Upgrading hydraulic brakes - dIY

[TrailSeeker]

Hi everyone!

So my brakes in the back were squealing really bad (I used car brake cleaner and about to go see if that did the trick or not)...

Anyway, it had me thinking of upgrading my disc brakes but I was unsure of several things and wanted to see the communities thoughts.

1. Obviously a lot more expensive if this is available but I heard having 2 piece rotors was a huge advantage. Is this something I could do myself and would be worthwhile to increase performance?

2. If I do upgrade the caliper and whole braking system, are semi-metallic that much better? I know they'll last longer and some have said how quiet the can be for routine braking - but before I do that I wanted to see if the cost to benefit ratio was there.

3) most important is this an easy DIY project I can do at home? I also imagine I have to drain the hydraulics and bleed the valves first. Will I have to put in new cabling through the frame or any other tricky business?

Thanks everyone, sorry for the longer post but I'm new to biking and it's hard to find some of this stuff online. Everyone here is great though! I hope I can return the favor someday

 

[RunForTheHills]

You can definitely do it yourself at home. You may need to buy some tools if you don't have them. A workstand is helpful, but not required.

Two piece rotors will need less truing. They won't improve your braking performance.

Semi-metallic pads will last longer and be noisier. Organic pads are quieter. You do not need to replace the calipers to replace the pads and pads are inexpensive.

You don't need to bleed the brakes to replace pads or rotors. However, if the brakes feel squishy, you may need to bleed them. If you replace the calipers and trim the tubes shorter, you will need to bleed the brakes. Bleeding brakes is not a difficult procedure. There are lots of Youtube videos on how to do it. We would need to know more about which make/model of bike and brakes you have now and what brakes you want to replace them with to answer questions about routing the brake tubing.

 

[RunForTheHills]

Also, if you are replacing the brake levers, keep in mind that ebike brake levers often have a motor cutoff switch built into them.

 

[TrailSeeker]

Thanks for your help @RunForTheHills! I think you answered everything i needed to know. So metallic might be even noisier it seems.

I think my plan for now is to just use what I have. I was thinking with winter coming up, that maybe I should upgrade but I don't think that's the case anymore, based on your answers.

Thanks for your help!

 

[RunForTheHills]

No problem. From your other thread, the Allant +7s has four piston Shimano brakes. Those are good brakes. You won't get much benefit, if any, from replacing them. You could replace the 180mm rotors with 203mm rotors to get a little bit more stopping power. You will have to install an adapter to the calipers to move their position further out. However, that will decrease the modulation of the brakes. If it ain't broke don't fix it.

 

[TrailSeeker]

I've got an allant+ 7s, but not sure what connector it uses. I can say it's a bosch performance speed motor. I think it's a 3rd generation. That's all I know though.

I'm not sure why I thought upgrading the brakes was important - I've just been reading a lot of MTB material, although the allant isn't a true hardtail - it's more an adventure/ gravel type. It is a whole lot of fun though!!!

 

[RunForTheHills]

Galfer makes 246mm, but I think it's a bit overkill.
So 223mm would be good enough.

Wave® Rotor 6-bolt 246mm x 2.3mm - DBP19005 - Bicycle Rotors ALL 6-BOLT Rotors

246mm fixed-mount Galfer USA rotor for extreme stopping power. Every high-quality, Galfer-patented Wave® rotor is made from a proprietary mix of virgin high carbon 420 stainless steel, laser cut (never stamped), double disc-parallel ground to assure perfect parallel flatness and heat treated to...

galferusa.com

You could put $8000 Brembo brakes on a Honda Civic. But why? If he isn't doing crazy fast technical downhill mountain biking, stopping 400 lbs of rider and cargo on a steep downhill, or some other unusual use case, why does he need gigantic non-standard rotors?

MTA: Also what will those oversize rotors do to the modulation of the brakes? Will he be able to feather them or will they be touchy and hard to use?

 

[RunForTheHills]

 

[TrailSeeker]

Hey guys, thank you both for your advice! They are hydraulics already but 180 rotors. I never thought of the modulation aspect before.

I'm going to have to test the ones I have now and see how they do. Right now I'm doing anything close to downhill single tracks lol. Someday I'd like to branch out and do more technical trails though.

I think for now I'm going to leave them as they are but I'm going to also checkout the ones you mentioned timpo. Thank you both!