I was riding along on the SS last night on a twisty ribbon of singletrack...the kind the requires lots of small braking adjustments...and I found myself enjoying the BB7s I put on the new Jabber. I was a bit annoyed that the rear brake never quite feels like the front in terms of lever pull and feel, but with the Speed Dial in the brake levers and the ability to dial in pad contact distance, it is pretty close.
I am always surprised when I see those brakes on anything other than a budget build as they are kinda heavy and need tweaking every so often to keep running smoothly. It got me thinking that a up-market version of the venerable BB7 is not a bad idea.
If if it could be lighter, that would be cool. It actually is comparable to other budget hydro brakes when taken as a system, but if it was even lighter it would sway more riders, I bet. I would like to see a dedicated brake lever system for the BB7 that supplied a more aggressive leverage adjustment on the rear lever as compared to the front brake lever. That would allow for even more dial-a-bility to get the front/rear balance juuust right.
OK. So far I am liking the BB7 for what it is...a budget priced and easy to deal with mechanical brake. I would dig the BB9 even more.
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11 years ago
2 comments:
I have the BB7s on both of my mtn bikes, and like them pretty well so far, as much as I've come to like disc brakes anyway. I'm not convinced that disc brakes are head-n-shoulders above v-brakes, as many like to proclaim. They perform well, but they're also a lot more finicky - not nearly as basically maintenance free as v's.
Anyhoo, that aside, I've been pretty happy with the 7's. I didn't want to go hydraulic, as I wanted to stick with something more basic, something mechanical, that I would feel more comfortable adjusting and maintaining. Plus, if you go on a long, multi-day excursion, it's pretty easy to bring along an extra brake cable in case you exprience a cable snap, but a snap in a hydraulic hose would be much more problematic.
I agree with you on the idea for BB9s, though. Perhaps that's in the works?
I agree, would love to see some light reworked BB9's.
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