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How to adjust disk brakes on friends bike

10K views 4 replies 5 participants last post by  oldfurr 
#1 ·
My friend has got one of those cheapo bikes from Halfords. He says he doesn't need it for anything much more than riding to his GF's house, so I suppose that's okay. Trouble is that it has disc brakes on it made by some company called Artek.

Although they are not exactly good brakes, I'm sure they can be adjusted to have some sort of ability to stop the bike! Trouble is I'm not sure how. Can't find anything on the internet about how to centre them properly or adjust them.

I have discovered that these brakes are used on Mountain Boards and Dirtsurfers as well. Anyone here ever come across them before?
 
#3 ·
The cheapo ones usually have less user-friendly adjustments... look for a hex bolt/screw that may be on the side of the caliper. If you turn one of the pads may get closer/further away from the disc....
 
#4 ·
The arm of the caliper will be attached to the cable with a bolt/compression washer. You'll be able to increase/decrease cable tension by loosening the bolt and changing the place where it bolts down onto the cable. There may be a barrel adjuster where the cable mounts onto the caliper and also where the cable goes into the brake lever on the handlebar. Turning the barrel adjuster anti-clockwise should give you more cable tension, thus shifting the moving pad towards the rotor. (I'll assume that the inboard pad is fixed).

Pictures would indeed be helpful.
 
#5 ·
I know this is an old thread but it was one of the first non-video results to come up in my search on this subject so wanted to get this in here for other Artec disc brake users. Major adjustments on Artec Vigorous brakes are made from the back side ( large adjusting plug ) using an Allen wrench. There is a tiny Allen head set screw hidden away in a fold of the downward end of the caliper body casting that must be released to turn the adjusting plug. I must remove the caliper from the bike to remove the set screw due to my hand & tool being too large to access the set screw when the caliper is mounted, so I remove the caliper, loosen the set screw, slip the caliper back on, adjust the large adjusting plug, remove caliper, tighten set screw, properly re-attach the caliper.
 
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