Inexpensive Disc Brakes
A look at Magura's Julie, and Avid's Mechanical
By Jon Sharp

Disc brakes aren't new to the mountain biking industry. What is new is the quality, light weight, and cost of disc brakes. Disc brakes are better than ever, and their weight, surprisingly, continues to drop also. There are some disc brakes that even come close to the weight of linear pull brakes.

Lucky for the masses, myself included, disc brakes are also getting cheaper. Look to see them cropping up on many bikes in the sub-$1000 range. In this review, I take a look at two inexpensive disc brakes—one hydraulic and one cable-actuated, or mechanical. The Magura Julie retails for $120 per wheel (including levers and lines) and the Avid Mechanical Disc Brake retails for $99 per wheel (without levers or cables). I also have included in this review my feelings about Avid's newest cable system, the Full Metal Jacket.

Magura Julie
Avid Mechanical CPS
Avid Full Metal Jackets

Magura Julie Disc Brake
Who would have thought that for this price, you could buy a fully hydraulic, two-piston, self adjusting disc brake? That is what you get when you purchase the Julie. The lever blade is alloy but the master cylinder brake lever body are plastic. The Julie uses Magura Blood hydraulic fluid which is similar to mineral oil. This brake set uses the same caliper for the front and rear wheels. To get it to fit the different specifications for the international standard for front and rear, Magura uses different sized rotors. The front rotor is 180mm and the rear is 160mm.

Installation was typical of hydraulic disc brakes. Mount the brake, check for alignment, remove it and add washers. This process is continued until the caliper is centered exactly over the rotor so that there is equal distance between the rotor and both pads. Break-in time was fairly short for the Julie, and after a few rides, I got good power and modulation from them.

One problem I had with the Julie was with the plastic lever body. Without any crashes, I found one morning, that the handlebar clamp had cracked. Magura was great about replacing it, and they tell me that anyone who has problems with the brake lever breaking, can get replacements.

I found that the Julie was a very capable disc brake. Although not the most powerful brake on the market, it does stop well. The best part about this brake is the characteristic hydraulic feel and modulation. Some linear pull brakes may have as much power as the Julie, but it is much harder to finesse them. If you have never felt a hydraulic brake before, you owe it to yourself to test ride some. To be able to get great wet weather braking and a hydraulic brake for $120 makes this a great value. If you're hard on equipment, though, be careful with the plastic levers.

For more information, contact:
MAGURA USA
618 395 2200
www.magura.com

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Avid Mechanical CPS
Right from the beginning, the Avid Mechanical impressed me with its ease of installation and adjustability. After I got over the initional shock of the quick installation, I found out that another great feature of the Avid Mechanical is it's surprising power and modulation.

CPS stands for Caliper Positioning System. Basically, Avid uses a slotted Manitou-type mount that bolts onto an adapter. This allows the caliper to be positioned inward or outward in relation to the wheel without having to remove the caliper and add spacers. The pads themselves can be positioned independently in relation to each other and the caliper using the two adjustment knobs. All this adjustability helps in the easy installation and also allows for some fine-tuning I never thought possible with a disc brake.

I paired my Avid Mechanicals with Shimano XT brake levers. Compatibility was never an issue. Modulation was great compared to linear-pull or cantilever brakes. Power was much better than any linear-pull brake, and even better than some inexpensive hydraulic disc brakes. I found that long descents were much more enjoyable with the Avid discs over linear pull brakes, because I needed to exert much less power at the lever.

One irritation I found was that, although I experienced no loss of power when the rotor got wet, the brakes did emit a shrill howl before they dried off (which didn't take long, mind you). Since I received this set, however, Avid has developed a different pad compound that corrects this problem. If you ride in wet conditions, make sure you get the pads made for it.

For more information, contact:
Avid Performance Brakes and Components
303-762-9353
2875 W. Oxford Avenue #7
Englewood, Colorado 80110
www.avidbike.com

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Avid Full Metal Jacket
Along with my set of Mechanical disc brakes, Avid sent me their Full Metal Jacket sealed cable system. Avid designed this system to use with Mechanical disc brakes. Their idea was that in order to keep mechanical disc brakes working like new, the cables need to be in great condition. Full-length housing keeps them clean, but then you have to fight the increased friction of all the cable housing.

Avid's solution was to make sections of stainless steel straight tubing to put in place of bare cable at the cable stops. Where the cable travels through the steel tubing, there is no friction. The steel tubing also has the added benefit of being much less susceptible to compression forces than normal cable housing. Each stainless steel tube is about 16 inches long and is connected to the rest of the cable housing via small aluminum connectors.

Installation was easy-just add the Full Metal Jackets wherever your cable was routed in a straight path. One thing to note, this system doesn't work with traditional cable stops, so you might need adapters to work with your frame (or zip-ties). My only complaint while installing was that the lengths of steel tubing were too long for some areas.

When complete, the system does work well to keep the grime out. I was impressed by the stiffness I felt at the rear brake. Nothing like the spongy rear brake feel I'm used to. One friend of mine commented that he'd never felt a rear brake that was so firm and responsive. At the time this review was written, there was no price released yet. As with most Avid products, however, I expect that the price will be competitive.

For more information, contact:
Avid Performance Brakes and Components
303-762-9353
2875 W. Oxford Avenue #7
Englewood, Colorado 80110
www.avidbike.com

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Summary: For right around $100 per wheel. here are two great disc brake options. If I had to choose between the two disc brakes, I'd go with the Avids, because of their ease of adjustment. I also found the Avid Mechanical disc brake to be more powerful than the Julie. One thing that the Avids couldn't match, no matter how well adjusted they were, was the impressive modulation and feel that can only be found with a hydraulic brake. Either way you choose to go, these disc brakes are a great buy for the money. I'm confident that most mountain bikers could be very happy with either. I know I am.

Jon Sharp is a Contributing Editor to GearReview.com specializing in mountain biking.