mechanical -> Hydro brake conversion. is it possible ?

[Diamondback]

hi all.

today while i was installing a new set of high rise handlebars, i noticed that one of my brake / shift levers is cracked.
i have no idea how this happened, as it's never been dropped or knocked over.

anyway, now that im "e" powered, and the bike is heavier than it was before, i am considering a possible
upgrade to a hydro setup.

my bike has 160mm mechanical Tektro Novela rotors and callipers.
the shifter / brake lever is by shimano and has V brake written on it, even though it's factory fitted to
the bike which had disc brakes.

these are the setup that's on the bike now.

my question is can i upgrade this system to a hydro system ?

i know that shimano makes combined hydro brake / gear levers.
if i was to buy a kit for a 3 x 8 , can i just bolt this on in place of my existing mechanical brakes ?

something like this maybe ? SHIMANO DEORE XT ST-M765 SHIFTERS and BR-M765 brake callipers ?

i don't need earth shattering stopping power, just a nice strong action.

Jason.

 

[neptronix]

haha.. i got the same levers on my bike.. and frankly.. you are kinda boned.

When you buy a hydraulic disc brake, you get a lever with it. I am not sure of the levers are proprietary, but it would not surprise me.

You will have to replace your gear shifter too. Fun, right?
Optionally, you can go to a single speed front gear, that's how i am doing it..


BTW, a nice upgrade for dual mechanical disc brakes simply be larger rotors, and larger disc brake adapters to make the rotors work ( i got some for free at a bike shop from their used parts bin. )

 

[Diamondback]

yeah, i realise ill have to replace the whole lever / shifter mechanism, as they are one piece.

I've just been googling, and found that shimano makes a dual control hydro lever.
might see how much that would cost in a complete kit. front and rear with callipers etc.

off to the LBS tomorrow i guess.

it's funny. there are two shops near me, both within one block of each other.
one has basically embraced the ebike, and even has one mechanic that specialises in ebikes.

the other one, i always get "the look" when i go in there to look for bits and pieces.

guess which one gets most of my money ? :wink:

Jason.

 

[1000w]

Chain reaction cycles may be helpful. They have a few different models from Shimano.
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=25712
Cheers,
Matt.

 

[Diamondback]

thanks.

ill check them out.

i figured i would need the shimano levers because of having shimano derailleur's and gear sets ?

Jason.

 

[neptronix]

it's funny. there are two shops near me, both within one block of each other.
one has basically embraced the ebike, and even has one mechanic that specialises in ebikes.

the other one, i always get "the look" when i go in there to look for bits and pieces.

Let them ride it, if is reasonly safe to ride . They'll get it. And the guy who came back with the eBike grin on his face will spread the word.
Strangely enough, the snooty racer bike shop in my area is hipper to eBikes than the local 'big corporation' one is..

 

[Diamondback]

the owner of the store wouldn't ride it even if i offered him a go.

it's nothing special, just a 550W ezee kit.

anyway, ill go about looking for hydro's tomorrow. see what i can find that doesn't cost the earth.

jason

 

[dogman dan]

At first the best lbs in town gave me the snooty treatment.

Then they realized how often I was back with another purchase in mind. Actually riding longer distances is great for thier buisness! Now they still think I'm a kook, but love to see me walk in the door.

 

[John in CR]

I've just been googling, and found that shimano makes a dual control hydro lever.
might see how much that would cost in a complete kit. front and rear with callipers etc.

When I read that, I thought front and rear all in one (not one lever) could be cool, maybe a near normal lever combined with an additional index finger trigger or maybe a thumb push. Two hands for two brakes kinda sucks, but we do need separate control of front and rear.

 

[Diamondback]

yeah, i could have been a little clearer on that one i guess....

having said that, i had a 2006 Yamaha FJR1300 that had linked braking.
the front lever would also apply the rear, but the rear one would only apply the rear brake.

it sounds a bit weird, but in practice it was a great system. took me only a few days to get
used to it, then i kinda took it for granted.

ill go ask at the LBS and see what i can come up with.
maybe just go hydro up front as the front does most of the stopping power.

i have not seen a dual control lever in person, so i have no idea how they feel, or operate.
from the little info i have found, the brake lever operates as usual, and you push the lever up or
down to shift gears.

ill go check out what my options are tomorrow. i don't have a huge budget for this either.....

jason

 

[thewmatusmoloki]

Hey Jason, I was recently looking for the same kind of brake upgrade.
I needed the gear lever and wanted to go hydraulic but don't have much cashola.
I found this on ebay and thought I'd give it a go...

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=360350711459

Front brake only and it's the wrong colour for me, but for 50 bucks delivered, I'm not too worried.
It should just bolt on in place of the mechanical caliper.
Hasn't arrived yet so can't comment on whether it's any good but I've already got a similar cheap shimano hydro caliper on the back and it works very well, can easily lock up the back wheel.

One thing I somehow have failed to notice until recently is that in America and possibly all other countries, the brake lever's are on the opposite side from us, they have the rear lever on the right so the front hydraulic cable on these brakes may not reach over and down to the caliper from the right hand side depending on how high your new higher bars are.

I've now got my brakes setup US style, but it can be dangerous if you don't keep in mind that the're the other way around.

Matt.

 

[Diamondback]

Thanks for the link.

I would probably have to get longer hose though.

Cheap enough.
I'll add it to my watch list and think it over.

Jason.

 

[Diamondback]

it's all done.

went into the LBS and the owner took me out the back and showed me a bunch of options.

ended up spending a bit more than i wanted, but i have now got the brakes that i feel
the bike needs. ill come back and add what type they are, the feel is heaps better than the cable brakes.
and the power of them is great too, and as an added bonus, they are quieter in operation.

the Tektro ones were a fair bit noisy. these are almost silent.

i had to get new shifters and separate hydro levers (due to cost reasons).
doing it that way was over $100 cheaper than the dual control levers.

it's all shimano stuff. probably not the greatest hydro's out there, but for my budget, they are a huge
upgrade on the cable setup.


here's some crap phone pics to show what is on the bike now.

still dunno exactly what version of the shimano hydro's they are, there's no name (apart from the Shimano logo)
on the callipers or levers. and the boxes are long gone !....

im going back to the LBS tomorrow, as they didn't set the rear gears right. the gear lever doesnt match the rear gear.
i can't select 2nd or 1st gears, and when the chain is in the 8th gear, i still have 3 clicks of gear lever left.

im sure it's a simple fix for them.

Jason.

 

[LegendLength]

Try doing the 3 adjustments for the rear derailleur before you take it to the store. You only need a small phillips head screwdriver.

The 3 adjustments are the high screw, low screw and cable tension. Nearly all derailleurs have these. The high & low screws are small screws next to each other and they control where the derailleur stops (e.g. they should be aligned to smallest and largest cog).

The cable tension adjustment you do by hand. It's located where the cable housing meets the derailleur. It changes the shift indexing.

It's worth taking the time to play around with these because you'll eventually want to fine tune your derailleur anyway. There's also a lot of videos on youtube describing the whole process.