So I am riding home from work today... Like everyday... Clipping along at a good pace... I slow down a little entering an intersection, head up, being careful... But...

The classic cager right turn and BOOM! I get cut off! I lock up the Avid BB7s, they stop on a dime... My left hood and hand slam into her mirror. Hand is swollen and bruised, hood is bent out of shape. But WOW! The Avids saved me from ending up going through her window and into her passenger seat.

My first accident in the two years of commuting almost everyday...

Yep them avid bb7's are damn good. But just wait a few more years and we will all be converting to hydro discs brakes. Glad to hear that you managed to only sustain minor damage to you and the bike. Did you call the cops and file an accident report?

If you think cable discs are great, try hydrolic. I ran mechanical discs for a while and got sick of adjusting the cables every 500km or so. Switched out Shimano deore discs and they are great. Set and forget. Also they will stop you so fast you'll be airborne if you let them.

I guess it's the ceramic pads I run in my BB7's that GREATLY reduce the need for adjustments. Every 500k, really? That, for me, would be about every 4-5 weeks -- I've adjusted mine ONCE since installing them on the new bike in March, and that was because one had developed a slight squeak. The brakes, and pads, are in their 4th year.

Hydraulics - meh.

I'm going to give the Specialized Tricross with disc brakes another test ride. I was really focused on the SRAM shifters that I didn't pay attention to the brakes. They are the BB5's, not the BB7's.

I'm glad you are OK! Coming from an off road background, disk brakes were a necessity for me. I went to the trouble of brazing on my own caliper mounts on my newest road build and it has already saved me from an encounter with driving texter, <---- yes you read that correctly... lol. Happened in only the first 150 miles on the new bike too!



Yes, the blue cable is from Powercordz, they feel as close to my hydros as possible, even with brifters ad they don't stretch. I highly recommend a setup like this to any others out there that commute regularly. The mount came from Paragon Machine and was about $8. The BB7's were '11 NOS from Jensen, $56. True four seasons stopping power for the heavily laden commuter!

I agree with dx-man, adjusting ever 500km is strange. I have put about 800 miles on my crux so far and havent adjusted the brakes at all. The bb7's will throw you off the bike if you brake to hard, when I test rode it I didn't realize how much stopping power they had and while testing them I nearly threw myself.

Now I know you are lying. Drivers don't to irresponsible things like that!!

Glad you are OK.

500k is about a week and half for me. Sometimes I can get close to that in one week. They were a cheap OEM no name model that came with the bike and they sucked. The caliper actually died on me at the end - the threads stripped. Perhaps good quality mechanical brakes are just as good, but I like my Shimano Hydros MUCH better. They never give me any trouble at all. Though at 7000km the are starting to show some wear on the pads.

10000 D -- you reminded me of something else I forgot to mention, when you referred to the 'blue' cables:

XTR cables for brakes will also mimic that hydro feeling; I'm running Jagwires this season (and will until they give up), the Jags are good, but not XTR. When the time comes for new cables, I WILL get XTR again.

Also, the comment about BB7 stopping power is right on; I'm a Clyde, and ride hard; I thought at one time that a 203mm front/185mm rear rotor combo would be necessary for my size and energy on the bike; the 203 put me on my face a COUPLE times, once with disastrous results! I'm on 185 f/r now, and it's perfect.

I'm also going to take a look at the 2013 Kona Jake. It comes with Tektro Lyra disc brakes. I assume that if I do not like them, I could always have my LBS upgrade to the BB7 calipers and discs while keeping the stock levers.

Nevermind. My LBS that carries Kona said that they recently received their latest order of 2012's and do not plan to order 2013's anytime soon. They did offer to order me whatever I wanted, as long as I paid $40 for shipping.

I have Shimano XT hydraulics on my MTB (Santa Cruz Heckler) and BB7's on my Electra Townie cruiser bike.
One time years ago I was riding the Porcupine Rim trail in Moab, Ut. About the last third of the trail I lost my front brake (leaked fluid) so I had to rely on the rear brake only to finish up the ride. That was a bit of a bummer. The advantage of the BB7's being mechanical disc brakes is that you will never have to worry about leaking fluid/failure during your ride. They work great and are essentially hassle free.

My 2 cents.

Thats unusual. Those hoses and seals are very well manufactured - especially at the XT level.

I've had to return two sets XT brakes to shimano. The hoses were leaking and contaminating the pads.

Glad you're okay. Discs are awesome for commuting especially in the rain.

krobinson103 wrote:I must add that that was the ONLY time I've had a hydraulic failure. I've had those XT brakes on that bike (Santa Cruz Heckler) since I bought it in 1998. I think the failure was @ 1999 - 2001ish.

BB7 Disc on my Bike Friday, took some getting used to,
since disc at 160 is relatively huge, on a 406 wheel..

So, I'm a daily commuter. Rain or shine. One of my bikes has cantilevers, the other one has v brakes. I'm fine with both of them. I can lock up the rear wheel if I want to and I can lift the rear wheel off the ground (with the front brake) if I want to. When they are wet they will squeak but the stopping doesn't seem to be affected. So how will discs give me more stopping power? Honest question. It seems to me there is a diminishing return on braking power. Am I right?

Good v-brakes with good pads that work in the wet will stop your bike. On paved roads. But, if you ride in mud, or ride in the rain on long descents that need lots of braking to shave some speed, disc brakes are better. In such conditions v-brakes will take new pads weekly and wear rims quickly as well.

I ride v-brakes all year long, but don't go into mountains when it's snow and rain - commute is flat. So I'm more than happy with v-brakes. Simpler, cheaper, not so tempting for thieves as disc brakes...

Uhm. This is a bad idea.

https://www.rodbikes.com/articles/brakes.html

One thing I noticed with the BB7 was my old shimano(2002 era) brake lever did not do them justice. Switching to new avid levers greatly increased the bb7 performance (and the shorty cantilevers in the rear as well).

We have two tandems. One has V-brakes the other Avid BB7 discs. The tandem with V-brakes regularly pulls a BOB Yak loaded 30lbs over its rated weight limit. Captain ~200lbs. Stoker ~150lbs (she's a bodybuilder) Tandem 65lbs Trailer ~15lbs + load 100lbs and it can all be stopped (easily if not quickly) by one (front) V-Brake working correctly. We love the Avid discs on the road tandem, when we broke four spokes on the back wheel, the bike was still ridable. That said we have never, ever broken spokes on the far cheaper knock around tandem with the v-brakes even though we load it to death and ride it on urban roads. The short wheelbase of a single bike means that all that awesome stopping power of a disc is limited to what the tires can handle and the physics of centers of gravity etc. I can't see making a clear call with all those variables in the formula. Decent V-brakes, we scrapped the OEM v-brake calipers for some Shimano ones, not because better v-brakes stop any better but the return springs on the better v-brakes were much better at returning the calipers to their at rest setting against the drag of a tandem length brake cable. Enough money thrown at any brake technology will get you decent performance and these days one can spend about the same amount of money on v-brakes as discs if one wants but I can't honestly see a difference between $30 ea. Shimano V-Brakes and $70 ea. Avid BB7 cable actuated discs. And that's on a tandem. On a single with less than half the wheelbase... there is no difference... Neither do discs have any advantages in setup etc. Rotors can warp and cables stretch and both technology's have to be set up with care to extract maximum potential.

H

In addition to better stopping in wet weather, you won't wear out your rims with disc brakes. Another vote for hydraulic brakes, here. Using Shimano SLX hyrdos for a couple years now, and they have worked flawlessly. Only maintenance was bleeding out some air that got into the front brake line when the hoses were shortened (10 minute job), and replacing worn out pads (5 minute job). The brakes are self adjusting for wear, so there is really nothing to do once they are set up. Bonus to disc brakes is you can run 700c and 26" wheels on the same bike, so changing from road to offroad riding is accomplished by swapping wheels (3 minute job).