February 13, 20206 yr Hi all, The above bike is new. With, obviously, new brakes. Which, being new, aren't bedded-in. However. The shorty trials so far tried out suggest that the Tektro hydraulic brakes it has are rather underwhelming in their stopping power, even allowing for their newness. Which has led me to a fundamental question to this forum's wise old heads. It's this. Are alternative brake systems of discs, callipers, levers, all equally fittable to bikes of this model? The two points of possible mismatch might seem to be the attachment of disc to hub and calliper to fork slider/leg. And similar at the rear wheel. I'm hoping these are industry-standard so that system-shifts are easy. Can anyone confirm that this is so? Also hoping that the bed-in shows a decent improvement in road behaviour. (I'm no lightweight so these brakes will have a higher duty cycle than most.) That's it, glad finally to have taken the plunge and splashed on a crank drive machine. K.
February 13, 20206 yr you need to find a stretch of safe road without traffic, run the bike up to 15mph then brake sharply, then repeat. I usually bed in the rear brakes first, then the front brakes. The bedding process is very quick, you only have to repeat about 10 times on each. After that, the brakes should work OK-ish. It will get sharper still in the following few days. If the levers feel squidgy, then you have air in the reservoir. You need to vent/burp it and top up the oil.
February 13, 20206 yr With my Shimano base level twin port Hyd disc brakes I have no issue with bedding in new pads, they work first time out for me.
February 14, 20206 yr Author Hi welcome to the site Thanks for the replies chaps.. but nobody has answered my question... Re whether one brake system is easily replaced with another...IE are the mounting points in the bike generic or brand-specific? Which was what I was after., not how to to bed-in new brakes. (Been on the roads now for 52 years, no newbie me.) But with bike disc systems, although the principle is just a toy-town version of motorcycle brakes, the conventions might well differ. (I'm a cyclist, ex-motorcyclist, and motorist all rolled into one) So can I decide at some point to bin "wot I got" and stick on something better without mismatches when fitting components?
February 14, 20206 yr Re whether one brake system is easily replaced with another...IE are the mounting points in the bike generic or brand-specific? they are generic. Tektro (typically Tektro Draco) usually have postmount. Try to get something with similar shape and size to your Tektro, you won't have to hunt for longer bolts. If you are not sure, post the link to what you want to use in its place here.
February 14, 20206 yr The mounts for disc brakes are standard, post or iso (side mount). You just need the right mount application as yours currently have.
February 15, 20206 yr So can I decide at some point to bin "wot I got" and stick on something better without mismatches when fitting components? Yes, Neal's answer is spot on. If you have what you consider to be "toy town" brakes you certainly need to do that.
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