Specialized Rockhopper - brakes?

[272BHP]

I managed to get my son a mountain bike for his birthday. There was pretty much no stock anywhere of anything but I managed to find a Specialized Rockhopper Sport for 550 from Evans.

I thought this was a decent bike from a respected brand but I am shocked by the low quality of the components particularly the Tektro hydraulic disc brakes, they are really bad, difficult to pull and have pretty much no stopping power whatsoever.

He seems to like the bike as I am guessing it looks like most of his friends bikes rather than the Isla bike he was previously using but I do worry about those brakes.

Is it a set up or bedding in thing?

[272BHP]

Thanks. I have had a few new bikes but nothing as bad as this with regard the bedding in process.

I have given it a few braking sessions now to try and get something on the discs and they have improved, don't think they will ever be decent brakes though. I guess a base Specialized is made up of bargain basement components.

[272BHP]

TheTardis said:

What did the shop say?

No shop. Just got the bike delivered.

[272BHP]

I have only used 2 hydraulic brakes.

The ones on my Pinnacle Neon are SRAM level brakes so still on the cheaper end of the market, These are great brakes, I could pull them with a single finger and they bite hard straight away and I would be put over the handle bars if I operated them with any force.

The ones on the Rockhopper would stop me eventually in about 10-15 metres from 20 mph but I would have to pull hard with 3 fingers and there would be no bite at all. In short they are appalling compared to the SRAM's.

[272BHP]

HayesDC2 said:

I recently bought the same bike from Evans and had exactly the same issue!

Discs needed cleaning for me, cover them in brake cleaner and then go for a ride holding the brakes in (one at a time) so that you are slowed down slightly but can pedal through it to get some heat through them.

I did about 1km of each and they're great now. Before cleaning you may as well have stood up and tried to use yourself as an air brake!

I will give that a go - thanks for the input!

[272BHP]

Used brake cleaner on them both and did 15mins of sprinting and braking.

No change at all.

[272BHP]

HayesDC2 said:

Did you spray any on the pads?

For me I think the discs must have had oil on them from production / build and then as I didn't think to clean them it ended up on the pads as well as the discs.

Yeah I sprayed all around in there as well

Edited by 272BHP on Monday 14th June 16:09

[272BHP]

So I just had a look and adjusted the brakes and they are still appalling.

One thing that confuses me is that these are advertised as having Tektro Hydraulic Disk brakes HD-M275 but these don't look like hydraulics to me as there is a brake cable operating the pads

I might need to email Evans

[272BHP]

It turns out I ordered the wrong bike. The one I thought I had ordered had hydraulics but the one I actually ordered had mechanical disk brakes.

That explains why they are rubbish then. Oh well, not a lot i can do now

[272BHP]

Mars said:

About 50 quid for a set, ready to go.

Are they easy to fit? would I be able to use the rotars that are already on the bike and just change the rest of the components?

I would feel a lot happier if he had a decent set of brakes on the bike i must admit.

[272BHP]

loskie said:

Don't know why you are wetting your pants OP. If set up correctly mechanical discs will be just fine. I have 3 bikes 2 with Hydraulic disc brakes which are bloody good and a hybrid with brake blocks/rim brakes. Guess what it's also bloody good.

Don't know why you have to be so rude and then put up for example a different set up entirely.

His previous IslaBike had rim brakes and they were very good. Much better at stopping and also much easier to operate than the crummy ones on his new bike.

[272BHP]

My issue is that it is my sons bike and at 14 years old his road awareness and sense of self preservation is still lacking.

I have seen him be late for school and hurtle down the hill in school run traffic. He is now doing that with brakes that are really poor - that is the worry.