Brakes

[Catrin]

I rode my Trek last week for the first time since bringing my LHT home - and noticed something about the brakes. Compared to my LHT, the brakes seem softer, slower to engage. Both bikes have trigger shifters and brakes - does this seem a normal variation or something I should check on?

Is this something "I" can check, or should I have my LBS look at it?

[KnottedYet]

Different bikes, different brakes, different tensions.

If you feel you have good control with each and can stop completely, I wouldn't worry much.

I just got new brake pads and my brakes feel completely different than they did 14 hours ago.

[Catrin]

Different bikes, different brakes, different tensions.

If you feel you have good control with each and can stop completely, I wouldn't worry much.

I just got new brake pads and my brakes feel completely different than they did 14 hours ago.

Thanks - I will keep this in mind the next time I take it out. Sadly the Trek feels like this huge cumbersome, too-large beast of a thing after my LHT - and it is the aluminum bike! I can't talk about it too much though, it is the bike on which I learned how to ride.

[DebW]

Some of the Trek hybrids and comfort bikes have springs in the brakes to make the mushy. They just never will feel solid like a good brake should.

[Catrin]

Some of the Trek hybrids and comfort bikes have springs in the brakes to make the mushy. They just never will feel solid like a good brake should.

Do you know if they do this for the Trek 7.6 FX? The 7.6 is pretty far up the FX line. I do not remember them being this mushy - but then again - until I put almost 400 miles on the LHT before touching the Trek again I did not have anything to compare against.

[OakLeaf]

Some of the Trek hybrids and comfort bikes have springs in the brakes to make them mushy.

What the ... Why would they do that?! Sounds like a lawsuit to me...

[DebW]

Those springs are only on the Navigators and maybe some of the lower level hybrids like the 7000, but not sure. A 7.6fx should have good solid brakes.

I think the idea on the Navigators is to soften the power of the front brake so people can't send themselves over the handlebars. Those bikes are made for occassional riders.

[tzvia]

When I bought my commuter project, a Fuji Newest 3, the brakes were horrible. Tectro cheapos with cheap pads, crummy rims and those 'cyclocross' bar top levers didn't make matters better. So when I changed out stuff with my left over parts, I kept the brakes but lost the bar-top levers, changed the brake pads to Koolstops, switched the cable housing to Shimano, and put on my spare wheelset with Mavic rims and braking feel improved dramatically. I was going to buy brakes at some point, but now I don't have to. They work fine. I suspect the biggest improvement was dumping the crap pads for the Koolstops; the salmon wet/dry up front, and the standard black in the rear.

I see the Trek has Tectro brakes- I would suggest changing out the pads with Swisstop or Koolstops as the Tectro pads suck IMO.

[KnottedYet]

I have koolstop salmon on my Tektros. Loooooooove them.

Catrin, if it's only that the two bikes feel different don't worry about changing anything. But if your Trek (it's what, 3 months old?) doesn't stop when you want it too and you're whaling on the brakes but the bike is still rolling, then you will want to do something about it.

Did you take the Trek in to get its cables adjusted a month or so after you bought it?

When the cables on a new bike stretch, things can get sloppy.

[sarahspins]

Since getting used to caliper brakes (on my road bike and mixtes), v-brakes feel mushy... I think it has to do with the amount of cable travel. Your surly has canti brakes, right? Those are shorter pull than the v-brakes on the trek, and probably account for the difference..

[Catrin]

Since getting used to caliper brakes (on my road bike and mixtes), v-brakes feel mushy... I think it has to do with the amount of cable travel. Your surly has canti brakes, right? Those are shorter pull than the v-brakes on the trek, and probably account for the difference..

Ahhhh, I had not thought about that! Yes, my LHT indeed has cantis - and are nice and firm. I like them much better if that is what the difference is. Thanks for suggesting this as I had not considered it.

Getting to Knotted's question - the Trek's cables have been tightened again...and again...the shifter cables have been replaced several times. From the way it was shifting last week they need adjusting. Yet Again.

There has been no end of issues with the shifters on this bike but, of course, we were talking about my brakes... It took 4 visits to my old LBS to find that the RD had been incorrectly installed - which makes me wonder if other parts of the drive train were installed incorrectly. I don't go to that LBS any longer for maintenance work. Ok, I have that out of my system now