Guys- I know, I know, hydros are better, especially if you are doing downhills long enough to wear pads... But out of a desire to tinker, I was thinking of how to get really everything out of a set of BB7's, in terms of controllable power and weight reductions. I was wondering what you all thought of each option...
1) Take the brakes apart, and get down to the ramp that rides on the ball bearing inside and pushes the moving pad into the disc. Polish the ramp to a high gleam to reduce friction. I heard of someone doing this- he said that afterwards the brakes had significantly higher stopping power.
2) Use the road version of the BB7 with a cantilever brake lever set. The geometry of a cantilever lever is actually much more ergonomical than that of a V-Brake lever- compare, say, an XTR V-Brake lever with its pivot way near the handlebar. Now draw an imaginary straight line from the center of that pivot to the point where you pull the brakes. If you imagine another imaginary line which represents the line your finger describes as it pulls on the brake, you will see the angle between the two lines is not so flat, which means you are losing power.
Do the same exercise for, say, an old DiaCompe SS-5 lever and you will see the difference.
For a lot of people, short-pull levers are also more comfortable.
3) Use the best cables, and install them properly. One thing I have noticed on a lot of BB7 setups is that the cable housing is generally smaller than the cable housing stop on the BB7, which allows the housing to squirm some, leading to mushiness and reduced braking power. Use a bigger ferrule, and if the i.d. of the larger ferrule is too big for the cable housing, make up the difference with epoxy glue. Or use Flak Jackets with Nokon cables.
4) Use better pads. I have only ever used stock ones.
5) Use lightweight rotors. One weak point of the BB7 is its weight- and the easiest way to cut weight it seems is at the rotor.
6) Use the most powerful brake levers. The most powerful V-Brake lever is the older-style (c. 2003) Shimano LX lever, and the most powerful cantilever levers are any of the SLR-Plus canti levers from the early to mid-90's before V-Brakes took over. Both of them are a little chunky, though, compared to other choices. Another thing is that just using a more powerful brake lever will definitely give you more stopping power, but that pure clamping force is not the limiting factor anymore- when going down a long hill when you have to use the brakes a ton and the rotors get heated up, having a lever that squeezes harder is not going to help you.
1) Take the brakes apart, and get down to the ramp that rides on the ball bearing inside and pushes the moving pad into the disc. Polish the ramp to a high gleam to reduce friction. I heard of someone doing this- he said that afterwards the brakes had significantly higher stopping power.
2) Use the road version of the BB7 with a cantilever brake lever set. The geometry of a cantilever lever is actually much more ergonomical than that of a V-Brake lever- compare, say, an XTR V-Brake lever with its pivot way near the handlebar. Now draw an imaginary straight line from the center of that pivot to the point where you pull the brakes. If you imagine another imaginary line which represents the line your finger describes as it pulls on the brake, you will see the angle between the two lines is not so flat, which means you are losing power.
Do the same exercise for, say, an old DiaCompe SS-5 lever and you will see the difference.
For a lot of people, short-pull levers are also more comfortable.
3) Use the best cables, and install them properly. One thing I have noticed on a lot of BB7 setups is that the cable housing is generally smaller than the cable housing stop on the BB7, which allows the housing to squirm some, leading to mushiness and reduced braking power. Use a bigger ferrule, and if the i.d. of the larger ferrule is too big for the cable housing, make up the difference with epoxy glue. Or use Flak Jackets with Nokon cables.
4) Use better pads. I have only ever used stock ones.
5) Use lightweight rotors. One weak point of the BB7 is its weight- and the easiest way to cut weight it seems is at the rotor.
6) Use the most powerful brake levers. The most powerful V-Brake lever is the older-style (c. 2003) Shimano LX lever, and the most powerful cantilever levers are any of the SLR-Plus canti levers from the early to mid-90's before V-Brakes took over. Both of them are a little chunky, though, compared to other choices. Another thing is that just using a more powerful brake lever will definitely give you more stopping power, but that pure clamping force is not the limiting factor anymore- when going down a long hill when you have to use the brakes a ton and the rotors get heated up, having a lever that squeezes harder is not going to help you.