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poor braking

Old 01-24-21, 03:32 PM
  #1  
Andy225
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poor braking

I bought a second hand Voodoo Bantu from a cycle shop recently as an upgrade to my old mtb and found that the hydraulics disc brakes poor, the levers require a decent amount of pressure to stop properly. I've taken it back to the shop and they cleaned the discs, changed the fluid and put new pads in to front and rear. It has made an improvement but still feels like it needs more pressure on the levers to work than I would of thought for hydraulics, my old bike had V-brakes and one finger on the lever would stop it easily, this bike easily needs double the effort maybe more. Do hydraulic brakes need more effort than V brakes or is this just a characteristic that Bantu mtb's have, I would be very grateful if anyone could give me advice, so if anything else needs sorting I can take it back to the shop before my warranty runs out, thanks Andy.
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Old 01-24-21, 04:48 PM
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Bill Kapaun
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Maybe your V brakes are better than average?
When I picked my nearly new condition, 5 yo hybrid, one could do an endo with 1 finger. The brakes were basically a grab with other than light pressure.
The rims had a "rough" machined brake track that was simply too aggressive.
One could say it had better brakes than most any disc bike.
HOW do they compare in controlled "panic" stops?
I know NOTHING about disc brake bikes. Does the lever have a return spring that's "too strong"?

Last edited by Bill Kapaun; 01-24-21 at 06:39 PM.
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Old 01-24-21, 05:28 PM
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I'd suggest you try a couple of other bikes with similar brakes. That's the only way you can know if your brakes are working "normally."
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Old 01-24-21, 08:26 PM
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Your Bantu comes w/ very much entry level Tektro brakes. The rotors have very little friction when compared to Shimano Ice Tech rotors for example. Shimano has entry level rotors like this as well...they pretty much suck compared to their mid range and higher parts. I have no idea which pads your shop installed on your bike but they could play a part in your less-than-spectacular braking performance.
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Old 01-24-21, 09:52 PM
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The Bantu is a lower initial cost bike, nothing great on it but for someone riding once and while an OK bike. Add on the fact it is used and you are even more likely to have issues with it. You could upgrade pads and rotors like cxwrench mentioned which will give a decent improvement but I would caution against putting a ton of money into this bike beyond little things like that. Save up some money and hopefully once this pandemic is over you can get yourself something special. Good high quality rim brakes that are properly set up are generally going to be better than entry level disc brakes that may not be.
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Old 01-25-21, 10:07 AM
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I had the same issue. New pads was the solution for me. Cleaning the old pads did not fix the issue.
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Old 01-25-21, 11:16 AM
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Originally Posted by masonv45
I had the same issue. New pads was the solution for me. Cleaning the old pads did not fix the issue.
You can scuff the glaze off pads that have been overheated but you can't clean contaminated pads.
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Old 01-25-21, 11:52 AM
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My first set and currently my only set of hydraulic disks are Shimano Ultegra R8070. When I first got the bike I didn't think they worked any better than my dual pivot rim brakes of my other bikes. However after about 300 miles they wore in and now they almost stop too well. It's taken a while for me to learn how to modulate the rear brake to prevent locking it up.

So you might just give it some time. Especially if you had them put new pads on it. You can wear them in by making some quick stops with hard braking, but to me that's just wearing them out quicker if your current braking power is good enough.
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Old 01-25-21, 04:20 PM
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Andy225
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Cheers, thanks everyone for the help, think maybe best thing for me to do is persevere with it and hopefully they will bed themselves in and get better or I'll get used to the extra effort required and develop a gorilla like grip in the process
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