Assembling bicycles with disc brakes

666bxg

Hi

How hard or complicated will assembling a bike with cable disc brakes be?

I've successfully assembled bikes before, but none of them had disc brakes.

Any advice / pointers welcome

cheers

Ciaran500

Its simple, if they were setup before it was disasembled you don't have to do anything with them, just put the wheel on and they work. If they haven't been setup you might have to adjust the pads, but thats also a simple job.

http://www.parktool.com/repair/byregion.asp?catid=14&imageField2.x=26&imageField2.y=9

666bxg

Ciaran500 wrote: »

Its simple, if they were setup before it was disasembled you don't have to do anything with them, just put the wheel on and they work. If they haven't been setup you might have to adjust the pads, but thats also a simple job.

http://www.parktool.com/repair/byregion.asp?catid=14&imageField2.x=26&imageField2.y=9

Thanks a lot for the tip Ciaran.

I'll give it a go and if I encounter any bother I'll ask here again

jozi

I've another disc related question. (hope you don't mind me chiming in on your thread)

Was recently looking at some bikes with hydrolic (sp?) discs and noticed like all other bike sold here that the right brake is the front. I've learned and spend my whole life cycling bike with right brake rear brake, left front. Is it a big job to switch them? If it were cable I'd have them done in a heartbeat but I've never touched hydrolic ones before.

I presume they will need new fluid and bleeding like car brakes would, is it the same fluid, equipment and method for bike brakes as for cars?

t0mm

What make of disc brake are they? Some you can just flip around, others will require to be bled and the hoses changed. You can buy bleed kits from big bike shops or else online. Check the park tool website for instructions.

jozi

I haven't bought the bike yet. Is it something you would get done by the bike mechanic or is it diy do-able? I've no problem fixing anything or building a bike, it prob wouldn't bother me to do it. I'll have a browse of the park tools website, never thought of looking there.

t0mm

Its not too bad, give it a go yourself and if you cock up you can drop it into your lbs.

Morgan

When you're buying the bike get the shop to set it up the way you want it.

jozi

Was looking at one of the bikes in Halfords and asked the guy there, he said they would need to get new cables to do. He didn't say it but I guess they would also charge for it. I'd feel better working on a bike myself than getting Halfords staff to do it, I'm sure there are good mechanics there but how am I to know that.