Disc brakes, the basics?

suburbanreuben":ziy1stdo said:

Neil G":ziy1stdo said:

Can I reccomend Saints, pads expensive but stopping power like nothing else

Never tried Magura Hydros but they do look tidy, German engineering so I would have thought they worked well!

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5 year guarantee... Anyone else offer that? :?
Just look at the number of old maggie rim brakes still providing sterling service.

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I have three sets of Martas and I've been really happy with them - the one drawback being that Magura won't supply seal kits for the calipers, so if one develops a leak (as one of mine has) and it's over five years old (or you're not the original owner) then it's replacement caliper time :evil:
Apart from this I can't recommend them enough.

Cheers guys, it's all good info.

The main problem with disc brakes that I've had is contaminated pads/rotors which was probably my fault anyway! You do have to be a lot more careful with handling discs...always wrap the buggers up in clean plasic bags if your lubing other parts of the bike with GT85 or similar.

... and space out the pads with an old credit card when you remove the wheels!

Always steered clear of discs until january this year when I bought a bargain bike that had no v mounts. It had cable discs and no matter what I did to them ( deglazing, brake cleaner on discs, new cables etc )they just sucked. The vees on my GT still outperformed them every time.
I nearly gave up and looked at selling the frame until a friend pointed me in the direction of hopes. For under £50 I've sourced a pair of 2nd hand C2's and sport levers with the pad adjusters on the top caps and they frikken rule!!! WAY sharper than vees and that's with exactly the same discs as before. Can't recommend em enough.
I've also got a pair of enduro4 calipers to try, but the pistons are sticky so I need to rebuild em, so can't pass comment on their effectiveness yet, but they look like they would be an improvement even over c2s.
I haven't had an issue with the pads closing with the wheels off and I regularly transport the bike in the car boot.