louky

I do bikes for an unhoused organization. 90% of the bikes that get donated are "mountain bikes" almost all with V-brakes. I have 0 experience with discs. I recently got a donation of a disassembled "Schwinn Begass"; a very cheap, steel, 700c, road bike. The forks were out of the bike, front wheel off the bike. I got new bearings and spacers and got the fork reinstalled OK. I ran into trouble when trying to install the front wheel, as the disc wasn't aligning with the caliper. I took the caliper off to make sure the wheel fit OK in the forks and it did. I noted when I broke the caliper bolts, they came off hard, with a "snap", and felt as if they had not been broken since assembly. I have included a pic below, but it looks like I need spacers (maybe 1/4") between the fork mounting tabs and the brake itself. I checked the rear and there are no spacers and the disc lines up properly. It is always a mystery when you get something that someone else has disassembled and I am coming up short on this. I am sure I can stack some washers and get this to line up properly but I am worried I am missing something in the way I am looking at this.



Another mystery is that this seems to have the right hand brake operating the front. I thought maybe someone had flipped the brakes but it doesn't seem so by looking at the pic I pulled up. Begasso Shimanos Full Suspension Road Bike 21 Speed Disc Brakes, 700c-220lbs | eBay Thanks in advance!

cyccommute 

Let’s start with the set up. The first thing I noticed was that the caliper was slammed over too far to the left (red arrow). Then I noticed that the adapter isn’t contacting the disc brake tab on the frame (green arrow). The adapter should be tight against the frame before the caliper is aligned. You need to loosen the bolts on the caliper (yellow arrow), draw up the adapter tight to the frame and then proceed with alignment.



The caliper bolt has a bit of an odd hemispherical nature to it but that shouldn’t be a problem.

To align the caliper, follow most of this procedure. This brake is a copy of the BB5 which doesn’t have the outer adjuster on the pad but just skip the part of the procedure that addresses the outer adjuster. For these kinds of disc brakes, you can get better response if you adjust the inner pad in to about the 1/2 way point like in the procedure, then push the brake arm up (blue angle) 3 to 5° when you tighten up the caliper bolts. This sets the gap for the arm side nicely. You want both pads to run fairly close to the rotor but not rub. You may want to put a little tension on the caliper lever arm as well when you install the cable. These brakes tend to have a dead spot at the very end of travel and may not pull the cable back far enough which causes the handle bar lever to not return to the end.

Once you have the brake installed and aligned sight down between the rotor and pads to see if the rotor is straight. If not you may have to straighten it. Here’s the procedure for that.


As to the brake lever, it appears to be set up European or “moto” (for motorcycle). It’s not an issue but “right rear” is much more common in the US.

louky

Thanks for the prompt and concise answer! I was able to get everything assembled using your instructions. I will spend some time tomorrow doing the final adjustments on it.

Bill Kapaun

The description says FULL Suspension too. I don't think you should rely on the pic.

grumpus

In Europe at least France, Germany and Belgium use LH front, but UK (and maybe Italy, not sure if that's a national standard or just roadie tradition) use RH front. Globally the tendency is LH front if you drive on the right and RH front if you drive on the left. A notable exception is China where they drive on the right but use RH front, and as this bike is made of purest Chinesium that's what is shown in the publicity photographs.