Hey, new member here.

I just broke down and bought an Avid mechanical disc brake with 160mm rotor and a Ritchey WCS front disc wheel for my Trek Fuel (front wheel only for now). Got the caliper, rotor and hardware for $69 from Pricepoint.

I was just wondering if anybody here has any setup tips they'd like to pass along? I'm curious about how to route and secure the brake housing.

Well the setup if the actual brake is super easy (Yes Raiyn i know). Just make sure the caliper is centered on the 51mm adapter! For cable routing look to sheldon brown
http://sheldonbrown.com/cables.html
The best part of setup with avids is the centering feature, so use it to your advantage

The surly fork I just put on my stumpjumper touring bike had 2 awesome lugs for zip tying your cable to the fork... It' looks BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Expect to get some SEVERE sqealing for the first 50 stops or so... Mine sounded so bad I thought I had made a SEVERE mistake but I washed the bike and jacked the speed up to about 15 MPH or so and braked HARD.... really hard. My bike and I weigh about 300# and the severe stops put an end to the sqealing... Funny enough though is now, instead of sqealing, it kinda sounds like a long fart... Oh well.. it's better than the sqealing.
Did I mentioned that my brakes sqealed REALLY loud when I first got them going????
D

Ok here's how I route mine:
Green = Housing
Red = zipties.
I also used some "problem solver" cable guides that mount in the holes left by the V-brake bosses for a cleaner look. Everything else follows the stock V-brake route
http://img225.exs.cx/img225/3667/cableroute9ue.jpg
http://img225.exs.cx/img225/1845/cableroute27vz.jpg
http://img225.exs.cx/img225/1001/cableroute36rw.jpg

Like people have said the set up is pretty straight forward.

One of the more interesting techniques for routing the cable I have seen was posted on the MTBR forum.

Someone cut the end of a cable housing stop and used a small zip tie to make a cable guide. It is probably easier to understand if you see it.

http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.ph...+guide+ferrule

I hope it is O.K. to cross reference another forum.

Happy braking,

GF

Woah thats really nice! I might give that a shot

I think this is one of the reasons given for this set up. It is supposed to reduce cable rub. I am going to try it myself this season.

I have been thinking of doing the front disc with the same setup. Anyone know how much weight you add with this. Right now I have XTR brakes on the front that would obviously come off. Suggestions on a good, light, faily inexpensive disc wheel/hub setup would be appreicated too.

Thanks for those directions! That's what I wanted to know when I posted the question. And that cable guide is a nice touch. I'll give it a try when I do the install. I'm supposed to get the parts on Wednesday.

I haven't told my SO that I bought a new brake set. I wonder how long it'll take her to notice. :eek:

Got the Avid disc and caliper today. Installation was a breeze, especially with the official instructions. Took me less than one hour to install. Here's a few pics. It's snowing out tonight so I couldn't try 'em out, but hopefully this weekend.

Thanks for all the advice. :)