel the situation, i would like to ask you to reveal best two of those fixes... i would actually say the except the fork, nothing is worth a change to this bike apart from those crappy plastic pedals, into aluminiums.. a specialized/ giant bike will take a while for me anyway so i will consider a couple of used-cheap upgrades to this to have a good experience temporarily.

Pretty much. The general recommendation is something like a dozen hard stops before new pads begin to "bite" as expected.

As long as you keep in mind that your result may vary, and that I don't vouch for the ultimate suitability of the fix.
First, I'd see if it kan be disassembled. Assuming it can, I'd see if it can be shimmed to take the play out or not.
If shimming is possible, I'd do that.
If not, I'd turn it into a rigid. I'd evaluate the amount of gap, clean the fork and then choose a chemical with a suitable gap-filling/capillary action and glue the fork together.
If it's a big gap I'll use a laminating epoxy, maybe even hook up the ol' vac pump to aid penetration.
If it's less of a gap, I'll use one of those special compounds used to mount bushings to stick the fork together.

If it can't be disassembled, it gets trickier. Then maybe drill a hole at the bottom of the fork, flush the fork best as possible using brake cleaner or similar and dribble in bushing mount liquid, or a thicker epoxy depending on gap. Perhaps some more vac pump action.

It is easy to dump a lot of money into upgrades, and pretty senseless to dump $500 into upgrading a $100 bike. So, just be careful.

There are photos on the internet of V2100 bikes with rear disc brakes fitted.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/wicked_photos/8553397846/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/wicked_photos/8424174454/

It appears as if the people who did that made a custom bracket that bolted into the triangle of the dropout, and is that bolt for a rack, or part of the dropout?

You also need a new rear wheel that supports a disc brake.

If you do it, expect to spend as much on the new disc as you spent on the whole bike. I'd just add a second disc, rather than trying to move it.

I'm not sure suspension is needed for on the road. There are lots of non-suspension forks available, and the exchange would be reasonably easy to do. However, upgrading your bike is like :deadhorse:

I'd figure out a budget, and start looking for a good used road bike. There are some in the $200 to $300 range, perhaps even less... up to as much as you want to spend.