My new Felt DA is a fantastic bike and it seems like I am going faster with the same wattage output than my previous bike (with round tubes). That being said, I was extremely disappointed with the braking system. The reason I had kept my old , round tubed bike, with Dura Ace brakes, for so long!
I tried every different way I could to make the rear brake work well. I tried an expensive housing. I tried a shifter housing. I was unable to match the Dura Ace brakes, no matter what I tried.
That's when I made a decision to change the brakes to something I could live with. I bought the new Magura RT8 hydraulic brakes. For anyone who doesn't know, they are the brakes installed OEM on the new Cervelo P5.
I hope these pictures help anyone who might want to upgrade. It was quite a bit of work but the end result was WELL worth the effort. Let's just put it this way. I will be much more confident screaming into the 180's with this setup!
OK here we go:
Front brake was a straight install. So no need to show anything other than the finished product!
The rear brake was a little more tricky. First step was to fabricate a bracket out of flat stock aluminum.
Next step is to modify the underside access hole behind existing rear brake (you should have already removed the original brake). Luckily Felt located this access hole so we didn't have to do anything too structural. All I did was opened up the hole a little. I also opened up an area behind my Di2 battery housing to fish the hydraulic hose through. (I bet your wondering how I used Di2 with my new levers).
Next, I drilled a couple of holes to put rivet nuts into. This holds the bracket in place on the frame.
Insert rivet nuts
The hardest part of this fit was to fish the hydraulic line UNDER the bottom bracket. I used a piece of electric wire.
If you can manage that then just pull your line through.
And install the new brake already mounted on the bracket.
Now the best part of all. Take some NEW Di2 Sprinter/climbing shifters and attach them to your levers and you'll
have the ability to use the new Di2 (who wants to wait for Shimano's new brake levers anyway?)
This setup REALLY WORKS!
Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
See you when I pass!
I tried every different way I could to make the rear brake work well. I tried an expensive housing. I tried a shifter housing. I was unable to match the Dura Ace brakes, no matter what I tried.
That's when I made a decision to change the brakes to something I could live with. I bought the new Magura RT8 hydraulic brakes. For anyone who doesn't know, they are the brakes installed OEM on the new Cervelo P5.
I hope these pictures help anyone who might want to upgrade. It was quite a bit of work but the end result was WELL worth the effort. Let's just put it this way. I will be much more confident screaming into the 180's with this setup!
OK here we go:
Front brake was a straight install. So no need to show anything other than the finished product!
The rear brake was a little more tricky. First step was to fabricate a bracket out of flat stock aluminum.
Next step is to modify the underside access hole behind existing rear brake (you should have already removed the original brake). Luckily Felt located this access hole so we didn't have to do anything too structural. All I did was opened up the hole a little. I also opened up an area behind my Di2 battery housing to fish the hydraulic hose through. (I bet your wondering how I used Di2 with my new levers).
Next, I drilled a couple of holes to put rivet nuts into. This holds the bracket in place on the frame.
Insert rivet nuts
The hardest part of this fit was to fish the hydraulic line UNDER the bottom bracket. I used a piece of electric wire.
If you can manage that then just pull your line through.
And install the new brake already mounted on the bracket.
Now the best part of all. Take some NEW Di2 Sprinter/climbing shifters and attach them to your levers and you'll
have the ability to use the new Di2 (who wants to wait for Shimano's new brake levers anyway?)
This setup REALLY WORKS!
Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
See you when I pass!