Cable discs: advise me

[TheBrownDog]

I’ve just bought a Genny CDF and it’s a really lovely bike, with the exception of the TRP Sprye brakes. They are awful. No power, no modulation, squeaky shouty …. I could forgive the lack of power but they just feel dead.

Admittedly, hauling up my chunky arse is a challenge for any brake set, but I’m used to Hope hydros and have never used cable discs before. The rear is about ok because it does pretty much nothing anyway, but the front is not up to it.

Would swapping to an Avid BB7 caliper and maybe a bigger disc make much of a difference?

Or am I doomed.

[Bearbonesnorm]

I like BB7, usually use 180mm discs and never had a problem stopping really.

Do check that your forks don't carry a disc diameter limit and that there's room in the rear for something bigger.

[ton]

when i was full on mountainbiking in the past, including uplift / downhill days, i used bb7 with 200mm rotors.
byfar the best braking solution i found. but they are a pig to get set up correct. you need to follow the set up instructions to the letter. and avid levers are the best with them.

i use slx now and they are crap. gonna go back to bb7 cables when i change.

[johnnystorm]

I've had bikes with BB7s and Spyres. Both have been perfectly fine, if I had to pick one over the other I'd pick the Spyres.

At the risk of stating the obvious have you cleaned the discs/pads and checked the set up? I've never heard a squeak out of mine.

[whitestone]

I've one bike (the fat bike) with BB7s and one (Genesis CdF) with TRP Spyres. The BB7s are far better, I've only had them close to failure once and that was on a really long and continually steep descent - steep enough to be well back behind the saddle for a kilometre or so.

As Tony says you need to set them up exactly as per the instructions - only one side actually activates so the rotor needs to be set closer to the static pad. One point to note is that the guide arms on the pads foul the rivets on Hope rotors A bit annoying really but a judicious use of a hacksaw will solve that.

[fatbikephil]

I was distinctly underwhelmed with the spyres, pretty much what your experience is. That said I've never been that convinced with any cable caliper run by normal road bike levers. I've always thought the lever arm on the caliper was a bit too long, making the brakes vague and spongy, even with non-compressible outers. So switching to road BB7s won't make much difference. V lever BB7's are very good though.

If you muck around with the angle between the cable and the caliper lever as the pads hit the disk you can get them to work OK.

[TheBrownDog]

Yeah that’s it, isn’t it? A road lever has such a long throw compared with a mtb lever and coupled the long lever arm in the calibre, it’s always going be pants. Dull. Vague. Urgh.

I’m gonna try a bb7 calliper and a bigger disc and experiment with stuff. We’ll see where we get.

Thanks for the input team.

[Cheeky Monkey]

I've used both and as someone has said, thought they were both fine. They'll not challenge a good MTB hydro brake but are still way better than rim brakes.

They can be a bit of dark art / careful fettling / luck to get set up and keep working well. I'd suggest a bit of perseverance re: good pads and dics well bedded together, good, new cables and compressionless outer, in line adjusters etc. Evwn if you dont get the Spires working the changes will also make any BB7 caliper work better.

I went for bigger rotors because it seems to make any bike / brake better. Think I've 200/180 BB7s on the Gryphon and 180/160 Spyres on the Roadrat. Both running drops and proper levers with hoods / STI style.

The fancy road hydro (SRAM Apex?) on the Goldrush are very nice too

[sean_iow]

They're terrible and you'll never get them to work, best thing would be to sell them to me for pennies for my gravel bike build

Sounds like they're not set up right. I've got BB7s on my road bike and they have plenty of power and the Spyes are generally considered better than the BB7s.

I've got my pads set as close to the disc as possible without them rubbing which gives the minimum lever movement.

What make are the levers? I've got SRAM Rival 11. There is more travel than with flat bar levers but its not an issue.

[L2R24]

I have Spyres on a cross bike. They were never that good until I changed over to proper compressionless outers. The difference was night and day TBH. When I changed cables I used the kit recommended by TRP with the outers and other bits and pieces:
https://www.merlincycles.com/trp-road-d ... 93697.html

[Al]

I had spyres on my gravel bike for a while - the 3mm pad adjusters are very susceptible to seizing and rounding off. And they are a bugger to strip down if that happens.

I’ve got bb7 on multiple bikes - 2 of which have drop bars, both 180/160 rotors and decent cables. The bike with sram brake levers is significantly better than the one with shimano 105 brifters.

Switching to bigger front rotors noticeably improved both.

The sram levered bike is a vagabond - not light when carrying luggage, but have never needed more power.

[Alpinum]

Different rotors, different pads, different cable and different cable housing will likely make more of a difference then changing the caliper. Speaking from own experience on MTB brakes, but then my girlfriend has TRP Spyre C on one of her bikes and they feel okay. I find they actually feel a bit better then the BB7 road sl we have on another bike.

Try Jagwire Mountain Pro cable and housing and different pads (eg organic Swissstop). If that doesn't help, change to larger rotors with more friction area.
Make sure the housing doesn't run through tight bends.
Perhaps remove the adjuster in the housing (if there is one). Both Spyre and BB7 can easily be adjusted at the caliper.

[Mariner]

I use Spykes the mtb version of Spyres on the Stooge.
BB7s were horrible screeching things that I could never make quiet although better than a bell for warning pedestrians I was approaching.
The set up is Jagwire compressionless cables with Shimano levers.
Very quiet breaking with lots of modulation and no snatching.
I have found pads to be very important so only use TRP pads.

The one thing that is unnecessarily difficult is the inner pad adjustment but I have a work around for this.
Having said all that I have not seen any Spykes for sale for ages - but haven't been looking.

[mustang]

There is a bit of a knack to setting up the Spyres. Compressionless outers is a must. Make sure when you cut the outers, you tidy the ends so they're nice and flat too. metal ferules are a nice addition too if possible. anything to remove any squashing.

When you attach the cable to the caliper you want all the barrel adjusters wound all the way in and connect so the arm is just about sitting off the stop. wind the pads all the way out with the 3mm adjusters and centre the caliper over the disc. Then wind the 3 mm adjusters back in so the pads are as close as possible to the disc without rubbing, fine tune caliper as necessary. Future adjustments for pad wear should be done with the 3mm adjusters too, don't use the barrel adjusters. That's how they start to feel spongey and lack bite IME.

[anagallis_arvensis]

I had Spyres on my Diverge, never better than OK. Replaced with Juin Tech R1's which have been going well for 3 or 4 years now, can be a bit screechy but stop you well. R1's are cable actuated hydraulics, easy to fit straight to cable levers

[Alpinum]

There is a bit of a knack to setting up the Spyres. Compressionless outers is a must. Make sure when you cut the outers, you tidy the ends so they're nice and flat too. metal ferules are a nice addition too if possible. anything to remove any squashing.

When you attach the cable to the caliper you want all the barrel adjusters wound all the way in and connect so the arm is just about sitting off the stop. wind the pads all the way out with the 3mm adjusters and centre the caliper over the disc. Then wind the 3 mm adjusters back in so the pads are as close as possible to the disc without rubbing, fine tune caliper as necessary. Future adjustments for pad wear should be done with the 3mm adjusters too, don't use the barrel adjusters. That's how they start to feel spongey and lack bite IME.

Top tips!