dgsmith15

I have a '06 Fisher Wahoo and it has rim brakes. I was curious, if I were to upgrade to disc, would I be able to use the same cables? Also, do I need new wheels? Thanks.

free_pizza

if you were upgrading to cable disc brakes, then yes, as long as the cable isnt super frayed at the ends and you have enough cable to spare.

You might need new Hubs, but you wont need new rims. Check on the left side of your hubs, if there are 6 holes on the side, then you do not need new hubs.


both are disc hubs, if your hubs look like either of these, you dont need new hubs.

dgsmith15

Okay, I checked and neither look like that. With that being said, how much of a pain in the ass is it to change the hub out. Should I attempt it myself or should I take it to the shop to be done. I have repair manuals etc.. but I certainly don't want to screw anything up. Also, how hard is it to transfer the cassette?

ed 

Actually, your cables are too short. They stop at the brake bosses right now. They need to go all the way to the dropouts.

Cables are relatively inexpensive. The wheel issue is a whole 'nuther animal. You can find a set of Specialized Stout hub/Deore hub with x317 rims fairly cheap on eBay b/c Specialized spec'd this on a gob of bikes and people are wanting to change to at least an XT level.

Search on eBay for them. They have been pretty reasonable and for someone with a tight budget, they should be okay.

free_pizza

ha! I didnt even think of that, and yeah, cables are pretty cheap, $2 or less each. You will need a longer housing lenght too, that might be $5 for each.

Jason222

Usually LBS's will charge for the hub, and then a nice hefty charge for labour(because they hate relacing wheels, it just takes so long). It might be a better idea to just upgrade your whole wheelset and get wheels with disc hubs.

santiago

Actually before you go out and get a new wheelset or disc brakes you have to first make sure that your fork and your frame have disc tabs.

If you have neither then you might as well forget it.

Here's a pic of a fork with disc brake tabs:

Tag1

The frame is disc-ready:

dgsmith15

Yeah, what he said.