sjanzeir

They'll let you know when they want to be changed. Don't give it any more thought than that.

Cnguyen323

Thanks. For mech brake maintenance it’s mostly pad wear/position and cable tension that need regular attention right?

cyccommute 

Yes, but…. “Regular” is a relative term. I’ve had mechanical discs for about 10 years and have yet to adjust a pad or cable due to wear. I get similar wear out of rubber pads on rim brakes. If you grab the brakes at the top of a hill and drag them to the bottom any pad will wear quickly. If you brake hard, get off the brakes, and then brake hard, pads last much longer.

Kapusta

Yes. How often will vary based on your circumstances. If you turn the pads in one click and they are rubbing, you know you can wait longer to check them. I don't really keep track of my mileage all that much, but I would guess I tweak the adjusters on BB7s on my road/gravel bike every few hundred miles (never really need to mess with the cable tension as these have an outboard pad adjuster). On my MTB I do it pretty often, like every few rides if I am in the mountains.

Cnguyen323

I’m gonna have to try that braking method. I’ve been holding a bit on steep descents where I feel uncomfortable.

rekmeyata

Yes, that is the correct method. When I used to race in California, our team coach told us about that method, but back then it was more about keeping the rims as cool as possible because tubular tires were known to blow off when the rims got too hot. I remember getting my first set of Mathhauser salmon pads, and those pads lasted a very long time, I'm talking like 10 or more years, and this was with racing and training in mountains! What's really interesting, the same method works for cars and big trucks, big trucks is especially important so as not to smoke the brakes and lose all braking.

sjanzeir

I wonder if one could design a simple, lightweight mechanism that involves the tire pump being mounted on the non-driveside seat stay, which the rider could activate with a control not unlike the ones they use for controlling dropper posts; when activated while going downhill, the rear wheel would quickly cycle the tire pump, creating what would amount to a bicycle jake brake.

rekmeyata

I don't know about how big trucks work, I do know that jake brake is an engine brake, I have seen truckers using the jakes going down steep California grades and still smoke the brakes, while others didn't; my friend use to drive big trucks said some drivers just never get it right no matter how long they've been driving big trucks, yet it's simple to do, strange.


Not sure how that system you're talking about would work, though, why not create a system where, like a fixed bike that will lock up the back wheel when you stop pedaling, you instead activate a switch and then stop pedaling, or pedal in reverse, but instead of locking it up it just slows you down. But all that sort of stuff would add even more money, more complication, more maintenance, and more repair costs to bikes than there already is that were supposed to be a simple and reliable form of transportation.

I see a time coming when bicycle marketing forces will try to brainwash us again into accepting a form of a CVT transmission for bikes as the next greatest thing, maybe within a system like that something could be built into slow down the bike. That would be ok for heavily loaded bikes and tandems, but for regular road bikes not so much, but then you could still have an issue with reliability and breakdowns of such a nature you can't repair it on the side of the road, not good if you're touring. When the bike manufacturers stop seeing a rush for the electronic schitting system, and sales start to decline, out will come the CVT or something akin to that.

Having lived and rode in a mountainous area for about 30 years, a tire blowing from heated up rims was actually quite rare, the biggest issues was with tandem bikes and some loaded touring bikes, but not common among regular road bikes, it wasn't until CF rims came out that issues came up, that was due to CF being unable to dissipate the heat as fast as AL could, that's the main reason disk brakes came out for road bikes, so liability issues involving delamination of CF rims from heat of braking would be eliminated, plus the rim pads they had for CF rims would not stop the bike as fast as the rubber pads used on AL rims; so disk brakes killed 2 birds with one stone.

sjanzeir

base2 

Coaster brakes & Nuvinci's
LOL

rekmeyata

Yes, wouldn't that be great?

Nuvinci's system was far too heavy, plus they're having all sorts of issues with it people are complaining about. Nuvinci has been working on this for years and they still don't have a good unit. Rattleak NuVinci | cycling & bike commuting with NuVinci N360 This reliability problem reminds me of Nissan cars with the CVT, total crap.

With a coaster brake built into a CVT, you would have the best of both worlds.

base2 

Nuvinci's system is very heavy. I had high hopes for it. I really did.

In 2018, I had one imported from Holland Bike Shop dot whatever at a cost of $400. $200 later I had a wheel & gave the whole system to my son. I rode it a few times. It was a friction box. Unsuitable for a leg powered commuter bike. I couldn't bring myself to be ok with it. Neither could my son, apparently. We quickly found other options.

Fast forward to about 3 weeks ago, a very eccentric gentleman customer at the Co-Op was raving about this "exotic tech" he just couldn't find & was willing to top dollar to anyone who can find one...$500 later I'm taking the Nuvinci and a recently overhauled Alfine 8 speed off the pegs in the garage.

I wish him, the 7 horse-power chainsaw motor, ( ) and the 19-oh-something motorcycle he's going to hook it all up to all the luck in the world.

Good riddance!