For myself, I believe replacing the brake cable housing was necessary. The brakes worked before. The bike stopped when needed. I never felt they were failing. But I wasn't happy with the feel of the brakes. Let's just say they did not feel satisfactory to me.
My fix can't be classified as scientific, because I swapped out levers and pads as well, but I believe the biggest improvement in my braking was when I changed the cable housing. Let me also point out that I live on top of a 700 ft hill that descends in 2 miles. Whenever I go anywhere I my bike, I start with a downhill ride where I easily hit 35 MPH, and I'm among cars going that fast or faster. Tip top brake performance is very important to me. If I lived and rode in Davis (eg) it would not be quite as critical. :) On Fri, May 27, 2016 at 6:58 AM, Bill Lindsay <tapebu...@gmail.com> wrote: > Zach > > I don't know that it would be fair for me to call you "wrong". If that's > how you wanted to understand what I did, then I wouldn't try to talk you out > of it. > > From my perspective, it was the equivalent of seeing a hat that I liked, and > buying it on impulse, because I liked it. Did I need a hat? Probably not. > Did I need to run Shimano XTR brakes on my Appaloosa? No. Did I need to > change brake cable housing on my Appaloosa? No. > > I did, however, decide to upgrade the brakes on my Appaloosa, and that > decision has led to several improvements to my bicycle. Two of those > several improvements were: > > 1. New cable housing made the brakes less squishy > 2. New cable housing is reflective, further increasing my conspicuity > > There are other improvements, but I wouldn't encourage people to desperately > start searching for NOS XTR brakes. I bought them used and on impulse for a > price that I felt was too low to pass up. I shared the story for the > entertainment of the group. If a fellow Appaloosa owner goes and swaps > brake cable housing and finds a big improvement, while leaving the stock > brakes in place, I will be similarly entertained to hear about it. > > Bill Lindsay > El Cerrito, CA > > > On Thursday, May 26, 2016 at 6:51:16 PM UTC-7, Zach Kahl wrote: >> >> Am I wrong to understand that you bought new brakes when all you needed to >> do in the first place was replace your housing? >> >> Thanks for the updates with your journey of the Appaloosa, it's been a fun >> one to watch. > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "RBW Owners Bunch" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. > Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
