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- ferrari_chris
OK, so I decided it was time to upgrade my bike.
The mechanical discs just weren't cutting it any more, and it was time to go for something better. Something hydraulic. Something top end. I decided on the Avid Juicy Seven.
The one problem that was seen early is the fact that at present my brake lever and gear shifter are one unit on the handle bar. I knew this was going to be something of an issue, but wasn't aware how much...
Due to the price of this top of the line item, I decided to go for front only at this stage, then look at doing a similar setup on the rear sometime in the not-too-distant future. I wanted to go for 203mm at the front (upgrading from my 160mm disc at the moment) however my super-special stockist didn't have the 203mm. They will however have them in the future.
So, armed with this information, the decision was made to go 160mm at the front and then get a 203mm rear later on. When the rear comes, I'll put the 203mm rotor on the front, and the current 160mm rotor on the rear.
So now that the gear had arrived safely, it was time to get into it. The sales pitch said the gear comes pre-bled out of the box and is ready to bolt on - that made things a bit easier. Accompanying the hardware was a handy installation manual - but who needs that?...
The gear:
My bike before, in a dirty (well loved) state:
Trainspotters will notice the non-standard seat. I had to buy a new one after I bent the original. Huge jump at the local BMX track
. My pride wasn't the only thing that got crushed... 
The current lever:
Those grazes and the cut grip (the other side it cut too!) come from going over the back at about 30kph trying to pull a wheelie down hill... Not a fun time.
The current rotor calliper setup:
First thing was off with the front wheel and off with the front rotor.
Old rotor:
Removing the rotor required the use of this special tool, lent to me by my friend.
Tool:
After removing the rotor - which was a fairly simple process of undoing the screws - the new rotor was screwed on using the screws provided. There was nothing wrong with the screws I took off, but I thought a new rotor deserved new screws.
The new rotor:
After installing the rotor, it was time for the calliper... First I diconnected the cable from the lever, then it was as simple as undoing the bolts holding the calliper to the adapter and the adapter to the fork. With that out of the way, it was time to bolt up the new one... The adapter was bolted back to the fork (there was no need to take it off in the first place) and the calliper bolted on. Bolts left snug (but not tight) at this stage to allow for adjustment later.
The wheel was put back in place, and it spins freely with no rotor scrap. Yay!
Flip the bike back over, and time to mount the lever. My original intention was to cut the old lever off, but I've decided to keep it there for now as it's out of the way. Shift the old lever assembly along the bar a little, run the cable up and attach the new lever. There was a little bit of fiddling with the position of the shifter and the new lever to ensure both worked OK together. This is where the latest problem became apparant... - but more on that later.
A little adjusting of the calliper, and then the bolts were tightened up.
All done in a little over an hour. Excellent!
My bike, all done:
So after a quick test ride how does it go? Crap! But that's just because they need to be bedded in - after a week or so and a bit of riding they should be right on the money...
Now, back to this extra brake lever/single shifter-lever problem. To get both the new lever and the original shifter mounted on the bar so both could function, neither are ergonomic to use. The lever sits too high for my liking, and rather than the old finger movement to change gears I now have to move my whole hand around the front of the bar. Hopefully this will only be short lived, as I'm looking into the next puchase/upgrade right away...
The new abortion of a lever/shifter assembly:
The new rotor/calliper combination:
So where to from here? Well, as I mentioned earlier the plan was to get the matching rear kit and install that. However, with the apparent crapness of the shifter/lever and the way they work together, next on the list is a SRAM shifter (probably X9) with a matching derailluer.
I'll post up the install of that when it's bought, here, and installed.
All things considered though, not a bad hour's work. I can't wait to give it a good blast though, even in this less than user-friendly state.
The mechanical discs just weren't cutting it any more, and it was time to go for something better. Something hydraulic. Something top end. I decided on the Avid Juicy Seven.
The one problem that was seen early is the fact that at present my brake lever and gear shifter are one unit on the handle bar. I knew this was going to be something of an issue, but wasn't aware how much...
Due to the price of this top of the line item, I decided to go for front only at this stage, then look at doing a similar setup on the rear sometime in the not-too-distant future. I wanted to go for 203mm at the front (upgrading from my 160mm disc at the moment) however my super-special stockist didn't have the 203mm. They will however have them in the future.
So, armed with this information, the decision was made to go 160mm at the front and then get a 203mm rear later on. When the rear comes, I'll put the 203mm rotor on the front, and the current 160mm rotor on the rear.
So now that the gear had arrived safely, it was time to get into it. The sales pitch said the gear comes pre-bled out of the box and is ready to bolt on - that made things a bit easier. Accompanying the hardware was a handy installation manual - but who needs that?...
The gear:
My bike before, in a dirty (well loved) state:
Trainspotters will notice the non-standard seat. I had to buy a new one after I bent the original. Huge jump at the local BMX track
. My pride wasn't the only thing that got crushed... The current lever:
Those grazes and the cut grip (the other side it cut too!) come from going over the back at about 30kph trying to pull a wheelie down hill... Not a fun time.
The current rotor calliper setup:
First thing was off with the front wheel and off with the front rotor.
Old rotor:
Removing the rotor required the use of this special tool, lent to me by my friend.
Tool:
After removing the rotor - which was a fairly simple process of undoing the screws - the new rotor was screwed on using the screws provided. There was nothing wrong with the screws I took off, but I thought a new rotor deserved new screws.
The new rotor:
After installing the rotor, it was time for the calliper... First I diconnected the cable from the lever, then it was as simple as undoing the bolts holding the calliper to the adapter and the adapter to the fork. With that out of the way, it was time to bolt up the new one... The adapter was bolted back to the fork (there was no need to take it off in the first place
) and the calliper bolted on. Bolts left snug (but not tight) at this stage to allow for adjustment later.The wheel was put back in place, and it spins freely with no rotor scrap. Yay!
Flip the bike back over, and time to mount the lever. My original intention was to cut the old lever off, but I've decided to keep it there for now as it's out of the way. Shift the old lever assembly along the bar a little, run the cable up and attach the new lever. There was a little bit of fiddling with the position of the shifter and the new lever to ensure both worked OK together. This is where the latest problem became apparant... - but more on that later.
A little adjusting of the calliper, and then the bolts were tightened up.
All done in a little over an hour. Excellent!
My bike, all done:
So after a quick test ride how does it go? Crap! But that's just because they need to be bedded in - after a week or so and a bit of riding they should be right on the money...
Now, back to this extra brake lever/single shifter-lever problem. To get both the new lever and the original shifter mounted on the bar so both could function, neither are ergonomic to use. The lever sits too high for my liking, and rather than the old finger movement to change gears I now have to move my whole hand around the front of the bar. Hopefully this will only be short lived, as I'm looking into the next puchase/upgrade right away...
The new abortion of a lever/shifter assembly:
The new rotor/calliper combination:
So where to from here? Well, as I mentioned earlier the plan was to get the matching rear kit and install that. However, with the apparent crapness of the shifter/lever and the way they work together, next on the list is a SRAM shifter (probably X9) with a matching derailluer.
I'll post up the install of that when it's bought, here, and installed.
All things considered though, not a bad hour's work. I can't wait to give it a good blast though, even in this less than user-friendly state.
So, wheel off and I jammed a screwdriver in between the pads, and gave it a twist to spread them out. Not much change... So I got the red packer that came with the brake (as seen above) and rammed that in between the pads. After a few squeezes of the lever to reset the fluid/pistons, all is good.
. Also removed the knobbly tioga mud tyres an put some Continental Double fighters on, more suited to tarmac and gravel.
