Anyone know anything about disc brakes?

Watch the pads as you squeeze the levers, they should feel easy until the pads contact the rotor then get nice and firm (is the nurse still in) quite quickly. If they feel squishy after that I'd say air in the system, if not I reckon pad contact adjustment, or carefully bodge as I said earlier.

I played with another set after posting that earlier and they also had massive lever throw but then worked well, you'd probably get used to it, shimano knows best.

All Shimano hydraulic with an adjuster does fuck all which is really annoying.

Hope rotor are skinnier, we used a weird hope tool to push the piston in a bit.

In a bit for thinner rotors?

@hippy

Check @alb 's posts on this thread, am sure he had a tip for this.

Yes, that tool allow us to push it in a bit more, then the pads will be a little closer to the rotor with Shimano rotor.

Eh? Shirley you allow the pistons out further for the pads to be closer to the rotor.

I had Shimano mechanical discs on my touring bike (6800 series). They worked but I've only ever been impressed by them when descending in the wet with fatboy (me) and luggage on board. I was talking to a guy at a roadside coffee stall and he suggested Avid BB7 calipers. Ordered them from Chain Reaction (nice surprise price included new discs as well as calipers). Just back from my first hilly ride with them and the improvement is astonishing - silent, great feel, progressive and almost as good as the exalith thing that Mavic do (which is, by the way, the best rim braking I've ever had)

I don't know what they're meant to feel like - rim brakes, me. Mostly the huge lever throw I guess.

Yeah, they firm up on the discs, but the lever is way close to the bars by this stage. Lever throw issue.

Handlebar shape issue?

Why are the adjuster's screwdriver slots so fucking skinny?

OK, the reach adjuster is useless - it brings the lever closer to the bars which means it bottoms out.

Wonder if it should be screwed in and then the brakes bled?

http://forums.roadbikereview.com/components-wrenching/shimano-r785-disc-levers-have-excessive-free-stroke-343759.html

After you do a complete, thorough, and correct bleed, pump the lever a few times with the system closed. Then (keeping the lever end closed) open the bleed valve at the caliper and force some more fluid into the caliper. Don't push the syringe as hard as you can or anything, but push hard enough that you can see and feel a small amount of fluid enter the caliper. Close valve and check lever pull now. I have done this a few times on various shimano systems to get a really "high and hard" lever. Seems to work.

I have some cantis in my parts bin that should stop you ..

Troll.jpg

Looking that way. Fuck discs.

Reach adjuster is useless, it move everything closet rather than just the levers (SRAM does this better).

The article you posted is the best way to do it, I'm gonna bookmark that.

It must be possible as my R785 levers have exactly the right amount of play. Mine were set up at Brixton Cycles so maybe worth getting another mechanic to have a look (I've no idea how much Scherrit has of hydraulic discs though).

He knows more than me but even I've done my Maguras so I know there's not much else to be done to them. Maybe the system just needs to settle and I'll do a top-up bleed with the levers squished like the article linked. The pistons move as soon as the levers move they're just too far from the disc. Looks like I'll be fucking off the TCR altogether or riding something else anyway but I've just lost another weekend.

Did you try taking the wheel off and giving them a squeeze, that would make the pads self adjust further in and pull more fluid from the reservoir, so the pads will sit closer to the rotor and lever throw should be less, if you wanted you could probably put another drop off fluid in the system after.

Has anyone run the Shimano road discs without the little pad springs? Do they vibrate annoyingly? They sound like they will.

I'm thinking about removing these springs so they don't hold the pads out from the discs so much.

I don't have any of the bleed kit handy so it'll have to wait but I was thinking of using a smaller spacer block and then adding more fluid with the method linked above.

That won't work, it's the pistons that are the important part.