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Hydraulic discs and fork racks


12string

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Racking up for the ride (at 5:15 AM because SOMEBODY couldn't bring their bike over the night before), Wo12s' cousin wants his bike on the hitch rack, not the bed rack.  Says that the electronic hydraulic discs and no wheel in place, an accidental touch would lock the brake on with no way to open it.

Sounds like a terrible design that would never sell.  Other than stick a card or something in the brake, there has to be a better way

No big deal, I had both racks on.  And he seemed a little leery of my old Rhode Gear rack.

Worked out for me.  He just emailed to ask if I wanted his almost new swing out Thule Rack, he's buying a new one to hold his wife's new e-bike.

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58 minutes ago, 12string said:

Racking up for the ride (at 5:15 AM because SOMEBODY couldn't bring their bike over the night before), Wo12s' cousin wants his bike on the hitch rack, not the bed rack.  Says that the electronic hydraulic discs and no wheel in place, an accidental touch would lock the brake on with no way to open it.

Sounds like a terrible design that would never sell.  Other than stick a card or something in the brake, there has to be a better way

No big deal, I had both racks on.  And he seemed a little leery of my old Rhode Gear rack.

Worked out for me.  He just emailed to ask if I wanted his almost new swing out Thule Rack, he's buying a new one to hold his wife's new e-bike.

From what I know, if you squeeze the lever w/o a rotor in place, the pistons will push the pads oot. And getting them back in may be a PITA. So these spacers are made to put in placed. Anything that fits will work, e.g. cardboard.

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They have little brake stops you can shove up in the caliper to prevent that but yeah it can happen.  With the wheel off/rotor out if you squeeze the lever it can push the pads too far out and they won’t retract far enough in. 

A simple push back against the pads with something like a plastic putty knife will fix it without damaging the pads.

I often put my hydraulic disc bikes in the back of cars and the lever pushed in a bit while working it in the car.  That slight pull didn’t do anything but if you squeezed the lever all the way it probably would. 

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41 minutes ago, 12string said:

Racking up for the ride (at 5:15 AM because SOMEBODY couldn't bring their bike over the night before), Wo12s' cousin wants his bike on the hitch rack, not the bed rack.  Says that the electronic hydraulic discs and no wheel in place, an accidental touch would lock the brake on with no way to open it.

Sounds like a terrible design that would never sell.  Other than stick a card or something in the brake, there has to be a better way

No big deal, I had both racks on.  And he seemed a little leery of my old Rhode Gear rack.

Worked out for me.  He just emailed to ask if I wanted his almost new swing out Thule Rack, he's buying a new one to hold his wife's new e-bike.

Doesn't he have one of those plastic disc brake spacers (the one I use is above the video at bottom) you insert in the hydraulic disc brake's slot between the pads when you take the wheel off? It keeps the pads from closing on each other.  The plastic spacer/spreader snaps into place and stays there until you're ready to remove it, though I might wrap a plastic tie around it and the pads if I was transporting it on a back or top of vehicle rack.

When I got my new bike, the first one with disc brakes that lock like that (Shimano MT200 hydraulic disc), the LBS gave me a spacer and told me not to forget to slide it in the slot when I took the front wheel off and walked me through it as we laid it on the bed in the back of my Honda Fit.  I forgot the insert when I popped the front wheel off the first time I transported it and had to very carefully pry the pads apart with a screwdriver.  Now I keep it in a plastic bag in my car's glove compartment and think of it as soon as I pop the wheel off and before putting the bike in the car.

As far as hurting sales goes, I was tremendously surprised at the extra time it takes for removing my front wheel and putting it back in place on my $815.99 Trek Verve 3 Lowstep compared to the $329 mountain bike that preceded it.  The LBS had to give me a training session when I picked up the bike and had to take the front wheel off to lay it in the bed behind the front seats in my Honda Fit.

On my old $329 Mountain Bike - which had Shimano disc brakes - all I had to do was pop a lever and spin it a few times to loosen the front wheel and take it off. Putting it back on meant lining up the disc with the brake pads sliding it into place, spinning the lever to tighten it and snap the lever shut.

Now, I have to pop the lever, wind it out a lot of times and remove it and the bolt and spring attached to it completely off the bike and carefully store them. Then I have to slide the disc pad spacer into place - all the while making sure I don't squeeze the brakes by mistakes.  Then I do the reverse putting the wheel back on.

image.png.b5a01ec53a43ca5833b796700b68ab5f.png

 

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He did mention  not having a spacer with him.  The spacer thing made sense.  It was the "can't get them apart that I found hard to believe.  Figured there had to be a way.

I'm getting a free rack out of this, I could at least buy a couple spacers and keep them in the truck for next time.

 

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4 minutes ago, 12string said:

He did mention  not having a spacer with him.  The spacer thing made sense.  It was the "can't get them apart that I found hard to believe.  Figured there had to be a way.

I'm getting a free rack out of this, I could at least buy a couple spacers and keep them in the truck for next time.

 

Screwdriver (gently), tire lever (plastic preferable), or that putty knife idea.  But, yeah, it is likely one of those "not an issue until you make it an issue" sort of things.

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