Subtitled, "Oh my god, how do I stop this thing?"
When it comes to stopping a bike, I am a bit of a luddite. I have ridden two bikes with disc brakes, one was a Jamis Dakar, borrowed from Dr. Michele for a coupe rides in Phoenix, and the other was a Salsa El Mariachi, belonging to my son, Sean, which I rode about 100 yards. I've used center and side pull road brakes, cantelever brakes and a few kinds of V brakes. The absolute worst were center pull road brakes on steel rims in the rain. Commuting rain or shine in Portland, okay rain or cloudy, I had a morning descent down a hill on Portland's Interstate hill. With that setup, the only way to stop when wet was to begin braking at the top of the hill, keep full pressure all the way down, then drag feet at the bottom, ala Fred Flintstone. The alternative was to say a few Hail Mary's and hope to god the light would be green at the bottom. It was an experience designed to maintain high blood pressure for the rest of the day.
Everything beyond that brake setup was an improvement. I eventually evolved to V brakes and even put a Shimano XTR brake on the front of Mr K. I used the XTR for a couple of years, but never got rid of squeal or a nasty scraping sound that told me I was chewing through the front rim. Somewhere along the way, I read something that said the XTR pads were designed for ceramic coated rims. Knowing that ceramics are used for plates and bowls, I couldn't imagine riding around on a dinner plate. So I backslid and put the original STX brake back on the Mr. K. It squealed no matter how I adjusted it, so I used that noise as my bike bell. Coming up behind a pedestrian? Hit the brake, EERRRCH. Enough noise to scare anyone.
A few months ago, I bought some brake pads at a mini-mall bike shop at 67th Ave and Deer Valley in Glendale AZ. At $7 a pair, I thought they were pretty reasonable. They turned out to be the best pads I've ever had. They never squeal and they have great stopping power and modulation. I need to go buy a bunch of them, 'cause with my luck, they'll be discontinued just before I need another set.
I thought about going to discs once, and started to add up what it would take; in addition to the brake sets, new hubs, new fork with attachment points, new frame with attachment points... Wait a minute, that sounds like a whole new bike! Maybe when Mr. K gives up the ghost.
An intriguing feature of the brake levers on Mr. K are the little stickers that say Servo-Action and the little bolt that fits in 3 positions, kind of like a pair of channel lock pliers. Having been around the block a few times, I know what a Servo is, and I understand the concept of Action as oposed to stasis, so I experimented with the positions and absolutely could not tell a difference between them. Being a middle of the road kind of guy, I set the bolt in the middle position and there it stays. Servo-Action. Damn marketing geeks can't leave anything alone!
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2 comments:
I'd just like to say that discs are the best mountain biking related thing that's ever happened to me. I'd give up my suspension(on the bike that has it) before I'd go back to rim brakes. This also goes for any future bikes, including road and cross.
Yeah, but you're not a luddite.
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