New brakes on the Mojito.

My current most used bike is probably the cheapest bike that I've ever owned. Its a Diamondback Mojito singlespeed 29er bought for less than £250 new in 2009, which is cheaper than most budget frames. It was bought partly because I wanted to try out 29" wheels and partly because I wanted a singlespeed frame with discs, the Legend In The Loft is V brake only, ok when I lived in Bedfordshire but here in the Peaks discs rule.
Being a cheap bike some of the componently (ok most of it!) is pretty low rent. The bike does have a pretty decent aluminium frame worthy of upgrading. It has vertical dropouts and full cable mounts for fitting gears should I wish, making a singlespeed device necessary for one geared action.

The first job was to sort out the gearing, it came with a 36:16 set up, which would be pretty high on a 26" wheeled s/s (my Inbred runs 32/16) let alone a heavy 29er! Its now running 34/21 using a Surly chainring and sprocket and, to keep the chain as short as possible, a BMX half link chain (new one fitted today). The original singlespeed device has been replaced with a Surly Singleater.

The stiff heavy riser bars and stem have been replaced with Easton EA50 items and the heavy saddle has made way for one of Dani's cast-offs. The seatpost clamp was frankly rubbish and the QR skewers had a habit of coming loose so Salsa and Shimano items take their place.

The worst offenders though have been the Quad cable disc brakes, and this week I've finally replaced them. My plan was to fit a decent hydraulic system, however my bank balance wouldn't stretch that far, so perusing online sales I found Shimano BR-M495 cable brakes for £23.99 each, so the whole set up cost less than £50.
These arrived yesterday, so todays job after work was to fit them;

Rubbish Quad brake.

Nice new Shimano brake.

And one on the front.

Fitting was quick and easy, I re-used the original brake levers (Tektro, in line for upgrading) and cables. The brakes came with new discs but these are splined fit whereas my wheels take 6 bolt discs. The wheels are next in line for replacement so the new discs will see use in the hopefully not too distant future.

The bike's only been around the block today to make sure that it stops, I'll head out after work tomorrow on my local loop.

One gear, rigid forks, totally unsuitable for Peak District riding!

Paul.