New wheels - do I need to adjust brakes?

LpPepper

Picking up a new set of wheels later in the week - Mavic Aksium elites... Just wondering if I'll need to adjust my brakes on the bike when I put the new wheels on? Sorry if it's a stupid question!

cython

LpPepper wrote: »

Picking up a new set of wheels later in the week - Mavic Aksium elites... Just wondering if I'll need to adjust my brakes on the bike when I put the new wheels on? Sorry if it's a stupid question!

There's no simple answer unfortunately, you may need to adjust either or both of the width/opening of the calipers (if the rim is a different width to your existing wheels), or the alignment of the pads w.r.t. the braking surface (in theory both wheels' braking surface should follow the same path/arc, but in practice this can vary subtley, especially if the rim width differs as mentioned, since the brakes will make contact at a different part of their swing).

Realistically you'll probably need to lash the wheels on the bike and see then.

mathie

Sorry to derail but ...

Do you need to check the spoke tension of new wheels?

07Lapierre

mathie wrote: »

Sorry to derail but ...

Do you need to check the spoke tension of new wheels?

No

manwithaplan

You'll probably be grand - unless your old wheels were deep section jobs where the rim widens out or something, any changes should be well within the tolerance of the adjusters on your calipers. Even if you need to adjust beyond that, brakes are a piece of piss to fiddle with.

OldBean

Should be grand, but if you've enough time to check posts on a forum about it, you've enough time to adjust them to make sure and give a quick tighten/service while you at it.

NeedMoreGears

I swap between Zondas and Shimano basic wheels. The braking surfaces are in a slight different location for each wheel set. I'd say there's a difference of a little over 1mm. It takes about 5 seconds per wheel to turn the little screw on the side of the brakes to re-center the brakes.