brakes are the most important controls
on the bike so making sure you get them
set up before you ride the bike is
essential so this our guide to tailoring
your brake setup number one let's look
at the lever position actually on the
handlebar first if you've got a modern
bike with disc brakes you should
definitely try and learn to ride with
one finger on the brake if you're not
doing already
so I actually recommend setting your
brake lever up so it's moved right in on
the handlebar so you can't actually fit
more than one finger on there it's a lot
of people do use two fingers but
actually slide it in a little bit
further
you just get much more grip on the
handlebars if you've got these three
fingers annual thumb wrapped around so
slide it in they go my one thing the
restaurant variance or just tighten that
up slightly for now so now that I've got
my one great leaver set up I'm gonna
trying to match the other one it depends
how accurate you want to get you could
use a caliper like this just to measure
the gap between the edge of the grip and
the brake lever or you could just do it
by sight but let's try and get it
perfect it's going to tighten that brake
lever down I'm not going to worry about
the angle of them just for now I'm just
going to get the position on the bar
setup because what I'll do is see my
brake levers and then I'll do my dropper
post and then I'll do my shifters that
sort of the order of importance for me
the ones that I need to use the best you
can't always get them in the perfect
position luckily on this bike I've got
this nice Ram matchmaker thing so my
shifter is mounted onto the brake lever
I don't have to worry about too many
clamps on the bars so now for brake
lever angle on the bar I need to make
sure they're in a usable angle most of
time when you're braking you're actually
over the back of the bike so that's when
you need that break leave it to be
reachable see quite a few people have
them quite dropped quite low on the bars
and actually means that you can't get to
them so easily and actually you have to
bring your wrist over the top and put a
little bit more weight on the handlebars
so I like to run mine relatively high
too high and it can actually put a bit
of weight through your wrist and a bit
of pain there so try and mess around
with that a little bit but that feels
about right to me so now to match the
angle what I do is sit back on the bike
and I go back until I can
just about to see the top of the brake
lever over the top of handlebars and
then I match the other lever to the same
angle so when you get down a touch so
there's a couple more adjustments you
can make to your brakes that really make
them that much more usable
the first one is reach almost every
single brake lever has this option this
ceramic IDE has this really easy sort of
hand dial here sometimes you might find
a small tube allowing key to mess around
with and play around with that reach if
you've got small hands it's really
helpful seeing just wind that brake
either all the way in so you have to
really stretch through it if your big
hands wind it further right personally I
like them fairly close to the bar you
need to make sure that you don't squash
your other fingers if you have the reach
too far in your candy but that shouldn't
happen if your one thing is right at the
very end like I've explained already
again to match the two levers you can
use a caliper or allen key or something
to rest it against you grip kid at the
same both sides so finally some brake
levers have this contact point
adjustment or bite point adjustment you
see on this Ram one it is just here and
that's on the maximum so the brake leave
is actually traveling a long way and
this just adjusts how far that moves
before you hit that bite point it's a
person I like to wind them all the way
in so the brake lever doesn't move quite
so much
it maybe gives you a little bit less
modulation because it leverage doesn't
travel to see they're on or off but I
rather that and then I'll sort of use my
brain to modulate the brake rather than
rely on the sort of mechanical side of
things that's also very important if you
have your reach quite far in if you have
that out then the leaver can travel so
far that it touches the handlebar so
make sure play around with that and
there you go my reach is set up a
contact point set but if you don't have
one of these on the handlebars there is
actually another option to sort of do it
at the caliper which I'll show you next
so if you don't have one of these
contact point of justice on the brake
many breaks down you can actually do
this manually you want to be careful
when you're doing it to take out the
wheel so that the disc isn't resting in
between the brake pads what you wanna do
is I should just pull the brake lever
want gently and that's actually going to
push
pistons in a little bit stick your wheel
back in have a feel for it and that
should have tightened everything up so
if like me you like that bite point to
be pretty immediate that can work just
don't pull it any more than once you can
actually pop the pistons out of the
caliper and that means you have to get
them back in it's going to be oily and
you're gonna have to rebleed your brake
this might take a couple of goes to get
that desired feel on that brake lever so
just push the Pistons back into the
caliper using a plastic tie leaver or
something like that and also make sure
they're centered and the Wampus isn't
pushing out another one staying in there
so play around that a little bit keep
trying keep put your disc back in until
you get the feel that you want on that
brake lever so there you go brake levers
are all set up and they feel exactly how
I like them to feel it's really
important for me as a few things you
need to do to keep on top of your brake
leaver maintenance as well so if you
click up there that'll take you through
to how to shorten your hoses and click
down there for how to bleed your disc
brakes click on the Gambian logo totally
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