Gaaaaaaagh! Odyssey Sh*tbull and other brake woes.

[kayla]

I found time to give my '94 Performer a good looking at this morning, newer tyres (robbed from my 1998 Performer that's in bits at the minute) cos the original GT ones were knackered and new brake pads cos the original ones were worn down to the studs

I forgot just how utterly rubbish a Pitbull + Gyro and Bulldogs are, coming off a few years of hydraulic discs on MTBs, although to be fair the Z-Mags probably aren't helping matters!

So, I have a dilemma. BITD I wouldn't have hesitated to use a pair of Schlugs and some AD990s on it to rid myself of the bobbins brakes and I had a pair on my '94 Vertigo when they first came out, powder coated safety yellow and everything- anyone remember them? Anyhoo, I digress... The dilemma I've got is that the bike is so original (buggered tyres notwithstanding and I've used some Odyssey Bermudas on it so they're in keeping anyway) that's Im hesitant to mess about with it and I've got a 1998 to bugger about with too.

I also have a '95 Fueler that needs wheels, bear this in mind.

My thoughts are...

1. Leave it, it's fine and it's never going to be ridden to death again anyway
2. Buy some 36 spoke wheels and a 36H coaster with massive ally pegs, relive the mid 90s and stick the Z-Mags on the Fueler

Help meeeeee............

[nosepickben]

1. Throw the mags in the bin. Your brakes will never work and they're awfully flexy to ride
2. Shorten, lube profusely and smooth out all your cable lines. Remember, less outer cable means less friction means more power to the brake.
3. Fit modern brake blocks
4. Lube the system profusely, again! A blob of grease in the gyro slugs, grease the nipple in your lever, etc etc.

[monteryroom]

porkchop store has some bolt on u brake adapters coming out soon.  or you could use an older centrepull brake. have seen some nice setups with those, either single, or dual cable.

[monteryroom]

also, like you said, put the z mags on the fueler for the time being, and get some cheap wheels.

[pickle]

+1 on the dumping of mags 

some nice cheap 48's on BMXCity's ebay store 

[nosepickben]

Pitbulls work fine, very well infact - even with the standard blocks. As long as you have clean chrome rims, a nice thick, good quality brake cable and plenty of lube on there.

[kayla]

Righty-o, I've bought some inexpensive 36 spoke wheels so I can ditch the mags. I was going to go with 48s but, well, I don't know. I had 36s on my Vertigo with a freecoaster BITD

[CustardLips]

My Pitbull works great. 

[monteryroom]

yeah, pitty's can work awesome. helps if you've got  another set of hands to set them up. someone to pull that cable while you tighten the bolt.

[midschooljon]

As has been mentioned if you take your time they can work great. The pitbull / gyro combo on my 94 PFT is probably one of my best working set of brakes. Before you install the brakes lube all the cables in a good oil based lube (not the teflon stuff). I use white lightning all weather chain lube as it coats everything and stays there, but any good all weather lube will work.

Cable length is also very important. Make sure the cables going into the top plate of the gyro, and out of the bottom plate are at 90' to the plates. You often see guys using cables too long or too short, so they kink when they go into the plates causing loads of drag. The lower cable is easy to trim down, but if the top is too long you need to cut the ball off the lever end, shorten the housing, and then use a knarp to finish it off.

As far as the pitbull goes the biggest issue with them is the edge of the boomerang can be quite rough out the box. I take wet/dry dand paper and smooth the edges of the boomerang that run along the rollers. Once smooth I put a bit of grease on them and it should work great. It also helps to run the Pitbull on the chainstays and use the seat tube as a cable stop. The stock cable stop arm on Pitbulls will flex no matter how well you set them up.

Hope that helps. 

[kayla]

Thanks for all that. I trimmed the top cable and got it all set up as tight as I could get it, and with some ally rimmed 48s and some new sprung levers (not 'right' but much better than the standard unsprung levers) it's better but still not great. Meh. I'll just live with it, it's not like it'll be going at any great speed where I need to yank it down from 30mph or anything

In other news the bike looks loads better on spoked wheels than it did with the mags on it.