My buddy recently picked up a new mountain bike and his disc brakes aren't grabbing very well. Does anyone know how to adjust this style?

Thank you,

Steve

if this brake caliper (spelling?) is a lil bit of quality then u "should" have a little screw on the top (or bottom, changes with models) with that u can adjust the errr...blocks (? no idea whats the name) from the brake.
btw, make sure he drove at least few hours (with much braking) as new discs need a lil bit until they get their right grip.

There are also two places to adjust aswell seen clearly in pic:1 where the cable enters the housing thriugh the silver adjuster with locking nut, loosen the lock-nut and turn the adjuster anti-clockwise.The other adjuster similar to the one on the housing is located at the brake lever and is adjusted the same way as the first.

yea, but that doesnt really increase the brake force.
it just gets pulled up like u do already brake.
if u adjust it that way, u will need more strenght to brake.

Quote from [RCG]Boosted :

yea, but that doesnt really increase the brake force.
it just gets pulled up like u do already brake.
if u adjust it that way, u will need more strenght to brake.

:doh: les not get too bloody tech about this lol.......they just need adjusting...if not then he needs new pads....if not he needs a new bike ....blah blah blah bloody blah.....les not start bout brake force etc etc...:doh:

but thats what he wants!
moreeeee powerrrrr

Quote from [RCG]Boosted :

but thats what he wants!
moreeeee powerrrrr

lmao
yaeh more power with lots of e's and r's
illepall
goodmorning

i dissasembled the brake caliper but that "dial" didn't turn to adjust the stationary brake pad.

somehow the read one went together tighter and seems to be grabbing properly but the front still seems pretty useless.

i'm windering if his pads are too worn possibly.

speedfreak227

They are cable pull so you want to eliminate any give in the cable run, make sure he is using non compressable cable guides and proper shoes for where the guide ends. You might find there is an adjuster on the lever that allows for a different angle of pull, giving a greater braking force. It should be possible to readily lock either the front or rear brake with disks so I'm unsure why he wants more force, generally people want more modulation.

There should be wear indicators on his pads.

could be the pads, could be the rotor, could be the cable,

clean off the rotors, reset the cable, sand the pads slightly with fine snadpaper to give a grippier surface, he might just have naff brakes which somecheaper bikes have,

if that doesnt work, next time you see some tarmac being laid, ask one of the blokes for some bichomen, rub it on the disc, poor mans solution..maybe, but its works

are they mechanical? then just forget about getting much power from them. the distance travelled by the discs is much smaller than the one travelled by the rim, therefore the brakes have to grip with much more force, which is difficult to apply with a cable. hydraulic ones are much better (and last longer as well.)

if they don#t grip at all, they're probably worn or dirty.

lmao, between dancing around in tarmac, and applying some sort of strange physics to your wheel to fix your brakes
Sometimes it's better to sit back and LOOK at what the problem is rather
than have a load of LFS forum nutcakes loose on the subject illepall

use bichomen from tarmac