I don't remember your username so I'm just putting this out there.
Last week I tightened my disk brakes, specifically at the cables. They had gotten to the point I had to pull the levers all the way to the handlebars and were still feeling weak.
After a little adjusting (I made the front one a little too tight at first) they started feeling great, but this morning on the way to work they started feeling really weak again, like they were barely engaging. Only this time, the levers don't go all the way to the handlebars, the travel distance is the same as when they were doing fine, so it's not that the cable has slipped.
I don't want to over-speculate since I haven't really done this sort of thing before, but I'd appreciate advice on things to check. My workplace has a ton of tools I can borrow if need be.
Not hydraulic. "C-star mechanical disk" according to the manufacturer website. If I end up needing to buy new ones, what's the best way to figure out what specific brake pads I need for those? I get a lot of different looking ones when I google that term + "brake pads"
Huh, never heard of those. I did check all the models on the website for that category so hydraulic issues is out because they're all pure cable accentuated.
As for the bad news, that brand seems pretty off the beaten path cheapo in the not good way. Instead of just aping either the Shimano or SRAM ones, they seem to have straight up went their own way. Compare how the Shimano one looks to how one of the C-Star ones look .
Best way would be to figure out which model you have exactly, should be printed on there somewhere. Maybe this product overview of some random italian website could help, too.
Once you got that down, try and see if you could find ones that advertise as fitting. If you can't, and I couldn't except for those BX-350 Pads up there, try those because I can't imagine the company behind this bothered to design yet another set of brakepads.
Availability might still be an issue, I can't even scrounge up one vendor to sell me even the BX-350 pads and even aliexpress.com doesn't have anything that looks like that from what I can tell.
Seriously I'd advise investing into a set of like Tektro brand mechanical disc brakes on short notice if that is an option to you. Current brakes might work fine but that's a bit of a moot point if you can't get the oddly shaped brakepads. Tektro just basically uses the shimano designs and you can actually get parts for them.
Damn I did not know this when I got the bike, I hope it's not going to be super expensive to fix this. How much would it cost to replace a whole ass set of brakes?
I called the shop I bought the bike from and they said they don't have it but should be able to get a replacement that fits, but even he said the brakes were kind of weird. God dammit I hate this.
This really depends on which part you can reuse. Just the brakes themselves would be about 40€ if you're going for cheap tektro ones (they're fine, probably better than what you have now tbh). Don't see why this wouldn't work really, might not be the perfect feel in the levers but in the end it's a lever that pulls a cable, not rocket science.
Levers'd be about ~15€ each otherwise, assuming it's flat bar levers.
Maybe the rotors, but that's unlikely, and would be about 10€ / ea.
This is assuming you do it yourself. Labour on top of that.
Allthough I seriously would think about looking for a different bike shop if I'm being honest. Like use them to source a replacement part now but then start looking around for a different one. Maybe it's me, but I think them willingly selling you a bike with cheap knock-off brakes with 0 parts availability is a dick move.
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Sorry, totally missed the question in this 'til now.
I wouldn't exactly expect it to not work, I just don't want to stick my head out on it.
I've fucked with some old ass single side pull brakes and those were a nightmare to get into any condition where i wouldn't describe the braking power as dangerously low. From my experience, the deciding factor is the travel of the lever / how much the cable actually gets pulled.
This means you can get some really odd combinations working by keeping everything at close tolerances and more adjusting than would otherwise be necessary, but seeing as I'm not a straight up magician like dallasw I could not tell you how possible this for the brakes in question.
Indeed. I just had no idea at the time, assumed everything was above board.