[Closed] hi! newbie here with a question 🙂

they will take a little bit to bed in, personally i say get em stinkin hot and that should do 90% of it.
good to hear youre getting into it.
halfords arent all bad . . . . .

Might need to bed in, but if it's a cheap bike they may just not be great.

but its a great starting point. welcome back.

(already looking at upgrades)

Hello & welcome.

As per Cynic-al, there cable disc brakes on a budget mtb, don't expect the world from them. Bedding them in* should help, though it would be wise to give the disc a clean first. Try cleaning the disc's with some car brake disc cleaner, meths, or even just hot soapy water to remove any oil from them. I also tend to sand off a small layer of disc pad if I know they've been contaminated, due to overspray from GT85 or WD40 for example.

*Bedding in process:
1. find a big hill
2. pedal to the top
3. pedal down as fast as you can
4. brake as hard as you can without skidding, repeatedly to build up heat in the disc.
5. repeat 2.3.4. a couple of times

This process does repy on you being confident the bike will stop before the bottom though...

thanks for the welcome! as luck would have it, i did find a hill to throw myself down today 😀 brakes are working a lot better now! yeah they're cable discs, i'd like to upgrade part eventually, my girlfriend and i have a vision of doing the london to brighton next year which looks doubtful in my current state but there's plenty of time to get ready!

@martymac no halfords arent always bad! it's just a natural slip of the fingers to call it that these days 🙄 i'm in there every week regardless to buy something for my motorbike, collecting tools etc.

another question, when i do get round to upgrading the brakes and the likes, will anything be possible or will i be limited to what will fit? like, would it be hard to fit hydraulic brakes to the bike? are there any other parts that i should look into upgrading eventually? (seat, definately)

thanks again!

Try cleaning the disc's with some car brake disc cleaner

DO NOT DO THIS UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES!

It will ruin your brake pads. It leaves some kind of residue behind, maybe for inhibiting rust I dunno.

Use clutch cleaner instead, available next to the brake cleaner and works brilliantly.

Or just good old fairy and warm water!!
Welcome to the happy land btw!

aye thanks! it was great being out on a bike again, but damn either bikes have changed a lot since i last rode or i'd almost forgotten how to ride! bikes a lot lighter than my old Saracen Hazard, handlebars seem narrower, gear changes seem a bit more awkward. love the bike!

My mate has the same bike as a pub bike, I would ditch the tyres before anything else. They pick up punctures too easy and don't really grip. Welcome back to cycling!

It leaves some kind of residue behind

Wierd, the stuff I get (wurth/lucas brake parts cleaner) works fine.

I suspect it's a myth perpatrated by specialist bike products companies to make you buy their stuff for £££...

Not a myth, direct personal experience. I've thrown away cans of it and the Muc Off stuff because it made my brakes immediately frighteningly terrible.

I'm not suggesting buying bike company stuff, buy regular car clutch cleaner.

Sorry I only suggested the car stuff, as it came up on a thread off here, and is cheap and easily available. Though have a m8's who have used it without issue - I just use electrical contact cleaner (Isopropyl).
As for muc off, no idea what you doing there, I've used it for years without any issue, never worried about over spraying the brakes.

another question, when i do get round to upgrading the brakes and the likes, will anything be possible or will i be limited to what will fit? like, would it be hard to fit hydraulic brakes to the bike? are there any other parts that i should look into upgrading eventually?

It's not hard, just a matter of confirming what type of mounts your frame/fork have and getting those type mount brake calipres or including an adapter to enable it to fit, when you buy. You'll probably need to shorten the hydraulic line (come quite long, to ensure they will fit any bike), which be a little worrying as a newbie mechanic.

Bars are pretty easily replaced, though off-hand I'd check out the 2nd hand market, as the ones fitted are probably the traditional 25.4mm (one inch) rather than the now more prevalent oversize 31.8mm (measure it where it fits the stem, though visusally, if its oversized it obviously get bigger towards the middle). So lots of 'older' bar are sold off cheap, and should be easily avaiable up to 700mm wide.

Best bit of disc brake advice I ever got was to NEVER CLEAN THEM. Infact, on one brake setup I had I actually found it beneficial to cover them in mud.

I don't mean MucOff, that works fine, I mean MucOff Brake Cleaner.... Avoid.

Is nobody going to come on and tell the young man that to go faster you need to BRAKE LESS ??

Leave the set-up as it is and ride smoother, better tactic in the long run.

Silly billy. Why do sports cars have good brakes? Cos if you are going faster you need to brake harder...

...ohhh fair enuff molegrips, never tried it.

the realhoops, yeah this is true as they do need to bed together (pads & disc), but if they've become containated with oil, you really need to clean them IMO & start the bedding in process again.

IME the kind of cheap cable disc brakes Halfords fit will get worse as you use them.
When you have £50 spare, get yourself a set of cheap Shimano hydros from Rose: http://www.rosebikes.co.uk/article/shimano-disc-brake-br-m446/aid:520145

welcome, its addictive, you'll end up spending thousands 😀

main thing is to have fun, the general consensus is that paying money out on learning skills will be a better investment than any fancy component.

ride with friends, get them addicted too!

Meths also makes for a good, easy to find and cheap brake cleaner, and leaves no residue.

DO NOT DO THIS UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES!

It will ruin your brake pads.

I've used Muc Off motorbike disc brake cleaner with no issues whatsoever.

I dunno if the Trax is the same but a friend bought a cheap FS from a catalogue (against my advice) and the disc brakes didn't really have pads in, the caliper thingy just pressed straight onto the disc. 😕

I wouldn't spend money on upgrades to that bike - just enjoy it for a while and then mebbe pick up something better second hand off here if you think you are going to get into it.

i'm joe, 24, hairstylist

Welcome. We've got all kinds on here but you're the first hairdresser I think!

Do you drive an MX5 or is that an urban myth?

<Sorry, no really apols>

I've used Muc Off motorbike disc brake cleaner with no issues whatsoever.

Tried it many times, always left my brakes useless and caused me to have to spend ages with other things trying to make them work again. Weird...

so why doesnt disc brake cleaner cause issues on car brakes

soobalias - Member
so why doesnt disc brake cleaner cause issues on car brakes

Because they're generating a lot more force/heat (due to higher speeds and weight) and so burn stuff of much quicker. Well, that's my theory.

I believe CFH degreases his rotors with Jack Daniels.

Muc Off disc brake cleaner works okay. (its excellent chain degreaser too!) The brakes need a few good pulls after you use it though.

Autoglym Fast Glass also does an excellent job at cleaning discs

As said earlier, don't waste money upgrading parts on that bike, just ride it for a while until you're really hooked, then get a decent 2nd hand one.

cheers for all the help and advice!

@mcboo, no i damn well dont lol! nice cars though 🙂 i ride a Suzuki Bandit 600, cars are too expensive these days to run!

@Vanderspek, so are secondhand bikes still worth buying? can you still find risks of damage on them? i thought about maybe building from a frame up, over the course of a year or so, when and where i have money 😀 seeing all the new bikes from the likes of Rocky Mountain, Giant, Cannondale etc, they're far and away out of my budget! are the old models (ie 5+ years) still as good as the newer models?

Does depend on how much you are willing to spend of course, but lots of shops with websites sell off previous yrs models with often hefty discounts - i bought a brand new bike for £1000 less than list price.
First off, save up/set your budget then go looking, til then ride your bike and enjoy it!

When you have £50 spare, get yourself a set of cheap Shimano hydros from Rose: http://www.rosebikes.co.uk/article/shimano-disc-brake-br-m446/aid:520145

will these fit straight onto my bike though? havent got an idea of buying them, but i'd be interested to know where you find all the specs about a bike. halfords was pretty lacking when it came to details and sizes 🙁 it's a Trax TSF2D 2011

Yeah, disc mounts on the bike and the hubs are standard. Well, one of two standards anyway, you may or may not need the appropriate adapter but it's trivial. Most people have adapters of some kind.

First off, look at how the brake caliper fixes to your bike - it will either be an International Standard (IS) mount or a post mount system.

IS mount is where the fixing bracket on the fork/frame is two rounded fixtures with the bolt holes at90 degrees to the wheel.
Post mount is simply that, two posts with a bolt hole down the inside in the direction of the wheel (if that makes sense?)

Once you know that, you then need to know how the rotor (the disc on the wheel) is fitted, will probably be a 6-bolt fitting.
If you are replacing the whole brake you will recieve a rotor with the brake and it will all fit together, assuming of course your chosen brake comes in the particular fitting your bike has!

wow. okay, i'll take some photos tomorrow and post them up to see. i think i see where you're getting at, but just to be sure.

It'll be IS mount on that bike, you'll need adapters, but just ask for them on here. Someone will have some or point you in the right direction.
And the rotors will be 6 bolt and almost definitely won't need changing (Rosebikes don't supply discs).

I think you'll find Halfords don't know speecs on that bike because all the parts are far eastern OEM bits. To be honest, its not really a bike that is made to be ridden like a mountain bike. You might find things breaking if you start hitting the hard stuff!

Oh you do need the right size too. A bike will be designed for a given sized disc (160, 180, 200) and you can fit a larger disc (up to the maximum size it can take the load for) with the right adapter again. Yours is probably 160mm.