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.
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.
deleted by creator
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.