Recently had my bike stolen, and having little money I’ve bought a used one as a replacement. It’s fine enough, but needs a little fine tuning. The main issue is that the hand-brake at the front wheel is a rim brake.
Is there a way to install a disc brake on the front wheel instead, or would I have to change the entire frame?
Also I’ve only ever done basic maintenance, but now I need to do a bit more (install a new set of gears). Does anybody have a recommendation for a good manual?

  • BoofStroke
    8•10 months ago

    For a disc you need a new fork if it does not already have mounts for the disc calipers. By “new set of gears” I assume rear cassette. You will need a chain whip and a cassette tool. Keep in mind that all drivetrain parts tend to wear together. Its important to swap your chain when it starts to wear. I just do mine every spring to be safe. If it’s been awhile, you’ll need new chaingring(s), casette, and chain. After a longer time, it’s good to replace the pulleys in the rear derailleur too.

    But like others have said, with this amount of effort, just get another bike.

    • Egon [they/them]OPEnglish
      2•10 months ago

      Thank you! Do you have any online resources you would recommend for learning more? For example how to evaluate the chain - I’ve just bought this bike used, so I don’t know it’s mileage really

      • 7bicycles [he/him]English
        2•10 months ago

        Bit late to the party so I don’t have much to offer that hasn’t been said already, except: if you don’t want to buy a specialty tool like a chainwhip you can jury rig it with an old chain and a pipe wrench or similar to clamp them together - just gotta stop the gears from turning

        Just be reaaaaaaaaal careful and think about how you’re applying force and which way your hand goes if you slip, I’ve got a scar from slicing my hand open on the sprockets lol

        Depending on your location if you want better front brake than normal V-Brake or maybe Cantis, Magura makes hydraulic rim brakes and they just slot on the existing infrastructure. I can find them here for about 20€ / brake on the craigslist equivalent, but then this is germany where they hail from. Also depending on location maybe there’s something like a self help repair workshop or a bike kitchen near you that could help you out.

        One last tip that helped me greatly in all things bike maintenance is to spend a bit of time understanding how it works. Sure you can follow a set of directions, but especially for say, rear derailleur adjustment it’s a much easier time if you actually understand what the fuck the H and L screws do and why to troubleshoot any mistakes. Most guides presuppose you’re wrenching on showroom floor type bikes, hardly the case in the real world.

  • kersploosh
    4•10 months ago

    Regarding your brake: You need a fork with disc brake mounts. You also need a front wheel with a hub that can accept a disc rotor. And, assuming you want to keep your existing brake lever, you need to choose the correct type of disc brake. Cable-actuated disc brakes come in “standard” and “road” versions for use with mountain or road brake levers, respectively. The big question is, why is a rim brake not adequate? A well-adjusted rim brake should be perfectly fine for most uses.

    Regarding your gears, I assume you mean replacing the cassette on the rear wheel. Park Tool has a good tutorial. Make sure the new cassette has the same number of gears as the old one. Replace your chain at the same time.

    In the future, this would be a great question for !bikewrench@lemmy.world.