Anyone know anything about disc brakes?

i can't fault the bb7's i've had on 2 bikes, an mtb and a jump bike
frequent heavy use for about 10 yrs still as good as the day i bought them

Yup, nice combo!

Sounds like I'll give the bb7s a try.
And if I don't succeed in making them satisfactory I stop the retro stuff and go shimano.

Spyres are superior to BB7s, in my experience. The mechanism on the Spyres actuates both pads, whereas the BB7 is a bit more crude and only actuates one pad. Which impacts modulation.

The main issue I had with them though, is that they require so much adjustment, literally pretty much after every ride on them. Binned them in the end and replaced with Spyres.

So cable is for people that like to fiddle and bb7 is probably more fiddling than spyre.
But both can be made to work.

Thanks everyone!

There's also an issue with judder from the pads of BB7 which is the same on their Juicy hydros, they are held on by a spring clip and nothing else.

Go Spyres for sure, they use the same pads as Shimano M515 and many others which is pretty decent.

I love both BB5 and 7.

Long time user and fan of BB7s.

There's a couple tricks to setting them up good but I don't get the 'adjust after every ride' thing that some people seem to report. They do have a really poor design oversight where the tab on the pad can hit an IS adapter meaning the pad sits squint but I just trim that tab down a bit.

Just tried BB5s recently (wanted to try drop bars on a disc brake bike so they were a cheap way to go) and I was nicely surprised. Bit more of a fiddle to set up than BB7s as they don't have the outboard pad adjuster dial but still plenty powerful and stuff.

Tried Spyres a while back, hated them. The 3mm allen bolts that adjust the position of the pads rattled loose on every ride meaning you'd start a ride with nice lever feel but finish it out with a lever that pulled all the way to the bar.

I’m thinking about swapping the rotors on my 2020 Supersix which currently has stock centrelock sram Avid 160mm to Centreline X with the cool black carriers - either all 160 or 160 front and downsize to 140 at the back to save a few grams.

Is there any point in this exercise? How hard would it be to change the rear down to 140?

Is there any point in this exercise?

No, sram rotors are good

How hard would it be to change the rear down to 140?

isnt your rear rear 140 already?

Nope, both 160, feels excessive tbh.

Keep 160, 140 always feels crap to me, and there's not really a massive weight saving

I've got some Shimano Deore (I think) hydros, still connected to the shifters, that have been in the shed for 5 or 6 years, what's the chances they're usable?

Would maybe take the pads out and put hydro oil around the pistons and wait a bit before trying.

.

love both BB5 and 7.

I love the BB5 more as the callipers flex less due to less moving part (as in only one pads adjustment).

I don’t get the adjust every ride thing either.

@c.h.e. cheers. I've not touched Hydros for years so I'm a little and maybe the brakes are too :-)

Shimano road hydro brakes - how do I know when the hose connector bolts (at the caliper and lever) are tight enough in the absence of a torque wrench? Is 'a bit painful with a little 8mm spanner' about right?

When you start to feel some resistance, give it a tweak. You need enough torque to compress the olive, but not enough to round the flats on the bolt going into the lever or caliper. There's a fairly wide margin for error, so just swing on it until it's nice and tight but not total bastard tight.

It's difficult to describe, but you want to feel like you're putting a bit of effort into tightening it without the veins bulging in your biceps/forehead.

Perfect. Thanks. This is reassuring.

There's a fairly wide margin for error

What post mount caliper would work with an shimano 8070 lever?

All the shimano ones really, but the cheaper ones don't use banjo hoses which might make things easier for you, so deore is probably best bet, 4 pot for all the powers.

I’m using one flat mount, one post mount annoyingly. So whatever one requires me buying the least stuff considering I’ll be buying for the flat mount anyway

Whatever non banjo one is available then, I think the last 2 deore iterations were designed with the BH90 hoses your levers are meant to use, I think all previous and lower tier stuff is BH59 but could be wrong.

His levers could have also been supplied with BH59...

The Shimano XTR M9100 XC Brake Caliper (post mount) uses flat mount format pads (so you only have to buy one sort of pads for your bike)

but it is a bit expensive.